Updated 2/2/10 – Hanci Turkish Cuisine is no longer a BYO. It now offers a limited wine/beer list. There is a corkage fee of $10/bottle if you bring your own wine.
I’m always looking for good BYO restaurants in the city, after being spoiled with the huge number of BYO options in NJ. I read about Hanci Turkish Cuisine, a BYO right in our neighborhood, so one Friday night Josh and I decided to give it a shot. The restaurant is small but the bright lighting and simple décor make it seem much larger and more airy. Even though tables are close together, I didn’t feel cramped.
The restaurant wasn’t full so they graciously let us sit at a four-top instead of a table for two, which turned out well because we ended up with a ton of food on the table. We started off sharing the mixed appetizer plate, which came with a taste of most of the cold appetizers and dips on the menu, including hummus, ezme (chopped tomatoes, spices, green peppers, onions, olive oil, and lemon), patlican salad (like baba ghanoush), tarama (red caviar spread), zeytinyagli pirasa (leeks and carrots cooked in olive oil), and haydari (thick yogurt with walnuts, garlic, and dill). There is both a small and large option, so we asked our waitress what she recommended. She told us quite honestly that there wasn’t a huge difference between the small and large sizes, so we were better off ordering the small and saving a few dollars. I was surprised that she was so frank about it and didn’t try to up-sell us, which raised my impression of the restaurant immediately.
Mixed appetizer platter
The dips and spreads were all very unique, and really tasty. My favorites were the patlican salad, ezme, and haydari. There was a ton of food on the platter, and we definitely did not need the large portion. We ended up keeping the platter on the table even as we moved on to our main courses, so that we could keep dipping into it with the fabulous warm Turkish bread they brought us. I’m drooling just thinking about this bread, which was puffy, kind of like focaccia, but light and crispy on the outside. It was similar to the bread that we’ve had at Afghan restaurants, but it was hot and fresh and completely addictive. I asked for a bread basket refill twice, and a new full basket was brought out to us each time. It was really that good!
Hot and crispy Turkish bread
For our main course, we decided to share the mixed grill and the lahana dolma. We like ordering the mix grills at new restaurants so that we can try more of the offerings and decide which ones we like best. That way we’ll know what to order the next time, and if all the grills are really good, then we can just keep getting the mix. This mixed grill came with lamb sis kebab, chicken tavuk sis, lamb kofte, and chicken tavuk adana. The chicken tavuk and the lamb sis kebab were both spectacularly flavorful and tender. I wasn’t a fan of the chicken tavuk adana, as I thought the seasonings and flavors were a bit strange, but the lamb kofte was quite good, although it needed a tad bit more salt. The meats were served on top of a fluffy rice pilaf and accompanied by simple grilled vegetables.
Mixed grill platter
The lahana dolma were cabbage leaves stuffed with ground lamb, rice, and dill. It was served in a pool of a tangy tomato-based sauce and tart plain yogurt. The cabbage leaves were soft and easy to cut through, and the filling was moist and flavorful. It also needed a touch more salt, but dragging each bite through the tomato sauce and the yogurt definitely helped. Despite all the ingredients, it was actually a pretty light dish, not too rich or heavy.
Lahana dolma - stuffed cabbage leaves
Overall I thought our meal at Hanci Turkish Cuisine was top notch. The food was delicious, tasted homemade, and was carefully prepared. Service was also wonderful. They uncorked our bottle of wine as soon as we sat down and brought us wine glasses right away. Our waitress explained each dish to us and answered our questions fully. She recommended the right sized appetizer platter for us, and when she cleared away our dishes she noticed that we had left some tarama (red caviar spread) on the otherwise cleaned plate and wanted to make sure everything was ok with that spread. We explained that I thought it was quite good, but Josh isn’t a fan of caviar spread so I couldn’t eat the whole portion by myself. It really was just a small dollop that was left but her concern made us realize how much thought and effort goes into each of their dishes, and it really shows.
At the end of our meal, we were finishing up our bottle of wine and I accidentally spilled my entire glass on the table, and myself. Yikes! But I didn’t have to worry, our waitress immediately swooped in and wiped up the mess, then clucked that my sweater was going to stain from the red wine so she poured some salt into her hand and started to rub it into the stains on my sleeve herself. Some people might think that’s a bit weird but I thought it just demonstrated her genuinely caring nature. During the whole meal she made us feel at home, and she treated us like special guests dining at her house. Considering this was our first visit to the restaurant, it only made me want to come back again. So if you enjoy Turkish food or any kind of middle eastern/Mediterranean food, I highly recommend coming to this restaurant. I’m positive that you’ll have a wonderful experience and eat some really fabulous food.
Hanci Turkish Cuisine
854 10th Ave. between 56th and 57th St.
New York, NY
Tags: Midtown West, Turkish