When Kurt Serpin says he’s cooking Ottoman cuisine, he doesn’t mean the extravagant feasts of the sultans, but he is talking about the traditional Turkish cuisine that evolved from the sultans’ expansive palace kitchens. The menu at Cafe Orchid, his compact Lakeview restaurant, is diverse, covering the expected mezes (hummus, tabbouleh, baba ghanoush, falafel), kebabs, and grilled seafood dishes (Serpin is from the Turkish city of Mersin, on the Mediterranean), but also a nice selection of less common items, like the tiny wontonlike pre-Ottoman meat dumplings known as manti, which arrive in a deep bowl of yogurt-tomato sauce. Serpin says it takes him and his wife, Iho Batnasan, eight hours to stuff enough of them for 25 orders.
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He’s also doing alabalik, rainbow trout cooked with mozzarella cheese; balik sarma, or grilled grape-leaf-wrapped sardines; and mercimek koftesi, spicy, cold lentil fingers that are a vegetarian approximation of cig kofte, the raw meatballs served at nearby Nazarlik. No processed gyros cone spins in this place: Serpin, who’s cooked at A La Turka and the late Cafe Istanbul, stacks the meat on the Autodoner himself and shaves it for doner kebab or iskender, a luscious, comforting dish of shaved lamb, veal, and house-baked bread, all smothered in butter, yogurt, and tomato sauce. —Mike Sula
Eating under the glare of a larger-than-life-size Humphrey Bogart portrait doesn’t sound romantic, but the mural at Rick’s Cafe Casablanca works somehow. The rest of the small room is as smooth and dark as Bogie, but friendlier. Few plates here are more than $20, but everything looks and tastes opulent. Filet mignon con poivre was savory and artful, and the sauces are a real treat, their richness matched to portion size. Lamb was lean and flavorful, a chicken fricassee and fresh linguine with seafood were mouthwatering, and appetizers like moules marinieres and soupe d’oignon were worth stretching out a meal for—don’t come here if you aren’t ready to wait for good food. It’s BYO, and there’s a liquor store across the street, under the Sheridan Red Line stop. —Ann Sterzinger
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Rick’s Cafe Casablanca
1746 W. Addison, 773-327-3808
3930 N. Sheridan, 773-327-5253
3763 N. Southport, Chicago
3915 N. Sheridan, 773-327-1972
