Cafe Kiraz

Warm nice day, slightly intoxicated youth in green, pipers in plaid skirts at Kendall Square...

Me bumping into this random place. I don't expect pleasurable food experience in plain places with plastic tables and obvious take-out ambiance. Therefore I try to avoid them. Life is too short to waste it on obviously bad food. But something attracted my attention - and I went in: grilled peaches and grilled plums salad.
I asked it "for here" and it was served on a ceramic plate - in a plastic box... Utensils are plastic. Espresso is served in paper glass and is bad. They won't deny you a glass of water though (paper glass, of course). Which is better than their coffee.

But the salad - oh, my. It was positively made to order.

I thought I won't be able to finish it. Which is not a compliment. It was humongous, densely packed in aforementioned plastic box - and as I thought mostly made of mesclun greens.

But I happened to be wrong. The salad had peaches and plums on top and dry cherries and almonds and blue cheese all over the place. So I put good size portion on my plate. And then some more. And then I had some cheese crumbs and almonds left on the plate, so I had to add more greens. And eventually I finished it all, no single leaf left. Which is a compliment.

This salad - great for your diet.

Grilled peaches and grilled plums salad

Dried bing cherries, blanched almonds, blue cheese over mesclun mix. Grilled peaches and plums on top.

And there are few more I'd like to try.
Vegan: grilled tofu salad.
Vegetarian:

Grilled beets salad

Red & yellow beets, sweet corn, goat cheese & pumpkin seeds over mesclun mix.

 Autumn salad

Toasted pecan, fresh sliced pear, cranberries, blue cheese, mesclun mix.

People rave about their sandwiches, so may be one day.

It's a strange place, really. It's extensive and interesting selection and reasonable prices ($8 tops for most salads and sandwiches but for simple ones it's $6) along with pretence to be Mediterranean or Turkish... But something tells me it's ethnic  favour is from elsewhere. What is the secret here?

Kiraz salads

YELP reviews  (146 as of March 17, 2012 - a lot)

Café Kiraz  

119 Hampshire St
Cambridge, MA 02139
Neighborhood: Inman Square