Bosphorus Mediterranean Bistro

Ate here tonight because I had a Groupon that was about to expire. Walked in to a restaurant in a rather desolate part of York Rd furnished with what I figured was old steakhouse restaurant seating. The result wasn’t madcap eclectic; it just seemed a bit off. Three couples were eating at three different tables and no one was around to seat us, so had to peer into the kitchen to see what to do. Once we talked to waiter/​owner? it all got much, much better.
The food was good. Some of it was great, even.
We started with the mixed meze cold appetizer. (Yes, it was a «cold» app, but it was actually too cold.) Unlike the online menu, it was chef’s choice and standouts were dolma and yogurt patlican, a baba ganoush type dip. Pita bread perfectly warm and charred. Pink sultan was fine, but nothing too exciting, and tzataki was just meh.
While we were still working on our app, our arugula and beet salad arrived. It was great in a way that makes you wonder why you never had the combination before. Highly recommended.
And, while we were still working on our salad, our lamb kabob platter arrived. Four very small, but very delicious skewers served with some clumpy but well seasoned rice and a yet another good, but small salad. While I could imagine this dish (and the restaurant) going on the rotation, the $ 17 price tag for this main was out of line. (Not problem with Groupon, of course!)
Dessert was disappointing. The top shredded dough thing of the baklavaesque kadayif tasted as if were baked after being kept for years in the back of a freezer. Sad.
Owner/​waiter was friendly and affable. Some small service hiccups, like pacing and just general timing – getting refills of water or new plates – could be easily fixed.
I struggled with the rating. While the food for the most part gets an A, service is a B-​, and pricing (for mains) a C-​. That said, I’m pretty sure we’ll be back.

Excellent hospitality and good food. Turkish coffee and hookah outside weren’t exactly atmospheric with York road traffic whizzing by but the tasty small plates and friendly service more than made up for it.

I just finished lunch at Bosphorous; it was delicious. They just got a new chef, someone who is Turkish and is well-​versed in cooking Turkish food. I ordered the lentil soup, the hummus and the manti, a Turkish tortellini stuffed with beef with a yogurt sauce on top. Having been to Turkey, the manti was just as I remembered. A plus, it was perfectly al dente. The portion was huge and could be a filling lunch by itself. The lentil soup was exceptional and it came with a pita bread that had been grilled and charred and was just yummy. The hummus was okay; I personally like my hummus with more tahini. I wish this new Bosphorous the best of luck. We will be back for that lentil soup.

We came with a group, and service was very friendly, if a little slow on refills and food, but we didn’t mind much.
I ordered the chicken kebab, having heard from another friend that their felafel isn’t great. I also sampled a taste of the pink sultan that someone else ordered, which was okay but underseasoned — definitely needs more garlic!
The chicken was very tender and juicy (spoiler alert: in a dim restaurant, double check your chicken for whether it’s cooked through, because juicy sometimes = not thoroughly cooked). The rice was salty and a tad undercooked, and the side salad was all iceberg and under-​ripe tomato, with a few pieces of raw red onion that more nicely complemented the chicken than the rest of the salad.
I’ve taken a star off for the effects of either the possibly under-​cooked chicken or long-​held rice. Unpleasant.
Also, reinforcing again that the service was really friendly. As we were paying our check, they thanked us for choosing them for our dinner, and said they wanted to give us a bottle of wine as a thank you. They then brought the bottle out and poured it for everyone, which was really very kind, but as a few people noted, it would’ve been really nice if they’d done it about half an hour earlier — we were all already getting up to leave! Don’t want to sound ungrateful, just making a note about it — we all stayed a bit longer to finish the glasses, but I did here a few comments about the timing.

This is my first post, but it’s there service and ethics were completely unacceptable. I have never had worse experience than this place.
1) The appetizer (manti) came after the main course was cold with no apology. The table next to us had there’s sent back.
2) We ordered the mixed grill and were never told that they did not have one of the meat kebab.
3) the waitress insisted that we had to pay the full price for the meal. After I pointed it out this was unacceptable. The took $ 3 off a $ 18 plate.
While we were there, two other dinner parties left and had the similar complains. I have never seen such an unprofessional service for the price. I don’t understand why they are even trying when they are clearly not able to deliver what they advertise. I hope you don’t go there.

We decided to go here based on the menu posted online and were surprised when some of the items weren’t on the menu. When we asked the waitress, she said the chef didn’t want to make those things because it was too busy. There were only about three other people in the restaurant. When we did get our food, the meat was undercooked in one dish and overcooked in the other. The dolma appetizer tasted like it came out of a can. In addition to the things not shown on the menu, about a third of the listed items were «out» even though it was 6 pm on a Saturday.
Maybe they are trying to go out of business?

Amazing! Bosphorus really knows greek/​Mediterranean food. The courses are light but very satisfying. The owner is very friendly and will do anything to make sure you enjoy your meal. The lamb is to die for. Everything is fresh made. Did I mention the lamb?!
Fun place to hang out at night as well. Live DJ and great place to dance and have drinks on the weekends. Could not praise Bosphorus more. Coming back often!

Food is terrible, we ordered doner (gyro) was dry and old, they just warmed it up. Lentil soup had no salt in it, and it is not the same soup we usually get at traditional turkish restaurants. It is a bar first, then a restaurant (not really)

If you wanna pay around $ 18 per dish doused in lemon juice and frozen vegetables, go ahead.

I really like it here. The waiter was nice, the place was clean and the portions are huge. The food is seasoned well and tasty. I feel like this is a good deviation of the same menus were seeing with kale or Brussels sprouts or farm to table… it’s authentic and my fav Turkish tea!

We were 6 & we had dinner. The food was good and the service was reasonable. We will be back soon, highly recommended.

I love Mediterranean food so when I saw the Groupon for Bosphorus, my finger went right to work. Went on a Monday with my daughter and had a great experience. Our server was really great and as we were one of tge few customers in the restaurant service was quite attentive. We started out with a cold mezze platter, on which we chose to include Yogurtlu Patlican, Dolma, Pink Sultan and olives. This translates to roasted eggplant/​yogurt dip, grape leaves, Labne with beets and, well, olives. Warm pita trianges accompanied the tasty dips and spreads and the olives sat upon a mound of tapenade. The only disappointment was that Barbunya was not available. Apparently it had not been popular and was dropped from the menu. For an entrée, we shared the mixed kabob over rice pilaf. The meats were tender and well prepared and the pilaf flavorful. A few more veggies would have been welcome but other than that a solid dining experience.

Pretty good stuff. even the simple burger tastes better than expected.
The pink sultan was delicious, rich & thick — I highly recommend it if you like thick greek yogurt based dips with warm pita bread. The calamari (fried) was tender, but maybe a tad more greasy than I would’ve liked. The manti came out to us pippin hot (as did all the other hot dishes) and was a delectable turkish version of a meat-​filled wonton/​ravioli — definitely worth trying if you’ve never had it.
The only reason they didn’t get 5 stars is because we’re super warm blooded people that love air-​conditioning. It was a cool enough summer evening, so I understand why they didn’t need the A/​C on. We’ll definitely be back… when the weather cools… to try everything else on the menu.

This place is no longer BYOB!

Located next door to Toss (same owners) and on York road right before it gets sketchy, this place was named after the strait that forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia. We went early enough (5:15p) and brought the two tikes with us. The place was basically empty– and I’ve heard it is a great late night music spot. If you bring the kids (it is kid friendly) be sure to bring an extra booster seat or something as they only have 1 highchair. Also, the booth in the back left corner, the booth seat flips up dangerously if there is only one person sitting on the end (and I don’t weigh enough for this to happen to a non broken seat).
Parking out front is metered, but after 5pm you don’t need to feed them. They also have a parking lot behind the location — accessed from Bellona Avenue and is right across the street from the Govan’s Library.
This location is BYOB
Our waiter, Josaphine was great and he was able to steer us towards appetizers and platters that are the chef’s and area’s specialty.
We had the appetizer sampler and got the pink sultan, hummus, tzaziki, and grape leaves. All were good and the pink sultan (beets and mayo with spices) was my favorite and first time trying it! The grape leaves were good (no meat) but they are a bit ‘lemony’ so if you’re not a big fan, skip this option.
We also had the Manti which is a Turkish ravioli. The sauce on top tasted like sour cream and the ‘ravioli’ are really small– close to the size of marbles. The dish was good and honestly it tasted like beef stroganoff to me. Lastly we had the kabob sampler which had veggies, lamb, beef, and chicken. the chicken was the most flavorful and went wonderfully with the very flavorful rice that comes with the dish. We used a groupon but they do have coupons on occasion too.

Why are so many reviews for this restaurant not recommended? Sorry, this is horse*h**. Many of these reviews, mine included, have been written by people with many authentic reviews.
Anyway, onto the restaurant. We came back for a late evening dinner and were not disappointed (although it was not perfect). The calamari was excellent and satisfying. I ordered the lamb (which I craved after our last foray) and *loved* it again. If we had to nit, it would be that the entrée came *way* too soon after the appetizers were served. The restaurant and staff needs to learn pacing.
We will be back. The food is simply sublime and generous in portion. The service needs to be polished, but we’re willing to put up with that for this excellent food.

Well began my night for a friends birthday. Heard the place was byob so everyone was happy. A book bag full of
Pbr’s later no meal. I’m ten beers deep at this point and not an appetizer in sight. I’m ready to go to pizza mart

My girlfriend and I recently had a bite here and had an absolutely wonderful time. The restaurant is a wonderful addition to the York Road/​Belvedere area and no doubt we will return. The food was certainly worthwhile, with both our beef and lamb kabobs being nicely prepared. The calamari appetizer was also tasty. No complaints on this front.
What really set Bosphorus apart, though, was not merely the quality, but the friendliness of the service. Our questions were answered quickly and with a smile, we were treated to some nice tea that seemed to refill itself whenever it was running low and the staff just seemed willing to accommodate us to make us happy. They succeeded.
Although we had not planned on it when walking in the door, we were comfortable enough there to share a hookah after the meal. That was nice and relaxing. The atmosphere lends itself mostly to a more subdued experience. Though one fluorescent light was a bit noticeable, which the owner (he comes out and talks to people and is as warm as his restaurant) mentioned he wants to rectify.
I eat out quite a bit, and Bosphorus stands out as one of my better recent experiences.

Visited for the first time last night and got some takeout. Since it was a Monday night, there wasn’t much traffic but the ambience was still great! The highlight was the beet and goat cheese salad. Though I think the goat cheese may have been rancid the salad was really good. The hummus and baba ganouj were ok but I would have liked more smokiness from the baba ganouj. The Andana wrap was by far the best thing we got!
The prices are a little on the high side, especially $ 25 for hookah! But I would definitely go back here and enjoyed the space as much as the food.

Very good restaurant and an excellent addition to the York Road corridor in north Baltimore City! In addition to the usual Mediterranean suspects (e.g. hummus, tzatziki), they serve some dishes I’d never heard of, which are traditional Turkish foods: tasty phyllo dough filled with potato purée; and manti, which reminded me of gnocchi, served in an incredible sauce. Among the various shish options, wonderfully-​seasoned lamb stands out. With good selections of small plates and entrees, plus desserts, BYOB, and moderate prices, Bosphorus is a good value with satisfying food and friendly, attentive service from the owner. Try it– you’ll like it!