On our last Summer Friday adventure, Lisa and I ventured out to Wellesley, MA to Cafe Mangal, a Turkish deli/restaurant that was featured in the Hidden Boston blog.
Cafe Mangal at lunch time is more a deli than a restaurant. You go up to the counter and order from the menu. They give you a number, you pick a table and set your number sign at the edge of your table and they bring you your meal. The menu is enormous as you can see in the picture above. The line usually gets backed up with amazed and confused patrons struggling to decide what they should have for lunch.
The restaurant is very nice. A motley group of different tables, pictures on the wall and handmade jewelry and scarves for sale made up the dining area.
Cafe Mangal is a Mom and Son operation. The son cooks and the Mom handles the counter. They have a wall of fame with various pictures of celebrities (including one of tennis player Andre Agassi sporting a rocking hairdo) and family members.
Lisa and I started off our meal with iced teas. I had a regular plain Iced tea with lemon and she had a Iced Chai.
Lisa got a traditional Turkish wrap. A mixture of lamb, beef, potato and cheese was spread on the wrap, sprinkled with parsley and laid flat with a wedge of lemon on top for squeezing. You wrap it up yourself. Lisa gave me a little piece and I have to say it was quite delicious. Now if only I could remember the name!
I had a Roast Beef sandwich which was the special for the day. I know I know. Why did I buy a roast beef sandwich when I went to a Turkish restaurant? I can get roast beef sandwiches anywhere. But this wasn't just any roast beef sandwich! It was on freshly baked bread and had muenster, avocado and various other toppings. Quite delicious. It came with a chopped salad dressed with Cafe Mangal's special homemade house vinaigrette which they bottle and sell in house.
The meal wasn't complete with a nice piece of baklava. I would have been just fine with my iced tea but I was jealously ogling people ordering espressos and machiatos that were served in small square cups. I just had to have one. So I got a 1 shot espresso machiato to go with my baklava.
Don't I look cool drinking my machiatto out of my square espresso cup? I do, don't I? Oh come on, just humor me!
Lisa and I were both VERY HAPPY with the baklava. It was perfect. Soft, with a crispy layer of phyllo dough on top, sweet but not too sweet and not sticky at all. Our only complaint that it was way too small!
Cafe Mangal is worth a trip out to Wellesley for sure. Next time I go, I want to try their dinner menu and service. It will be like going to the restaurant again for the very first time.
1 comment:
Ah! Mangal, delicious Turkish barbecue! I love middle-eastern food. I almost OD'd on baklava when I was in Tunisia! There is something special with baked goods drenched in sweetness. I think sometimes they even cook stuff in heavy orange blossom scented syrup.
And yes, you look cool drinking coffee. Very elegant indeed!
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