RESTAURANT REVIEW
Turkish Delight It’s Türkiye, not Turkey. I often forget the republic’s new spelling, but its palate-pleasing cuisine always stands out in my memory. So when a new Turkish eatery comes to town, my first inclination is to make reservations. That’s what my girlfriend and I did in April, one weekend after longtime New York City restaurant Vezir opened its doors in Lyndhurst. The décor inside the cozy dining room set the perfect vibe. The place skipped on modern accessories and Top 40 hits in favor of traditional Turkish art with tapestries, sketches and portraits along with soft background music recorded with wind and string instruments. Even the restrooms, with elegant, brushed gold fixtures and hardware, were on point. On atmosphere alone, Vezir scored a 10 out of 10. But the best was yet to come. All food is based on family recipes, explained our server, who we learned was the chef ’s daughter-in-law. Excited for the authentic flavors, we quickly put in our order for a pair of appetizers. We noshed on fresh-baked bread (two baskets’ worth) with olive paste dip and sipped complementary Turkish tea before our first app, shepherd’s salad, arrived. A vegetable enthusiast, my girlfriend took the first few heaping spoonfuls of the tomato-cucumber-onion-parsley medley and filled her plate. She was floored almost immediately by the freshness of the veggies and the extra bite from the accompanying feta cheese. I admit that I hesitated over the selection of the salad, as I generally don’t prefer the taste of red onion and feta. But Vezir’s shepherd’s salad turned me, and I was just as impressed with the appetizer as my companion was. Our second starter was the Vezir meze, a platter with samples of hummus, cacik (strained yogurt and cucumber), spicy ezme (a mashup of peppers, tomatoes and onions) and grape leaves stuffed with rice and herbs. We enjoyed every bite of this whirling dervish of tastes. The cacik was cool and refreshing, the hummus smooth and garlicky and, my favorite, the ezme was zesty with just a hint of spice. The grape leaves too were full
VEZIR 282 Ridge Rd., Lyndhurst, 201.595.0669; vezirnj.com BERGENMAG.COM
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of flavor and were sweetened by a hint of either cinnamon or allspice. While we’d kept our appetizers on the lighter side, we went heavier with entrées. Salmon is my usual go-to whenever I dine at a Mediterranean or Middle Eastern restaurant, but on this night I went with Vezir’s pirzola—four grilled lamb chops served over a bed of rice pilaf. I made the right choice. Each chop had perfect sear marks, the ones you might see Photoshopped onto print advertisements, and the meat was flawless. Juices flowed with each cut, and the lamb was neither tough nor gamey. Forked with some rice and a sliver each of the accompanying roasted tomato and pepper, it made for a memorable bite. My girlfriend, meanwhile, had the shish kebab, which she selected over her other main-course finalists, chicken kebab and adana kebab (ground lamb). Like my lamb chops, each cube of seared sirloin was marinated with Turkish spices and bursting with juicy flavor. It was a more-than-generous portion— eight sizable chunks of beef, rice and roasted veggies—and even with my help, there were plenty of leftovers before we both tapped out. Dessert had been on our minds from the beginning—a massive case of homemade sweets is kept by the door, likely to tempt the swarms of people coming in for takeout orders. So we saved room for a shared order of fistikli havuc dilim baklava, a carrotshaped slice of pistachio cake. We had ours with a scoop of vanilla dondurma, a Turkish ice cream that has a stretchy, chewy flavor. (It’s not on the menu, so you’ll have to specially order it.) While traditional baklava is a popular option, don’t sleep on this “carrot slice”—it’s a must-try. I capped the meal with thick Turkish coffee. It’s tradition to use the excess coffee grounds left over at the bottom of the cup to read one’s fortune, but I skipped this practice for fear of making a mess. Though I left without my fortune, Vezir’s future seems crystal clear: Plenty of good food and busy nights are on the way. —Darius Amos
Photos by Darius Amos
Vezir brings the rich flavors of Türkiye to Lyndhurst.
JUNE 2025
5/20/25 8:48 AM