Just another business trip, only this time to one of the best cities in the world, one you most have seen before you die…I have been there a few times now and I love it more every time! ISTANBUL !!!

First night I went to a restaurant named “The Hunger” and that sounded fitting to my feeling at that time 🙂

It is situated on one of the many strips in the Bakirkoy area next to the sea. (more addresses to be found at http://www.thehunger.com.tr)

You can immediately see it is a chain / franchise by the way everything is organised and looks, this isn’t always a bad thing, even more often a good thing I think. I was welcomed by a nice waiter and got a good seat. Directly followed by the menu and the question of how big my thirst was. Good firest impression.

The menu was in a way similar to a TGI’s menu (see previous posts), a lot of fried stuff and a lot of Western / USA type of food. I started with some carrot juice (trying to fool the body I’m a healthy man…), and a Raki on the side. I ordered shrimp balls on a bed of string potatoes with a garlic-yoghurt-pickle sauce. Presentation was very fun, straight out of the deep fryer, taste just sucked. Typical “from freezer to fryer” dish and the sauce was from some retail jar… very fat and tasteless, did not finish it.

Missed chance, let’s hope for something better next, had an internal fight between the signature hamburger or Mexican fajitas, this last one was favored because my body thought it would be more healthy…

Once again, presentation wise 10 out of 10:

And once again, what a terrible taste !!!

Did this chef lose his tongue? How can you let Guacamole taste like water? no avocado taste, no pepper or salt, no lemon or garlic, just like green water… and then the rest, the salsa was boring, the cream was basic and the rest of the condiments just were terrible. The fajitas were dry and the very good sounding sizzling meat was without any type of spice. Just grilled beef with some peppers. Luckily it was a very good piece of beef and very tender but when I closed my eyes, nothing Mexican on this dish. Pretty big disappointment!

I had to pass on the dessert, they all looked good on the menu, but after 2 disappointments I just could not face a 3rd…!!! Quickly asked for the check and left the building. Really a missed chance because such a great menu an venue deserve proper food !

Overall a score of 5 out of 10