Saray provides Mediterranean cuisine of a variable quality
by Elizabeth Stoker
Arts | 2/9/10
Posted online at 11:08 PM EST on 2/8/10
Located near Boston College, the small Turkish restaurant Saray is cozy, reasonably priced and good enough to go back to.
As part of a strip shopping center, Saray would be easy to miss if you weren't looking for it. It's surrounded by various trendy restaurants-shabu-shabu joints and classic bistros-so it's a little hard to spot its red awning. The inside of Saray is clean and comfortable, a modern take on Middle Eastern styling with a crisp but warm look to the blond wood and copper-painted walls. There isn't too much room inside, so if you're thinking of stopping in for an occasion or on a Saturday you might consider making a reservation.
If you're not feeling too ravenous, you could easily make a meal of the awesome appetizers. The hummus is a real treat, evenly textured and spiced with just enough garlic and tahini, with an almost light consistency. Also try the haydari-it's made of thickened Greek yogurt with plenty of dill and garlic as well as chunks of walnut. If you're with a group, try both of them-the cool taste of the haydari is a great complement to the warm spice of the hummus. Saray serves a traditional Turkish wheat bread with plenty of seeds and whole grains, which is quite a bit more substantial than the typical standby pita. With its array of appetizer offerings including baba ganoush and sigara borek-that is, fried filo dough with feta-a lunch on appetizers would be great.
Saray has an extensive kebab menu and features quite a few vegetarian dishes. For my entree, I chose the spinach à la Turca, a dish consisting of wilted spinach cooked with rice and onion and served with a garlic yogurt and neapolitan sauce. I had imagined that it would be something rather solid, with a nice balance between the spinach, rice and onion. A warning: This dish is rather like a soup served in a shallow bowl. Eaten with leftover bread, it was a pretty good dip, though the predominant flavors were certainly garlic and salt, leaving very little room for the more subtle flavors of spinach and cooked onion.
As part of a strip shopping center, Saray would be easy to miss if you weren't looking for it. It's surrounded by various trendy restaurants-shabu-shabu joints and classic bistros-so it's a little hard to spot its red awning. The inside of Saray is clean and comfortable, a modern take on Middle Eastern styling with a crisp but warm look to the blond wood and copper-painted walls. There isn't too much room inside, so if you're thinking of stopping in for an occasion or on a Saturday you might consider making a reservation.
If you're not feeling too ravenous, you could easily make a meal of the awesome appetizers. The hummus is a real treat, evenly textured and spiced with just enough garlic and tahini, with an almost light consistency. Also try the haydari-it's made of thickened Greek yogurt with plenty of dill and garlic as well as chunks of walnut. If you're with a group, try both of them-the cool taste of the haydari is a great complement to the warm spice of the hummus. Saray serves a traditional Turkish wheat bread with plenty of seeds and whole grains, which is quite a bit more substantial than the typical standby pita. With its array of appetizer offerings including baba ganoush and sigara borek-that is, fried filo dough with feta-a lunch on appetizers would be great.
Saray has an extensive kebab menu and features quite a few vegetarian dishes. For my entree, I chose the spinach à la Turca, a dish consisting of wilted spinach cooked with rice and onion and served with a garlic yogurt and neapolitan sauce. I had imagined that it would be something rather solid, with a nice balance between the spinach, rice and onion. A warning: This dish is rather like a soup served in a shallow bowl. Eaten with leftover bread, it was a pretty good dip, though the predominant flavors were certainly garlic and salt, leaving very little room for the more subtle flavors of spinach and cooked onion.
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