Adventures with Foodies: Bodrum Cafe

by Hugh Donagher

Wow! Just came from a spectacular first meal at this restaurant. The ambience is essentially unchanged from Castro Point, though the walls of wine bottles are gone and replaced by some very nice artwork. Staff is helpful and enthusiastic. We began our meal with the cacik – a yogurt dish similar to tzatziki. The flavors were perfect, the texture so rich, it was the best example of this dish I’ve ever tried. The waiter confirmed my suspicion that the yogurt is made on prem-ises from scratch.

Based on a neighbor’s recommendation, I had to try the swordfish kebab, despite tonight’s special offering of a swordfish steak in an artichoke cream sauce, served with grilled veggies and mashed potatoes, which also sounded great. The kebab was delicious and the presentation was great. Served deskewered for your convenience, accompanied by a wonderful heap of mixed grilled fresh veggies and a mound of tender rice pilaf, garnished with a grilled tomato. The fish was cooked perfectly and resting in a shallow pool liquid that was probably juices from the fish and grilled lemon on the kebab.

On the recommendation of our waiter, my partner tried a dish whose name escapes us but was essentially an open-face approach to a gyro. Carved lamb over a bed of toast cubes which rested on a layer of tomato sauce, with a pool of yogurt covering the other half of the plate, garnished with a grilled tomato. The toast absorbed the sauce so that a forkful of the meat and toast was nicely complimented by hints of both the tomato sauce and the yogurt. Yummy!

For dessert, we split a baked mozarella cheese and phyllo with a heavy syrup. Rich, sweet, and delicious, we could only finish half and brought the rest home. This dessert required about 10 minutes of prep time, something the menu and waiter both informed us of. We passed the time finishing our wine, sampling a very good turkish coffee and chatting with a solitary diner at a nearby table who was visiting from North Carolina and eating at Bodrum for the second night in row!

The menu offers a number of interesting plates that are beg-ging to be explored. We will be back. I think we might finally have a winner for this location!

Bodrum Café, 383 Castro St Mountain View, CA 94041

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