Bosphorous Turkish Cuisine

Bosphorous Turkish Cuisine felt busy in the most basic Friday night way. We came in on a Friday evening and got told there were no tables available except at the bar or outside, so the choice was made for us and we sat at the bar. The official site takes reservations for the St. Petersburg location, and a Friday reservation makes sense here unless bar seating or patio seating sounds fine. We did not get the sense that this was the kind of place with empty dining room slack built into the night.

There were several bartenders waiting on us instead of one dedicated server, which fit the setup. We were at the bar, we ordered, food came, and that part was pretty straightforward. Just a full restaurant and a bar seat solution.

Start with the lavas

The highlight of this place is the lavas, full stop. The published dinner menu calls it signature baked-to-order hollow bread, and it is $6. That was the extra charge that mattered most to our order. It comes out as this giant puffed piece of bread, all poofed up and full of steam. It earns the attention. It is the thing we would remember first.

We also got the Mixed Appetizer, which was pretty good. It is $23 and has humus, babaganoush, sautéed eggplant, muhammara, ezme, haydari, and zetinyagli yaprak dolma. That helps explain what kind of starter this is. It is not one dip and a basket. It is a spread of different stuff, and the lavas fits naturally with it. If the table is starting with appetizers, this is the obvious choice.

The price point is not sneaky

Bosphorous is on the expensive side, and the starter math gets there fast. A $23 mixed appetizer plus the $6 lavas means $29 before drinks, before any entrées, before anything else gets added because the bar menu or the dinner menu starts sounding good. That does not make it a bad value by itself, but it does make this a place where the bill can stop being casual pretty quickly. It is better to walk in knowing that than to act surprised later.

Bosphorous gave us a crowded Friday night, bar seating instead of a table, a solid mixed appetizer, and one really memorable bread order. We did not leave thinking about some giant meal arc or a hidden bargain. We left thinking the lavas is the move, the appetizer setup works, and this is a place to plan a little if a regular table matters.