Turquoise Restaurant: User Reviews
Turquoise Restaurant
2147 W. Roscoe St. - Chicago773-549-3523
I have eaten here twice. The food is fabulous. I have had the octopus app...YUM, beef and onion kebob, and the lamb dinner with eggplant mozzarella mash. The eggplant mozz mash was amazing. As for the service, I recall the first experience a bit on the slow side, but not slow enough that it bothered me. The second time was TERRIBLY slow. I arrived early on a Thursday...6:30 PM. To me, that is early for a dinner rush. There was one server in the entire place. Within 20 minutes the patio and inside were packed. Apparently they sent everyone else home before 6:30. Isn't that a little early to send people home? Anyway, so slow. I thought they would at least redeem themselves when offering a free dessert, but that took another 40 minutes. We almost left since the bill was paid, but the dessert finally arrived. We left at 8:40 PM. Dinner should not take 2 hrs and 10 min unless it is a planned, multi-course meal. I will say that the food is good enough I will probably give them one more shot to prove they learned a lesson on sending home the staff that night.
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We stood in the doorway for at least 15 minutes without even being acknowledged. The manager must have walked by us ten times without even so much as a greeting. Finally, the bartender acknowledged us and said she would be right with us, then proceeded to clean out about 20 glasses while we stood there. Next, the manager finally greeted us, asked how many were in our party and then walked away. There were plenty of open table but for some reason he walked away without seating us. We stood there for another ten minutes, he did not come back so we just left. In total we stood in the doorway for at least 25 minutes without being seated and there were at least 8 open tables. Major disappointment. I've never been treated so rudely!
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I was in a party of four with a reservation for 7:30 on a Saturday night. We arrived a few minutes early and were told by the hostess that there were 2 parties ahead of us. We finally managed to snag a few seats at the bar at 8:30 where we encountered the manager/owner who asked how we were doing-oblivious to the fact that we had been waiting an hour. When we mentioned our predicament, he said he would seat us quickly. We were finally seated at 9:00 and were served our appetizers at about 9:30. The manager was completely inattentive to the situation. Once we were seated he didn't even stop at our table to offer any explanation for the 90 minute wait. Even a theme park type restaurant like the Cheesecake Factory would have done this or at least given us an appetizer or drink while we waited. I've worked in restaurants and I know it gets hectic but I have never experienced this anywhere. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME OR YOUR MONEY HERE-NO FOOD IS WORTH THIS KIND OF TREATMENT.
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Some of the best Turkish food in Chicago, and reasonably priced! Unfortunately, the restaurant is small, and can be quite crowded and noisy, with slow service. I recommend you call ahead and make a reservation.
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Stood in doorway for 20 minutes without being greeted or names taken.
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We've been to Turquoise occasionally for dinner and have always had a nice time but, I highly recommend going there for brunch. It's not a place for a quick bite or bad hangover but, I've taken a lot of friends there and had a wonderful time enjoying the leisurely pace of a mult. course meal and a glass of champange all for around 15 bucks a person. It's our best kept brunch secret in the city.
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Three of us went to eat, two of us had great meals, the other was mediocre. The escolar was great, as was the chicken kabob - stay away from the seared tuna. I think the hostess is an important face of any good restaurant. Here the hostess was horrible and often looked at us throughout our experience as if we were CRAZY. The reason we had to deal with her so much was because the service was so horrible. One of the worst I have ever experienced. The food took forever, we barely had a waitress, and we were constantly aggravated by how long EVERYTHING took. I think all tables around us who had different staff experienced the same thing, so it wasn't just our waitress!
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We were there on a Friday evening and was seated at a table by the bar area. The noise level was so high you could hardly hear yourself talk, plus the traffic up and down the narrow space added to the chaotic atmosphere. The service was unattentive at best--it took us 30 minutes to get our appetizers, and they were not that great. By then we decided to go elsewhere for the rest of the dinner. It took another 15 minutes to get our check. I definitely do not recommend this place--there are much better places for Turkish food at better prices and much better service.
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DISAPPOINTING EXPERIENCE ACROSS THE BOARD
By Dave from Roscoe Village, August 18, 2008
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On a lovely Sunday evening we brought out of town guests to Turquoise. All outside tables were full so we were seated indoors. The place has nice ambiance, but they did not have the AC on so we were all very uncomfortable to begin with. (They are from Hawaii and even they were uncomfortable!). We ordered our food, specifically asking the server (probably the owner) that the food not be overcooked, as it had been on a prior occassion. We then waited over an hour for food, and 2 of our 4 entrees were absolutely charred. We choked them down and expressed our disappointment to the owner. There was no offer to remove the charge, but rather, an explanation that they were short staffed due to a Turkish fest downtown. He said he would remove our two glasses of wine from the bill, which he didn't even follow through on.
In summary, uncomfortable ambiance, overcooked food, and uncooperative owner/staff. This truly was a disappointment, as we have now been there 4 times, with 1 being quite good, the second being decent, and the last two being awful. There are many better places in Chicago to spend your money.
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We were out at Retro on Roscoe yesterday and opted to dine at Turquoise's outdoor patio area instead purchasing food at their street stand. First off, the ambiance was really nice in their outdoor patio/sidewalk area, which is covered by a wrought iron trellis and hanging flower baskets. For lunch,w e ordered the beef schwarma and the chicken kebabs, which for around $7 are a fantastic value. Though the food at Turquoise is really quite good, I would only give it 3 1/2 stars. I've dined at other Turkish restaurants with a much more extensive and very authentic menu (in Germany, no less), so in comparison, Turquoise is average. Also, don't expect speedy service. Our meal took well over 30 minutes to come even though we were the only table with an order. But if you want to try decent Turkish food, I'd still recommend this establishment for the food and the value.
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Review Summary
The following scores represent the average rating submitted by 53 users:
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