Critic's Review
Bamboo Noah's has closed and a new Turkish/Med restaurant has opened in its place. I peeked at the menu and saw some interesting items, so I thought I'd take a quick trip up. The place is located just off 595 on Pine Island Road, so it's an easy trip.
"Izgara" means Grill or Grilled in Turkish. The "official" name of the place is Izgara Express, but both the sign on the front and the menu say "Izgara".
I walked inside and it was fairly clear that not much had changed; it still looked like a cafeteria. The big difference is that Bamboo Noah's cooked the food right behind the counter, while here they cook in the back. So there isn't much going on up front. I ordered a small lentil soup in a to-go container, figuring I wouldn't be eating it all, and I also ordered a Hummus Plate with Chicken Schnitzel, which I thought was an odd thing for a "Turkish" restaurant to have on the menu.
They gave me a glass with ice for my bottle of water while I waited.
The soup came out right away so I didn't have to sit an an empty table.
It wasn't piping hot; clearly they have it in a warmer. I tasted a couple of spoonfuls; it was in serious need of seasoning. It had a musty taste; maybe cumin or turmeric. I didn't want to just dump some salt into it, so I though it best to just put the cover on and eat at home.
So now I'm taking in the "ambiance". No Wi-Fi. they have 2 scratchy speakers left over from 1990 in the corner of the restaurant struggling to put out 5 watts. I feel like I'm in a lunch room in an old office building.
Finally someone brought out a plate. I didn't expect the chicken to be cut up.
I tasted the hummus. Zero taste. I couldn't discern any of the expected flavors; it tasted like nothing. The chicken also didn't taste like much. While the chicken had some sort of breading, it just tasted like unseasoned, overcooked chicken. The point of breading is to lock in some moisture; but this almost seemed reheated.
The menu says that this was served with "grilled lafah"; but what I was served was nothing more than packaged pita points. Lafah is chewy and difficult to tear, but this was soft like pita. It was good pita; but not lafah, and not freshly grilled which was what I was expecting.
They gave me some sort of bonus; a jalapeno relish that tasted a lot like diced jalapeno.
I tried this with different combinations, but I didn't see any way that it fit in with anything I had.
I ended up leaving about half of the food and just got up and left. One of the advantages of paying in advance.
When I got home I was able to take a better look at the soup. I concluded that it just about had to be from a can. The carrots were very small squares, all perfect, and nobody does that with home made soup. Plus all of the lentils and carrots were soft; this stuff had been in a can for a long time. If I were to guess I'd say it was progresso lentil soup with some cumin added.
Conclusion
The comedy of this place was the speakers; like someone bought a restaurant but didn't have $300 to put into it. It's the same silly space as before, without the interest of having the food cooked and assembled in the FOH. The people in the kitchen weren't Turkish, and they don't seem to know how to make Turkish food, because nothing had the flavors that make Turkish food enjoyable. I wonder how someone comes up with the idea of a Turkish restaurant if they had no idea even how to make hummus?
This is Turkish food for people who have no idea what Turkish food is. Maybe a nice change from a burger and fries, but nothing I can recommend.