Cinar Turkish Restaurant

Happy Monday! I hope you're all having a fantastic start to your week. This post is long awaited for, sorry Cinar Cliffside Park! I've been sidetracked with my Monday - Friday job, the exhaustion of everyday life and working out 4+ times a week. A girl needs to stay in shape to eat. Now, let's dive right into my amazing experience with some Turkish food I will certainly never forget.

This little spot is located right in the heart of Cliffside Park, NJ. It's on a main street so obviously you can imagine the immense traffic this little restaurant gets. As soon as you walk in the atmosphere is dimly lit which makes for a cozy little date night spot or just a quiet night out with friends. We met with Tunch who is the owner and an absolute sweetheart, he really made my husband and I feel welcome and made sure we got everything we needed.

Now, let me start off by saying my husband and I had never eaten Turkish food before in our entire lives and when I got invited here I was a little hesitant. Even so when looking at the menu I was very overwhelmed and thought there would be nothing on the menu that I'd enjoy. It was mainly because it was all dishes I'd never heard of with some fancy names but you gotta live sometime right? Now fast forward, I do not know where this place has been my whole life, turkish food is absolutely fire! They had us try all different dishes and gave us many of Tunch's favorite's. For our appetizer's we had the Cinar Special Salad which is chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, scallions, red onions, parsley and fresh mint with some olive oil. I am very picky with my salads but this one was golden. The olive oil really added a nice touch to the taste. We also tried different hummus's, Babagannush which was my personal favorite and my man's favorite Sigara Borek. He loves cheese and this dish is stuffed with feta cheese and parsley, que the YUMMMM!

For our main courses we were brought out the Mixed Kebab Platter for Two which was thoroughly enjoyed. It consists of lamb shish, lamb adana kebab, chicken shish, chicken adana kebab, lamb meatballs and some kick ass rice. We were also given the Homemade Turkish Dumplings off the Chef's Specials which was pretty delicious. The dumpling is steamed and stuffed with sauteed ground lamb and onions, so much different than your typical Chinese restaurant dumpling. I didn't really like the sauce it was drenched in, but once I got past that it was really good. Last but not least was my favorite course of all, dessert! We were given some baklava which I had no trouble eating.

Cinar Cliffside Park is definitely a spot I would recommend to all my friends. On the weekends they even have special events that can go up to 2am, and do not overcharge you for your meals. The price they give is the price paid for the entire night no matter how long you stay. Cool, right? So, if you're in the Cliffside Park/ Edgewater area do yourself a favor and check this rad spot out and don't forget to tell them I sent you!

XOXO

Tay

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