Turquoise Grill Brick Oven Bistro

We also tried lamejun, the Turkish pizza. It's a round of dough baked with seasoned ground beef and no cheese, served with shredded lettuce, chopped red cabbage and lemon wedges on top. The dough isn't crisp, so the pennant of pizza flops around unless you fold it over. I tried a slice with some of the salad ingredients folded inside. My tablemates and I debated whether it tasted more like a hamburger pizza pocket or a nacho-­flavored pizza. It wasn't bad, but next time I think I'll go with one of the traditional Italian versions.

The inegöl köfte sandwich, which was made with sausage-shaped Turkish meatballs on shepherd bread with lettuce, tomatoes and shredded onions, looked exactly like Bosnian cevapcici on lepinja bread (see "Balkan Barbecue," April 5). So instead of picking it up and eating it like a sandwich, I attempted to tear off pieces of the bread and wrap up the meatballs like you do with cevaps. That was a mistake. The bread was very tough, and it didn't tear apart easily. I made a mess of the thing on my plate and ended up eating it with a knife and fork. But it made a nice meatball salad.

Troy Fields

The adana kebabs are made with a spicy blend of ground beef and lamb.

Location Info

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Turquoise Grill

3701 Kirby Drive
Houston, TX 77098

Category: Restaurant > Mediterranean

Region: Lower Shepherd-Kirby

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Details

Hours: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 8 a.m. to10 p.m. Fridays, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturdays, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays.

Four-item meze plate: $7.49

Turkish breakfast: $10

Meatball sandwich: $6.39

Lentil soup: $3.69

Adana kebab plate: $12.45

3701 Kirby Dr., 713-526-3800.

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The yellow lentil soup was excellent, and it tasted even better with a squeeze of lemon from the wedge that came beside it. But the very best thing I sampled at Turquoise Grill was the adana kebab plate. The kebabs were made with a spicy blend of ground beef and lamb and cooked on flat skewers. Two tubes of meat were served with lettuce, tomato and shaved red onions with very thin sheets of pita bread and yogurt sauce.

Judging by the menu, the only difference between lunch and dinner at the Turquoise Grill is that some of the dishes cost two dollars more at night. But Jim, who's also a caterer, cooks special dinners by request. He encouraged us to call in advance and order something spectacular, like a whole red snapper baked in salt.

Turquoise Grill isn't the best Turkish restaurant in Houston. But thanks to Jim's floor show, it is by far the most engaging office building snack bar in town.