Sunday, September 1, 2013

Ephesus Restaurant

Ephesus Restaurant opened in the fall of 2012 in Bloomington. Greedy Eater 2 and I had talked about visiting this restaurant for some time, but never got around to it. Finally we did, and we regret not going to this place sooner. On this visit, we had a special guest, who is a co-worker of mine. We'll call him Iron Stomach. He loves great food like we do.

We went to Ephesus a couple of weeks ago for lunch. Iron Stomach ordered off the regular menu, and Greedy Eater 2 and I ordered off of their $10.95 lunch menu. The lunch menu is a pretty good deal because you order a lunch entree that comes with your choice of an appetizer and you also get rice pudding. Here's what we ordered:

Pita Bread and Dipping Sauce: The sauce and the pita bread tasted great. The bread was nice, warm, and fresh.



Arnavut Cigeri:  Lightly breaded pan-fried calf's liver, served with onion sauce & parsley mix.
Iron Stomach ordered this and thought this was very good. The liver was very tender and the flavor was great. This reminded us of how liver was cooked at home by our parents.



Adana Kebab: Red, green bell pepper grounded with lamb and beef, and parsley.
Iron Stomach also ordered this and thought this was pretty tasty. There was a little bit of heat that kind of crept up on the back of the throat.



Haydari: Fresh dill , thick yogurt, light garlic and walnuts. 
Greedy Eater 2 ordered this and thought this tasted great with the pita bread. This tasted even better with the pita and the calf liver together.



Lahana Dolmasi: Cabbage leaves stuffed with ground beef and lamb, rice, onions & herbs served with tomato and yogurt sauce. 
Greedy Eater 2 also ordered this. This was tender and juicy. The rice was flavorful.




Soslu Patlican: Chopped eggplant, baked with olive oil, garnished with tomatoes, green peppers,onions & parsley. 
I ordered this dish and was surprised it was served chilled since we thought it would be served warm. This tasted really good with the pita bread and haydari together.




Kofte Kebab: Beef and lamb grounded with onions fresh herbs cooked on grill
I also ordered this which was pretty good and tasty. The beef and lamb were seasoned well. 



Rice Pudding: This was sweet and flavorful. This was chilled just right.



Kunefe: Fried cheese with sugar, honey.
We were really surprised at how tasty this dessert was. The sugar and honey really make this a great dessert. If you're adventurous, this is a must try.