Café 34 Istanbul

From outside it doesn't look like this place is going anywhere. But if you enter the area without hookah's, you are in for a surprise. We were apparently the only family in there, while the rest was on the hookah's side. Much joy for us after hitting the theme parks with a feeling of a crowd of a medium sized European country. Finally some relaxation in this quite contemporary interior setting, but the music should be turned down ( every third word had swearing) or changed so that we could avoid awkward moments with the kids.The staff was friendly but seemed to be more busy on the hookahs side. We were hungry and didn't give that much thought and ordered Caprese and hummus as appetizers. Both of the courses tasted great with warm pita bread. The texture of the hummus and the olive was amazing. For entrees we had chicken shish, chicken hummus and doner gyro. The shish was grilled well but still had the juiciness and right texture. The chicken hummus was good but not entirely a winner, so it came with us in a doggy bag, or perhaps we were already so full from the aperizers? The gyro had a good texture and taste reminded me of Istanbul. Nevertheless, the gyro had too much fat, and some of the pieces was very dry so it wasn't exactly max points.Less fat and more real meat will do the trick. 2 appetizers and 3 entrees plus chicken hummus, a total of 166. The service charge of almost 24 dollars was also included. By the size of the serving, the service and taste, the price doesn't justify going there. As a hookah lounge ish, this may be a better option then a place to do a family dinner.

Score - 2.21 / 10TL;DR - You have to buy bottled water which 85% of the restaurants in the area don't make you do. Our Hookah coals were not touched even after being there for more than an hour, and worst of all the food quality was poor and felt microwaved. Experience/service - i'll start with saying I'm an Orlando native, and only extremely fancy, Michelin star restaurants in winter park (or similar) have ever charged me for water. And it was nice "fancy" water that I see at publix for 4 dollars a bottle. At Cafe 34, If I remember correctly, they offered to sell me a warm bottle of what I think was dasani water without even a glass of ice to pour it in. You really shouldn't have to read more than that to know that there are literally 80 other places you could go to eat good near I-drive. But, since this'll be a comprehensive review, i'll talk about the Hookah experience, service and food.Personally, I don't smoke Hookah but my friends (which were the redeeming factor of this experience) told me that it tasted good but made notes to say that the water at the bottom was not chilled very well and also that the coals (after being there about an hour and a half) were not rotated once. For being a "Hookah lounge" there didn't seem to be that much focus on the Hookah part. And to be quite honestly, it seemed to have been a lounge for everyone at the restaurant. For example, the space felt extremely slow, and even though the place was nearly empty, the food (which we'll get to), took way too long for what it was, nearly 40 minutes. And for some reason, our server told us that they would bring out Lavash for one group at our table and a different group at our table was told (by the same waiter) that they had no Lavash that night which is strange considering the first group had asked for it twice and were told "it's on the way". Not to mention that the one item on the menu that I would assume most people would be excited about (the Doner) turned out to be available only 2 days out of the week (friday and Saturday). How is this not even mentioned on the menu? And to top it all off, it took about 20 minutes for the bill to print, and we were handed the bill after our table was cleaned off. Personally I think the customer shouldn't have to be handing dishes to the waiter in the middle of conversation, but, that's just my opinion. Food - Utter disappointment. I don't know how you cook a piece of meat to medium without it even being warm. I'm nearly certain that each meal at my table was put in a microwave for at least 3 minutes, since, A it took extremely long for anything to come out. And B it was all dry, I paid 27$ for a Beef Shish Kebab (which is a pretty hefty price tag in Orlando) to have onions with no vinegar, coleslaw with some sort of mayo mix (which makes no sense as the place is supposed to be "authentic") and 5 sorry pieces of microwaved meat served with undercooked rice. They didn't even use a good cut, it looked like chuck roast which is typically used for - you guessed it - roasting. I'm also nearly certain that the meat was microwaved because it was dry and had huge gray band with a "medium" middle. Conclusion - Lets list some pros: dedicated parking, Halal food, and near Icon park, but the reality is, do I really want to spend that much money on something this poor when it comes to quality? no.

The first night in Orlando, actually first night in Fla, our new friends Ceylan and Baris were so grateful we came to help them, they took us to their favourite dine.This little place is quite incredible. The people are like family friendly. There isn't a room jammed full of load people. It's quiet in here and oh so comfortable, at least for a strip mall diner. The few folks here were in soft conversation. Very relaxing.The food is out of this world, great. We ate community style. Like the old boarding houses of yore. The six of us split everything from the delectable hummus to the Turkish Meatball (called Kofte). Everything was spiced perfectly and served at the right temperature. The Grilled baby Lamb Chops might just be the best I've had. It's served with a chef's sauce that is simply addicting. The salads also have a magic ingredient that I just can't identify. The Tabbouleh, Haydari and the Baba Ganoush were fantabulous.My absolute fav was the Lamb Adana Kebab. Indescribably good. For dessert? The baklava is quite good, but the Hurrem's is unbelievable.

This place surprised me! Firstly it's open 24 hours so I was expecting the food to be meh- diner level at best. The food was delicious! This place had two sides. Restaurant-only with low music and a quiet place to eat and a side for hookah/ drinks which was like a party /lounge Saturday night. I was really impressed with how much food we got for the price and drinks were great! The kebab had a nice smoky flavour to it ! Would def return

Stopped by here for lunch. We ordered a couple sodas, cheese filled cigars, falafel, and lamb kabob. The server was very friendly and helpful. The kitchen was super slow. Luckily the food was really good but I would pass on the cheese cigar. This process is way over priced for the food which can be had elsewhere much cheaper. I would go here for a snack, cocktails, and hookah at night instead.

We had a few appetizers...and the drinks were decent. The bathroom was dirty which always gets me. Why is it so hard to have a clean potty I think it's more a night club vibe and it's definitely fun decor, has TVs for sports...staff was friendly.

I came here before the Chris Brown concert for some food & hookah. It was very hot & stuffy inside but they do have fans all over. The inside area where the bathroom area is air conditioned but not the same vibe. The food and hookah was really good! I would definitely come back here and recommend it.

Istanbul is the total package of restaurant lounges. The food is so yummy, drinks are good, there's plenty of space indoor or outdoor, nice service, chill atmosphere, and clean. The icing on the cake is that they are open 24 hours and have the best hookahs in the city! Highly recommend.

I can't not recommend this place enough! Anytime we come to Orlando I try to visit atleast once if not multiple times!We've been coming here since 2019 and the service , quality of food and quality of hookah have been consistently excellent!!!

what a horrible experience, went there yesterday with my friend and it was so bad. we arrived around 5:30 pm and wanted to order from their lunch menu but since they had us waiting 30 min to be seated (mind you the restaurant was empty and every chair and booth was covered in burned holes) we couldn't order from said menu which was fine but the other 20 min to be greeted was ridiculous when we finally do our waitress Melissa B tries to up charge us for something that supposedly they were out of and when we wanted to order water we get told that they don't serve tap water, tap water!! which is funny bc i had gone a couple days ago with my family and they did serve tap water but ok we bought water bottles, to bring us the water bottles and the food we ordered since we were starving and figured since they were taking forever for everything else they were gonna take forever too with our food and we were right they took 50 mins to bring us our food MIND YOU we were two people it shouldn't have taken the time it took but regardless we waited, when the food arrived it was cold and bland, the meat we ordered was hard and chewy and when we told her that we didn't like the food she snatched my friends credit card from the table and said and i quote "aw that's too bad you should've told me earlier" even thought she was nowhere to be seen and only showed when we were ready to pay and proceeded to charge us the full price for everything including the water! to top it off after she had charged us 80 dollars for food we didn't even touch she asked us if we wanted to wait for a free $5 dollar dessert after waiting 2 more hours she had the audacity to asks us to stay which we rejected due to the fact we were so eager to get out. We ended up tipping so she can pay her tip outs at the end of the night, which we shouldn't have. I highly don't recommend this place and if i could give it 0 stars, i would.