What's a steakhouse meant to look like? How about massive wooden tables, stone walls, an open kitchen and huge frigidaires with large steaks on display? When you walk into Nusr'et it smells like wood. I couldn't say if its oak from the oak smoked meats in the kitchen, or the wood furniture...maybe its some kind of teak table polish. Either way, it smells like rich wood. Just like a steakhouse should.
Mina's Verdict:
We ordered a large salad to begin. Something with corn, tomatoes and tulum cheese; crisp and tangy. Next, I asked for a filet mignon (200-230g). It arrived, perfectly medium, lovely flavour and the bits of sea salt on top was just right. My knife fairly melted through it. Yumm yummm! It was a little worrying that I (who eat steak about once every two months because I'm not a big fan red meat) not only finished my entire plate, but could easily have had a little bit more.
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| Filet Mignon, Spinach and Baked Patato |
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| Tulum Salad |
To finish there was an espresso (good) and a bit of chocolate & orange tart (interesting nutty base, very good quality chocolate). Loved this place. Really, just absolutely fantastic. I also happened to see some burgers drifting by to other tables and asked our very helpful waiter about them (apparently they are a customer favourite). We'll need to come back and try those a.s.a.p!
On the advice of our darling Ayse, we headed for Etiler to seek out Nusret, a steakhouse nestled in a smart residential area. After some fun and games finding the place, we found ourselves seated in a wood-laden meat palace.
Mina took charge (she does that, sometimes) negotiating with the attentive, helpful and knowledgeable waiter to secure us a range of dishes.
After a little salad to whet our appetite, we were delivered our first wooden serving board, with slices of beef accompanied by a baked potato and spinach. The beef was excellent, but it was the spinach that was the real star of this platter. It had been cooked in an artery-hardening amount of butter, but boy did it taste good.
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| Lamb Chops with Oregano Spiced Fries |
Next came excellent lamb chops with fries. The oregano and pepper seasoning was just beautiful. I will be investigating whether it works in other contexts beyond lamb and fries, when I return to Edinburgh.
The next platter returned to the baked potato and spinach accompaniment, with milk-fed lamb fillet as the main feature. It was completely magnificent; party-going-on-in-my-mouth goodness. It was streets ahead of any piece of lamb I've ever eaten, with lingering flavour explosions turning my palette in to a very, very happy place to be.
Now, I'm not a dessert person (did I mention that before?!) but I thought I'd give it a whirl, today. It was worth it simply for the theatre of our waiter enhancing the pistachio baclava with an ice cream filling. The chocolate orange tart was pretty darn good, as well.
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| Chocolate and Orange Tart |
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| Pistachio and Kaymak Ice-Cream filled Baklava |
Coffees arrived to round off an excellent meal and highly enjoyable restaurant experience.
Overall, Nusret has to be near the top of your list of places to visit soon. The quality of the meat is very high and their skill in preparing it is plain for all to see. I have a feeling we merely scratched the surface of the delights that the place has to offer, as well, so look forward to a return visit, next time I'm in the neighbourhood.
Patrick's Verdict:
When leaving the house on today’s Lunchquest, my beautiful, heavily pregnant sister in law Ayse recommended a place to us; Nusret in the upmarket Istanbul suburb of Etiler. I have to say I couldn’t really be bothered, preferring to eat somewhere on the Bosphorus as its was a scorcher of a day today. Anyway we drove to Etiler and got lost trying to find Nusret. We were just about to give up when we saw it. Thank God we persisted!!
The restaurant was semi-open to the elements but with enough covered areas to make it warm and shady. The inside is very nice with elegant wooden tables and one whole wall open to the impressive kitchen. Our waiter showed us to our table and gave us the menus. My delightful wife explained we were Scottish and the waiter decided to give us a platter of dishes which were not on the main menu. Hurrah! First up, we ordered a salad which was big enough for the three of us and had lovely tulum cheese and a pomegranate dressing - an odd but wonderful combination of tastes.
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| 'Lokum' Steaks |
The first (of three) main courses arrived. Small pieces of expertly cooked steaks (three for each of us) with half a baked potato and the most sumptuous buttery spinach in the world. We asked for it medium rare and it was exactly medium rare. It came perfectly presented on a large wooden platter which was a nice touch. It was a promising start. Second up came two lamb chops (one of my favourite things anyway) and these were among the best. They came on a huge bone and covered with lashings of oregano, spicy red pepper and sea salt. They were properly tasty. Nusret saved the best for last, however. They produced a dish called ‘milk fed lamb’ which had the same seasoning as before but was the most tender lamb I have ever had - proper melt in the mouth stuff. I was a happy camper.
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| Kusleme (milk-fed-lamb) |
For dessert, we left it in the hands of our expert waiter. He brought a chocolate and orange tart which I really liked and pistachio baklava with vanilla ice cream. Blimey. He set the plate down and proceeded to expertly saw the large baklava in half horizontally before spreading the ice cream in the middle and replacing the top like a big gooey sandwich. Happy days!! Big smiles all round - it was a nice touch. I followed it up with a cappuccino which was particularly good.
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| one cappuccino and two espresso's |
The place seems to be a place for people watching too with one of the Turkish national basketball team and a TV presenter there at separate tables. It was extremely good value too, being one of the cheapest on our Lunchquest travels. And boy is it worth a visit. If steak is your thing - this is your place.
Scores
Mina's Scores
5/5 Food
4/5 Presentation
5/5 Setting
4/5 Service
Overall Score: 18/20
Blythe's Scores
5/5 Food
4/5 Presentation
4/5 Setting
5/5 Service
Overall Score: 18/20
Patrick's Scores
5/5 Food - meat perfection
5/5 Presentation - innovative and interesting
4/5 Setting - a little difficult to find for non-locals
5/5 Service - attentive without being overbearing and excellent choices made by waiter for us
Overall Score: 19/20
Todays lunch questers: Mina, Blythe, Patrick
We drank: water, coke
We ate: lots of meat, chocolate-orange tart, pistachio baklava
Total Bill: approximately 195TL/ 70 pounds
Nusr'et Steak House
Etiler Çamlık Mevkii
İhsan Aksoy Sokak No:6
Etiler - İstanbul
Tel: 0 (212) 265 30 37-38
www.nusr-etsteakhouse.com
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