Ephesus Restaurant Revisit

Ephesus Restaurant is one my favorite places to eat at in town. I met a friend of mine, who had never been to Ephesus before, for lunch a few weeks ago. As usual the food was great. We ordered off of the lunch menu. Here's what we had:

Kisir (and Turkish Tea): Crushed wheat salad with onions, parsley, green and red peppers with lemon juice

Mucver: Pan-fried zucchini patties with fresh dill, feta cheese, eggs, flour and fresh mint, served with rice and a salad

Haydari: Fresh dill, thick yogurt, light garlic and walnuts

Sigara Boregi: Pan-fried phyllo scrolls stuffed with feta cheese and a hint of dill, served with rice and a salad

The lunch menu is the best deal for $10 because of what all you get. Plus the food is very good.

When I Think of Food..

El Toro

Chocolate Peanut Butter Dessert:

Orient Gourmet:

River's Grill:

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.

Café Italia - CLOSED

Cafe Italia has been in Bloomington for a number of years.  Greedy Eater 2 and I went there for dinner for the first time at the new location on Hershey.

We decided to order an appetizer and pasta dishes. Here's what we had:

Stuffed Mushrooms: Not only are these mushrooms baked with cheese stuffed inside, but they are also deep-fried. These were very good, along with the sauce.

Salmon Scottato: Salmon is one kind of seafood that is tricky to cook. Either it is undercooked or overcooked; mostly overcooked. The chef did a good job of not overcooking the salmon. The vegetables and the puree were really good.

Cellentani Pasta with Eggplant: This was the pasta special. This dish was pretty good. It had eggplant, green peppers, tomatoes, parmesan cheese, shrimp, and parsley leaves.

Three Brothers Café - CLOSED

Update: Three Brothers closed in January 2014.

Three Brothers Cafe opened in June of this year. Between the two of us, we have eaten there a total of six times. The majority of those times we have ordered Mexican dishes. Here's some of the dishes:.


Strawberry Crepes: Ordered this for breakfast on the day the restaurant opened. Looked pretty and tasted good.

Chips and Guacamole: Even though the chips aren't homemade, the guacamole is, and it tastes excellent. It's flavorful and fresh.

Gordita de chicharron verde: Pork skin in green sauce
WARNING: Although this dish is good, it is also very hot! The meat is tender and flavorful, but the verde sauce will set your mouth on fire.

Huaraches de cesina: Beef, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, refried beans, sour cream, hot sauce.
Interesting dish. The meat had good flavor. The bottom of this dish is like fried corn bread.

Quesadilla: Beef with mozzarella cheese quesadilla with lettuce, tomatoes, cilantro, sour cream, guacamole. This ranks as one of the best quesadilla's I've had.

Super Nachos: Refried beans, beef, cheese, tomatoes, black olives, sour cream, jalapenos.
This was one step above the nachos at Taco Hell.

It's rare that someone can mess up an authentic taco, but it does happen. All of the tacos we've tried at Three Brothers have been good with the meat seasoned very well.

On the left, Tacos al pastor: Taco with roasted pork, cilantro, onions
On the right, Tacos de asada: Taco with beef, lettuce, tomatoes, cilantro, onions

On the left, Tacos de lengua: Taco with beef tongue, cilantro, onions
On the right, Tacos de tripa: Taco with soft or crunchy fried beef intestines, cilantro, onions

Tacos we've tried, but didn't get a picture of:

Tacos de suadero: Taco with beef brisket, cilantro, onions
Tacos de asada: Taco with beef, lettuce, tomatoes, cilantro, onions
Tacos de chorizo: Taco with pork chorizo, cilantro, onions

Three Brothers has really good Mexican food. The prices are reasonable and the location isn't too bad either. 

Note: Staff at Three Brothers informed us that they would be changing their menu to have more Mexican dishes and less American dishes. When this happens we will post another review.