Hi guysssssss!!!
I promise I’m not as excited as that text sounds. I mean I’m excited I’ve finally finished editing the photos for this post, and I’m finally writing it, but generally in this moment I don’t know if I’m excited, because I’m feeling many different emotions.
I guess I could tell you guys all the different things I could possibly complain about, but why would I, when this is a post about food? Lol
Speaking of food, sometimes when I think of food, I remember this song from the Oliver Twist Opera called “food glorious food”. If you ever see me, remind me to tell you the story of that one time I was in the Opera in secondary school, because it’s one of my fondest memories and it makes me so happy to try to sing the songs and talk about it, lol.
Anywayyyyy how are you guys doinggggg? I feel like I want you guys to interact with me more, and tell me how you guys are doing and such, but the truth is I don’t know if I’ll really like or enjoy that. I guess we’ll find out with time.
Lets get into this post tho! We’re finally almost done with this 6 part series, and I’m very pleased about it. For the 5th installment, I reviewed another steakhouse, but this time in an entirely different part of the city that’s at least a 30 minute drive from the last one I reviewed at Zorlu Center.
Gurme Bahçeşehir is a steakhouse and grocery store that can be found in one of Istanbul’s biggest and most popular tourist malls - Mall of Istanbul. Mall of Istanbul is around the Bağcılar area, right beside a Hilton, and about 5 minutes away from bigger markets like Masko and Istoç, so if you’re in Istanbul on a specific kind of business, you’re better off staying around here, and you can check out hotels in the area like this one I reviewed here, and here.
I particularly like Mall of Istanbul, because if you’re a fashion girl looking for smaller niche brands with a decent price point that’s a little higher than the more popular high street brands like Zara and such, but nowhere near designer brand prices then this is the mall for you.
Gurme is right outside the mall, so you don’t have to go in the mall to access it. It’s entrance is a cute little arch made from potted plants, that’s a little quirky and cute.
It also has an extended area that’s like an outdoor sitting area, which was sparsely decorated, with a few odd mix match tables and chairs. Seeing as it was winter it was pretty much unoccupied except for one table, but in the summer months it’s probably the preferred spot.
The outdoor area leads to the entrance of the main restaurant area, and if you go straight down that door, down the red carpet, you’ll get to the door that leads to the grocery shop in the restaurant.
The dining area is on the left, and it’s a long row of identical chairs and tables with two aisles. The middle row has chairs and tables joined together to provide seating for 8 people, while the chairs and tables on both ends seat 4 people.
The restaurant is nicely decorated with large drop down bamboo basket lamps, and artificial plants creeping through bars in the ceiling. The chairs have identical upholstery that felt very summery.
We found a place with the help of the waiters right beside the grocery store, and got ready to place our orders. For our starters we got some chicken soup, and another Turkish soup called Gerdan Çorbası. I don’t know what that is in English, but I think it was recommended by our waiter. I didn’t take notes on the soup, so I don’t remember exactly how it tasted, but I know I quite liked the chicken soup.
I also ordered this salad called Gavurdag salata that had walnuts I think in it, but I forgot to get a photo of it, sorry guys. The walnuts were a delight wherever they appeared, and even though I’m not the biggest fan of nuts I liked it.
We also got this cheesy steak starter that was called steak sushi on the menu. It was quite creamy and very delicious. It wasn’t too salty, but it was very flavorful. It seemed to have been served atop a bed of something that tasted like fatty ram meat to me, but Shade said it didn’t taste that way to her.
We also got complimentary bread, and it was HOT, like burn your hand hot, and it was so good we wanted more. I asked for some butter, and got some, and it made me very pleased, because one of the most comforting foods in life to me is hot bread and butter.
While we waited for our mains, our waiter brought this huge tray of several little bites and sides. I think we were told it was on the house. We didn’t really want to try much of it, but we picked out one with hotdogs in tomato sauce. Somehow the entire tray crashed to the ground, and I felt so bad for our waiter. I hope he wasn’t penalized strictly for it.
For our mains we got 1 T-bone steak, and 1 Tomahawk steak, both of which came with a side of fries and sautéed vegetable. We asked for them to be done medium well, so it was adequately pink in the middle.
Both steaks didn’t disappoint, they were perfectly juicy. I love fatty beef, and the tomahawk had all the chewy deliciousness that fat in meat should have.
The T-bone had some fatty bits as well, but I particularly enjoyed the well done part of it as it reminded me of Nigerian suya which at the time I had missed very much. Speaking of suya after all my missing it while I was away, I haven’t had much of it since I’ve been in town.
In true Turkish tradition, we ordered some Turkish tea popularly called çay by locals after our meal, and it was comforting as usual.
The grocery shop in Gurme isn’t your regular grocery store, but if you’re looking to get into traditional Turkish sweets like cevizli sucuk which is a Turkish sweet made from evaporated grape juice and walnut, and my favorite Turkish sweet, or the more popular Turkish delight, then you should definitely check this out.
They don’t just stock sweets, but also grains, nuts, sunflower seeds and the likes, soft drinks, dried fruit, preserves, as well as almost every kind of cheese imaginable.
Overall it was a really nice experience with good food and the service was very decent too, so I’ll definitely recommend Gurme if you’re in that part of town, and you enjoy steak. Our total bill came up to 1,136TL which was about $80 at the time.
I hope you try Gurme if you’re ever in town, and if you do, be sure to let me know how you found it.
Until next time…
Love, Yoma.
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