I have been to Pera few times, each time enjoying the delicious mediterranean cuisine that they offer on their menu. There are dishes for vegetarian and non-vegetarians, people with a love of fish or meat. In fact, I find their menu quite mouth watering and one of the things I like there is their salads that allow multiple combinations; they have three different types of salads: watermelon and feta, market salad (shredded romaine hearts, dill, scallion, feta cheese, lemon and olive oil) and the Village salad (cherry tomato, cucumber, parsley, onion, kalamata olives, sheep’s milk feta cheese, red wine vinaigrette). We then can add some proteins: sliced sirloin “shashlik”, char-grilled octopus, chicken “shashlik”, lamb “adana”, grilled jumbo shrimp or pan-roasted salmon. Two times I went there, I settled for the Village salad with the char-grilled octopus that looked fantastic, and was perfectly cooked on their grill and tender. Their watermelon and feta salad is also amazing: the presentation with the large cubes of watermelon and cheese is beautiful and the two pair well, the watermelon giving a bit of sweetness and making thet dish quite refreshing.

A good way to try many appetizers is to get their mezzo sampler that is only available for dinner. It has tzatziki, hummus, watermelon and feta, grilled octopus, fried calamari, grape leaves, grilled artichokes and spicy pepper and walnut “Muammara”.

Of course, you can get mezzo on their own, like the hummus that comes with pita chips or their phyllo rolls with Feta and Kasseri cheese that are drizzled with a cucumber-dill yoghurt.

But one of my favorite dishes is their signature lamb “adana” that is a Turkish dish where the lamb is minced, mounted on a skewer and grilled. It was served with a grilled tomato and a spicy long hot pepper, some cippolini onions and some lavash bread that was paper thin. This was succulent! I love lamb so it was a perfect dish for me: the meat was tasty and juicy, sitting on some lavash bread. A must have!

I should mention their cocktails: the Mediterranean old fashioned would be my go to drink, that they smoke at the table and has muddled orange in it. Otherwise, they have a few choices of whisky. So I tried the Garrison Brothers Straight Bourbon from Hye, Texas.

For dessert, I love their baklava that would be my first choice, but their dark chocolate soufflé is also quite good, although it does not have the consistency of a soufflé, being more liquid. Both are perfect with a Turkish coffee.