Troya, San Francisco

Hegui and I have walked by Troya on many an occasion, while shopping for Asian ingredients at Richmond New May Wah on Clement Street in San Francisco. In the mid-afternoon, when we’re most often around, the place is dead: maybe one or two tables full at the most. So we weren’t especially into trying it.

That is until the other week, when I couldn’t help but notice through the window a large table of folks eating what appeared to me to be the most beautifully presented food. It was then that I looked at the menu and the sub-title to the place, “Turkish Cuisine and Mediterranean Meze Bar.” Now I was hungry.

As you’ve probably guessed, Troya is named after the famous, some say legendary city on the Anatolian peninsula of Turkey, Troy. Remember that great movie of the same name with Eric Bana as Hector, Brad Pitt as Achilles and Orlando Bloom as Paris? (I wonder what ever happened to Orlando Bloom? I haven’t seen him in a movie in ages and ages. I hope that he’s okay!) I really liked the fight scene with Hector and Achilles—so thrilling and so sad! Here it is:

I forgot how incredible that movie is!

Anyway, back to Troya. We went the night that we attended a party in honor of our friend, Tom’s 40th. It was held at a wine bar a few blocks away, so it seemed like a perfect evening to try the restaurant. Since we knew we were going to a wine bar, we had beer at the meal. Not that exciting, if you ask me, though it went excellently well with the marvelous and really beautifully presented food.

I like the appetizers, or mezes at Turkish or Mediterranean places best. All those little flavorful plates to me are often more interesting than the main course itself. Troya really shined with their delightful array of choices. We had several and were not disappointed with any of them.

In no particular order, since they all arrived about the same time, we tried the Mediterranean spreads. This was a plate of three traditional dips: hummus, haydari—a yogurt dip, and muhamara—made from roasted red peppers. These came with a large cone like you’d see at Belgian fry places, filled with warm pita bread. In a word, yum.

I was blown away by the gorgeous presentation of the falafel. It tasted as good as it looked.

The börek, a baked filo pastry stuffed with spinach and other treats, was so flakey and buttery, it almost melted in my mouth. The fresh Monterey Bay grilled sardines with sumac dusted shallots, cucumber and greens was amazing. I want to try to make that at home sometime soon. The sumac gave the smoky fish a lovely vaguely citrusy-ness that we really enjoyed.

I wasn’t as wild about the grilled eggplant salad (so maybe one itty-bitty misgiving), though Hegui didn’t have any complaints. Perhaps the problem is that I make something like this at home already, so I was underwhelmed? Also I thought it needed salt.

We shared an order of grilled ahi tuna kebabs to round out this remarkable meal. Since we were off to a birthday party, we skipped dessert, though I’ve no doubt that it would have been sublime at Troya.

This place is off the beaten track for tourists and is far from the corporate glam of downtown San Francisco restaurants. But people know about this place. It was mobbed when we arrived. We were lucky that one table for two happened to come open just after we got there. As we waited for them to set it, a line behind us quickly grew to horrific proportion, as well it should, since Troya is worth the visit. I know that we’ll be back.