ANADOLU CAFE
303 Cambridge St.
Boston
(617) 557-5100

Restaurant reviewed 02/25/99 by Bob MacDonald

ANADOLU CAFE Type: Turkish Hours: Mon.-Sat. 7 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sun. 9 a.m.-10 p.m. Good choices: Su borek (noodle layers with cheese), mucver (zucchini fritters), icli kofte (spicy beef meatballs), mercimek kofte (red lentils with cracked wheat), kuzu kebab (lamb), adana kebab (ground beef), tavuk adana (chicken), izgara kofte (spicy ground lamb), sutlac (rice pudding). Credit cards: Visa, MasterCard, and Transmedia. Access: Fully accessible.

Anadolu Cafe was almost empty one night, except for several people coming in to pick up orders of takeout food. Every time the door opened, it didn't quite shut, which blew cold air into the restaurant and sent us deeper into our sweaters and mufflers.

I felt tempted to return with a screwdriver. But the open door is about the only thing wrong with this Turkish restaurant. So much is right, like spicy charcoal-cooked meats, fresh-tasting salads, smoky eggplant, beautiful sandwiches, and gracious service.

Tourists passing by look at the menu in the window of Anadolu, don't really understand it, see the young women in traditional Turkish caps and vests, can't figure out where they're from, and keep walking. But the restaurant's proximity to Massachusetts General Hospital gives some lucky medical workers fine nourishment.

Except for kebabs, the menu isn't familiar. And while Anadolu has attempted to translate and explain the dishes, they're a long way from what you get. "Tost," for instance, was described as being made in food stands all over Turkey. We ordered tost with Turkish Swiss cheese ($2.50) and what arrived was a croque monsieur, melting cheese inside hot, buttery, eggy Turkish bread with sliced tomatoes, all of this squashed and toasted in a special press.

The cuisine of Turkey overlaps with Middle Eastern food and also looks similar to cuisines as far west away as North Africa - the expanse that the Ottomans ruled for four centuries. Some of the presentations are similar: meat threaded onto skewers, simple rice pilaf, finely chopped salads, yogurt sauces, saucy green and dried bean dishes.

Anadolu is owned by Huseyin Akgun, who also owns Istanbul Cafe, behind the State House. He comes from Rize, on the Black Sea coast in the northern part of Turkey, where the food is less spicy than in the southern part of the country. Which is not to say it lacks flavor, just less heat and intensity.

Unlike restaurants in Turkey - where they're served alone - appetizers here come garnished with the chopped salad called coban and a tabouli salad. (Many times, the c is pronounced like "ch" so a word like coban sounds like "choban.")

One of the best things on the meze (appetizer) table is icli kofte ($6.50), giant spicy beef meatballs coated with cracked wheat and fried with pine nuts. We also ate them as a sandwich ($6) inside the soft, flat sesame-studded bread, with coban salad tucked beside the hot meatballs.

Mucver ($6.50) were crisp zucchini fritters with feathery edges, which were splendid. Patlican kozleme ($6.75), eggplant cooked on charcoal, was a beautiful dish - smoky, creamy, and lemony.

Su borek ($5.75) was like finding a hidden treasure. The dough resembles lasagna noodles, which are layered with feta cheese. Baked until the top turns crusty and golden, the feta melts inside and permeates the dough with its saltiness. "You never see it here," said my Turkish friend. "It's very difficult to make."

Labor-intensive as it is, and probably magnificent straight from the oven, su borek arrives tableside cut into mouth-sized pieces. Kebabs, all cooked over charcoal, came with coban salad, a light rice pilaf, grated carrots, and roasted green and red tomatoes and peppers. Adana kebab ($11) was made with spicy ground beef threaded onto skewers; tavuk adana ($11) was ground chicken and red peppers mixed with spices, shaped into long strips, and threaded onto skewers; and izgara kofte ($11.50), my favorite of the entrees, were small ovals of ground lamb.

We ended with sweet apple tea ($1) and sutlac ($2.50), a milky rice pudding that was glazed on top - a few ingredients in just the right proportion. It could be said for all of this food.