FIRST REVIEW - Lezzet Centreville: Turkish Gem in the middle of a large Korean diaspora community

TL;DR - Great food, order the Adana yogurt and you won't regret it. 8/10

IMAGES IN ORDER:  (1) - Smoked Eggplant Appetizer , (2) - Adana Yogurt Kabob, (3) - Mixed Grill Platter, (4) - Knafeh Bonus Dessert, (5) - Bonus Gong Cha QQ Passionfruit Green Tea

Welcome to my Food Blog! This is my first ever review. Yesterday I visited Lezzet in Centreville, their sister location to the main restaurant in Vienna. It was great—I give it a thumbs up. I ordered a couple things, so lets get into it: 

SMOKED EGGPLANT APPETIZER(1):

The menu describes this appetizer as "chargrilled sliced eggplant, onions, garlic, and cilantro." It was pretty good—the eggplant flavor is prominent in the appetizer, and the you can really taste the smoky flavor.  However, you can sometimes taste the onion more than the eggplant itself; with the pita bread they provide, it was a good precursor to the main course.  Score:  7/10.

ADANA YOGURT ENTRÉE(2): 

This was the main course that I ordered when coming here, and I was pleasantly surprised by their selection.  While I initially wanted to get the Iskender Kebab which uses döner kebab(thinly sliced lamb) instead of adana kebab(ground lamb and beef mix highly similar to persian koobideh kabob), the Adana Yogurt entree is arguably better than that of Iskender Kebab.  The menu describes this dish as "ground beef & lamb served on sautéed homemade bread and topped with tomato and yogurt garlic sauce;" this dish surpassed my expectations and all of the ingredients worked great together.  The kabob was very well seasoned and very flavorful, but the texture was rather chewy, which is expected from the beef-lamb mix of Adana.  I asked for medium spice, but the kabob was rather mild in spice(however, the server said that people in the past complained about the spice, so I understand why their adding of spice is more conservative now)—the jalepeño added adequate spice when mixed into the food though.  It was great.  Score:  8.5/10.

MIXED GRILL PLATTER(3):  

My parents ordered this; the menu describes this dish as "Chicken and Beef Shish, Adana, and Lamb Chops. Served with rice pilaf, bulgur(cracked wheat) pilaf, and vegetables." All of the meats provided in the dish were very tender, juicy, and flavorful, and the bulgur was flavorful.  When ate together, the food was great.  I have no complaints—simple ingredients which make a great synergy of food and a great dish overall.  Score:  8/10.

BONUS DESSERT - KUNEFE(4):

My mom wanted to get this because she had heard good things; the menu describes it as "traditional Turkish dessert made with shredded phyllo dough layered with sweet cheese baked until golden brown and topped with honey simple syrup." While I initially had reservations about cheese in a dessert, the mildly sweet and warm phyllo dough combined with the sweet cheese was surprisingly good.  Score:  7.5/10.

BONUS BOBA - GONG CHA QQ PASSION FRUIT BOBA TEA(5):

There is a Gong Cha(popular bubble tea cafe) located right next to the restaurant; I ordered a QQ Passionfruit green tea.  It was good, I just think I messed up the level of ice I should've included in the drink; I asked for 30% Ice and 50% sugar.  Towards the end, it was room temperature tea with lots of passionfruit shreds and tapioca balls, which wasn't necessarily good.  While the passionfruit shreds added a new contrast of flavor and texture to the drink, it just needed more ice.  Score:  6.5/10 - with more ice, this would easily be a 7 or more.

Lezzet Overall Score:  8/10 - Thumbs Up