So, I have started working uptown in Charlotte, NC now. I love love love it!! The sights and the sounds of people walking by, the traffic, the vendors and most importantly the restaurants and eateries scattered all over.

In this series “Eating Uptown Series” I am attempting to give you all an honest reviews of my dining experiences at these local food hot spots. Some of them are fancy and some, not so much..I hope to give you my personal review of the food. One thing you can be all assured of is that I’ll be honest with you.

(I am definitely going to be making new friends with this one. Sigh.. )

My coworkers brought me back lunch today from the  Metropolitan Cafe in the Latta arcade as I had day long meetings.. (Thanks Christophe, Melissa and Jarod)..

Earlier in the week, I was super excited to hear that we were all planning to go this Turkish Cafe uptown..The last memory I have of Turkish food is Sofram.. (Read my post on that).. so obviously I was VERY excited.. Unfortunately my calendar filled up rather fast and I was unable to accompany my team mates for lunch.. Well, “take-out” to the rescue 🙂

I quickly looked at the menu and ordered the Mediterranean platter from the appetizer section.. My theory behind ordering this was : This will give me a chance to taste all the staples of a typical meal.. and also I have been eating lighter these days so no meat for me today.

This is what they brought back.. . for under $8!

I started with a fork full of hummus.. chalky.. 🙁 took another bite, this time with a pita.. no flavor.. I felt the chickpeas were still raw.. 🙁 .. couple of bites more and I gave up.. Couldn’t taste the lemon, garlic or Olive oil.. Disappointed.. The pita tasted like it had been brushed with previously used oil.. maybe oil they use for frying the falafels.. 

The falafels were nice and big, like oversized golf balls. The exterior was nice and crispy but the middle was soft, doughy and uncooked.. The dough kind of just popped out of the exterior crust.. (as if saying “Am outta here”!!) 

Moving on to the grilled eggplant salad.. First taste I got was of “heat”.. After the bland hummus and falafels, that’s all that my tongue could register. “Heat”.. slowly I tasted the grilled flavor of the eggplant.. I kinda liked it.. I would have loved it, if the eggplant flavor was not diluted.. I felt that the salad was too watery and that maybe diminished the “eggplant” flavor.. 

Last I tried the grape leaves.. They were good…. Tangy leaves stuffed with the typical mushy rice mixture..  They were my favorite followed by the eggplant salad. SO overall, I was not impressed by the food at all.. 

In the same vein, one of my co workers rated the restaurant a 6 out of 10. 

But then for under $8, what do you expect? 

Wait a minute!! I expect a whole lot.. Maybe I will try going in person and seeing if the service was any better than the food 😉 ?? We’ll see.. 

Here’s to more eating this weekend… Next post up from Charleston! You heard it.. I’ll be in Chucktown this weekend so more good eating reviews soon!! Happy Friday!