Raika Restaurant & Bar : The newest "Turkish" on the Istanbul scene...

Dear readers,

As I mentioned in my previous post on the Vinkara Wine Tasting I attended at The Marmara Taksim Hotel on February 21st, I wanted to "kill two birds with one stone" and scheduled a dinner with my sister Meltem and friend Nur for the same evening - at the same site! Since the wine tasting was scheduled to end at around 7:30pm... I thought it was the perfect time to finally visit Raika, an independently managed new Turkish restaurant on the 20th floor of the hotel offering panoramic views of the city!

Raika is the newest member of the Istanbul Doors Group and opened in October 2012! And what is the Istanbul Doors Group? Well... they are also the owners of A'jia Hotel on the Asian side of the city, Da Mario Gina and Mama (Italian restaurants); Gigi (French); Angelique, Poupon (nightclub, bar & restaurant), Kitchenette and Carlotta (cafes), Ca'Doro and co-owners of Zuma and Tom Aikens Restaurant, Tom's Kitchen, Tom's Deli! The group also has a catering company and "Doors Academy" (culinary school)! I might have left something out, but as you can see, the list is long, illustrious and impressive!

One of the great things about dining out in Istanbul is that there are now very good restaurants where you can not only enjoy the view, but the food too. For example, the independently owned and managed fine dining restaurant Mikla... located on the top floor and terrace (during the summer) of the Marmara Pera Hotel; Nu Teras (open only during the summer and on the roof of an historical building in Tepebaşı); Vogue (International & Japanese cuisine) high atop the BJK Plaza building in Akaretler to name the ones that immediately come to my mind.     

I made reservations for 8:00pm at Raika but between the traffic in Istanbul, etc etc we  hung out at the bar waiting for my sister to arrive with Nur who had arrived early... and to my pleasant surprise... we had a last minute guest join us! I met Burçak Desombre (a Turk married to a Frenchman... thus the last name!) years ago when she worked at a friend's wine firm and we've kept in touch through the years and the different jobs she's held. Briefly, Burçak is a certified sommelier (or wine steward) and she formed her own company called "Vinipedia Danışmanlık" (Consulting company) in 2011 and organizes all sorts of wine tastings for beginners and wine aficionados alike among other events and also offers consulting services to restaurants! She was also at the Vinkara wine tasting and had come upstairs to Raika's bar to have a drink before going home and I invited her to join us and I'm so glad she agreed!

Sipping glasses of prosecco (38 TL) and a Garrone Bianco (24 TL) for Burçak... we chatted up a storm waiting for my sister to arrive while enjoying the view from Raika Bar which is located to the right of the elevators... 

The Bar & Lounge is spacious with seating at the bar and clusters of tables surrounding the dimly lit interior... In fact, as of February 22nd, (we missed it by one day) there is live jazz music with different jazz artists at Raika Bar every Friday night.

Once my sister arrived, we moved over to the main dining room which is to the left of the elevators... this "wrap around" dining room is quite spacious with split-level dining areas with seating for about 190 people according to Raika's website with an open kitchen...

As we were quite hungry by now, with menus in hand and after being told by the waiter that the concept at Raika was to "share our meals", we set out trying to decide what to order...

Raika specializes in regional Turkish cuisine. The word "raika" means "simple, pure, unadulterated" in Turkish which also coincides with their concept as all dishes are served on "no frills" minimalist plates and all "sides" are extra...

Raika also has a very impressive wine list and each wine on the menu includes an explanation of the wine in Turkish and English and are available in all price ranges. We decided to order a bottle of Paşaeli "Cabernet Sauvignon-Cabernet Franc-Merlot-Petit Verdot" blend (2008) which was a full-bodied wine which went very well with our selections. Paşaeli is a mid-sized Turkish wine producer from the Aegean Region and for the last few years has been producing very good red wines...

We ordered 8 appetizers to share: Jerusalem artichoke braised in olive oil (16 TL); Topik (an Armenian dish prepared with chickpeas, tahini, onions, currants, pistachio and cinnamon) (13 TL); Mucver (patties prepared with wild greens) (22 TL); Lahmacun (thin dough topped with minced meat and spices - like a pizza) (12 TL); Stuffed Chard Leaves (19 TL); Mixed green salad (16 TL); Purslane with strained plain yogurt (12 TL); Roasted eggplant & coriander in olive oil (12 TL)...

For our main course we ordered lamb chops (49 TL) and a side of roasted potatoes in wild herb butter (10 TL). 

Before I make a general comment about your selections, I highly suggest you visit Raika's  website where you will see a copy of their menu and wine list. Additionally, two "tasting" menus are available.

The dishes we ordered were good, however, we felt that the portions were not very satisfying and were suitable to be shared by two, maybe 3 but not more. For example, the lahmacun and mucver we ordered included 3 pieces each and since we were 4 people we ordered an "extra" from each one and were charged accordingly (extra lahmacun 4 TL; extra mucver 6 TL). However, there were 4 lamb chops, so we didn't have a problem there...

When it came to dessert, we decided to order just one to share. However, Merve Yılmaz, the restaurant's assistant manager and I go back for years, and she was kind enough to offer us a dessert too, so we ordered Künefe (warm shredded wheat and cheese), topped with clotted cream (18 TL), a typical Turkish dessert and chocolate souffle. However, we were also sent Turkish style pumpkin dessert by mistake and didn't turn it away...

Which we washed down with Turkish tea and Turkish coffee of course!

Unfortunately, we were a little disappointed with our desserts! The künefe was dripping in butter which was very overpowering; the chocolate souffle tasted more like chocolate pudding and the pumpkin dessert should have had some more syrup and was dry...

All in all we had a lovely evening and enjoyed each other's company and hope to have more dinners like this together to discover new venues to share with you my readers! The bill for our meal & drinks at Raika cost 492 TL (+ tip).

Me, sister Meltem (left); Burçak (right front), Nur (right top)

I suggest that you make reservations for dinner at Raika and it might also be a good idea to try it out for lunch too... I'm sure the view is just as lovely during the day! 

Raika
Tel: (0212) 243 37 73
www.raika.com.tr 

Enjoy & stay well!

Dani