Munching and Brunching at Café Fulya (727 S. 2nd Street)

I got a restaurant.com certificate and decided to pig out with my friends at Café Fulya. We never been there and we wanted to try something new. So why not Cafe Fulya, the café received great reviews on Yelp after all.

On one fine chilly Sunday morning we ventured to the cute and cozy neighborhood café. There were outside seating, but we opted to stay out of the cold.  When we entered the cafe, the whole cafe was within our view. There wasn’t a "real" kitchen.  Behind the counter was the kitchen.

To the left of door was a couch against the wall with a table and two small chairs in front of it. And that lucky spot was where we landed ourselves. The register and counter was a few steps in front of us. To the right side of the café and counter were more seating (1 table for two, and 4 tables for 4). As you can probably tell by my description, the café is quite small.

We ordered a number of things to eat and try out. The food was delivered to us in a timely manner even though there were a good number of people coming in and out ordering drinks and the place was packed inside with people brunching, but again I don’t think we ordered anything that was cooking intensive/ assembling. Below is my take on everything we ordered. Overall, it was a nice experience and the customer service was great.  My favorite eats was the hummus, cigar pie, Turkish bread, and the salad. Next time, if I come again, I would definitely try one of the actual breakfast platter not the Turkish “breakfast platter” or one of the sandwiches. 

Turkish Coffee

Even though I am not much of a coffee lover, how can I go to a Turkish café for the first time and not try their Turkish coffee?  The coffee came in an small expresso cup and was very strong. I would admit I haven’ t have enough coffee to be a fair coffee judge, but based on my taste, it was definitely strong and you can taste the quality of the beans. I would totally recommend coffee lovers to try Turkish coffee.

Jasmine tea

 There was nothing special about the jasmine tea. You can probably get the jasmine tea at any general supermarket or grocery store.

Chai Tea

The Chai latte was sub par in my opinion. It was too foamy and milky for my preference. It lacked the strong taste of chai spices. In addition, temperature-wise, the drink was not hot enough. It got cold real fast. I am not impress when my drinks are not hot enough.

Summer Salad

The summer salad was delicious. It had mix greens, strawberry, raisins, dry apriots, walnuts, feta cheese, and their special dressing. The dressing tasted like a strawberry vinaigrette. To me, important factors of a salad are it's freshness, the assortment of tasty nutritional components, and a flavorful dressing. And this salad has met all the criteria of an awesome salad under my standards!

Breakfast Platter

I wanted to go the authentic route and eat what the people eat in Turkey eat for breakfast. Again why not, we are at a Turkish establishment. Based on the yelp review, the breakfast platter supposedly resembles a real Turkish breakfast.  It was an assortment of things- cucumbers, feta cheese, dry apricot, tomato, olives, boiled eggs, cheese, nutella, cream cheese, and apricot jam.  Although it seemed like a great idea to eat like the Turkish people and the platter did sounded interesting, I don't think it was a good choice…..we didn’t really know how to eat it…We ate some of the spread with bread and ate some components by themselves . Maybe it would have been sufficient just to watch someone eat it instead of us actually trying it out. 

Turkish Bread

The breakfast platter came with Turkish bread. The bread was delicious! The texture was crispy on the outside and chewy in the inside. Although it was not warm, it was still somewhat fresh and delicious nonetheless.

Cigar Pies, Hummus with Cucumbers, and Zucchini Pancake

Cigar pie- I never had one before. It was basically like a fried egg roll with feta cheese and parsley inside. It was salty and tasty. The pomegranate dipping sauce which I think goes with the cigar pie had a potent taste. It tasted sweet at first but then it had a vinegary aftertaste. This interesting sauce was definitely not for me. If you know what this dipping sauce is made up of please tell me. It was nice to be exposed to something new and different, but I just was not digging it.

Hummus- The hummus was good. It was kind of creamy and tasty, but it was not spectacular. I wish they gave us pita bread to eat it with. There were only a few cucumbers to dip the hummus in. I felt like there were not enough things to eat with the hummus or spreads that the breakfast platter came with(do people just eat nutella, jam, cream cheese, and hummus straight up?).

Zucchinni Pancake ---I was actually excited to taste the zucchini pancake because I never had it before and I like zucchini. It looked like something I would eat. It had a soft texture like lasagnas; unfortunately the taste was disappointing. It was way too bland for my palate. I think that was the least favorite dish. How ironic when I thought in the beginning it would be my favorite. 

Spinach and Mozzarella Ravioli with Yogurt Sauce

The Spinach and Mozzarella Ravioli definitely had the taste of fresh homemade pasta.  Although I like the pasta itself, I have to admit I wasn’t a fan of the yogurt sauce. Similar to the zucchini pancake, it was tasteless. I think the yogurt sauce might be a taste that needs to be acquired especially since I am more use to a cheesy or tomato sauce with my pasta.  

Pistachio Baklava, Chocolate Pecan Baklava, and Coconut Macaroon

For dessert, we got one Pistachio Baklava, one Chocolate Pecan Baklava, and one Coconut Macaroon. As you can probably see from the picture, the baklavas are very small (maybe only an inch big). They were exceptionally delicious, though. If you don’t order anything else, I do recommend getting the baklava. It was fresh and wasn't too sweet. In the past, I had baklavas that way too sweet and on the verge of being bitter. These ones were not like that. These baklavas are actually some of the best baklavas I ever had.  On the other hand, the coconut macaroon didn't meet my expectations. We decided to get the coconut maroon in the first place because it was humongous and looked good. However, instead being good, the macaroon was very stale and obviously not fresh. I wonder what it would it taste like if it was fresh. The best coconut maroons I had before were crispy on the outside and chewy and flaky in the inside.  I regret assuming the macaroons were fresh and not asking if they were that day. 

Update: The cafe has been closed according to yelp.