Second night in Istanbul (since I started this blog), went out to dinner with an old friend of mine, he recommended 360 restaurant, on a roof top terrace. Most of the time when something is on a rooftop terrace it is worth the visit.

This restaurant chain is growing rapidly and is very well known around tourists and locals, you will need to make a reservation and they even have 2 shifts every night, which immediately makes clear how successful they are! Visit the website to see the other 2 locations: http://www.360istanbul.com They are also well known around the world by many stars as well as praised by the The New York Times as being one of the 50 restaurants in the world you should visit before you die.

The entrance and the view were spectacular to start with:

 

 

This could not be bad, could it?

No it just could not!

Great menu, new dishes, fusion cooking, molecular cooking fun combinations and just so much options. Only the cocktails were great! Besides the traditional ones we ordered a special olive Martini made with olive oil and real olives, BOOM what a kick to the head and new taste for me, the other cocktail was called a Sultan’s delight made with Raki and Vodka, just as good, maybe not so renewed but so nice, together with this weather and view you will be happy there.

As a starter (and it was a tough decision just as for the main) we ordered a special type of Caesar Salad and some succulent beef carpaccio. We could of course also have chosen for things such as slow roasted cherry duck or potato wrapped prawn or melon soup with cheese croquets (Damn I need to go back…..)

 

The carpaccio was marvelous with a wasabi mayonnaise and a pickled ginger salad, the meat was the best quality I ever had, tasted like Wagyu or Kobe beef so good, melting on my tongue….hmmm And since my partner new all about his hobby, we agreed to share. So I got the salad as well with poppy seed tempura asparagus, extra old Parmesan cheese, a lot of baby leaf green salad and the perfect dressing, tasting as it should be.

I just could not wait for the next course! We had to choose things as smoked aubergine and yoghurt ravioli, extra aged new york strip steak, vine leaf wrapped sardines with sun dried tomatoes or grilled octopus shish kebab with wilted rokka, porcini and cherry tomato rice….Yep, booking my flight, going back… 🙂

We went for steaks, I had the chocolate chili beef (selling chocolates so easy choice) (www.smet.be), with orange and cinnamon carrot puree and pomme-pont-neuf…!!!

My partner had the Gorganzola beef with rissole potatoes and grilled balsamic aspragus…!!!

 

Okay I need to work on my picture taking skills but it is not easy to take nice pictures at night… and it is never easy to take good pictures of real food.

But what you can not see is the quality of both dishes, I will only talk about mine because the other one was finished and they did not want to share, it was that good… mine was perfect as well, same perfect meat but together with the dark spicy chili chocolate sauce and the bitter walnuts on top it was sooooooo goooooood, and then the creamy buttery orange cinnamon puree….. just found a piece of heaven…. and the combination of it all, just one of the best dishes ever. Only point or critisism, what are these potatoes doing there? not an asset at all, could have done without them…

After this, even without any room, we had to have dessert. With this quality and with a glance at the menu you could not go without… My partner took the dessert with the most appropriate name: Death by chocolate and I had the popcorn caramel creme brulee.

The death by chocolate really was killing!

 

Unforgettable this way to finish a perfect dessert.

The death by chocolate was so good and heavy with a perfect light and fluffy soufflé, a frozen stracciatella cone with mint inside, creamy cappucino chocolate cup and a strawberry chocolate mix, it was perfect. The other was even better with a sweet pastry base filled with a caramel custard, topped with grilled popcorn for the needed “brulee” crunch. Some caramel ice on top and sweet apple sauce on the bottom, all in 1 bite made the best combination of texture and taste.

Finishing with some coffee and Cointreau and they could roll us down the stairs. What an evening and what a food and “ambiance”.

Go there when you are in Istanbul, only reason for not giving the prefect score is that our “shift” ended at 21.30 and we had to pay quick and leave to make room for the next shift at 22.00, but that is forgiven.

Overall score: 9.5 out of 10