Lezzet Cafe

A few months ago when we were driving down Main St. trying to find this random Filipino bakery...

The bold colors of these storefronts caught my eye...as well as the "Nude Girls" sign on topof the red building.

The green one had an interesting sign...

which I initially thought read as "Dessert Cafe". I thought this was a rather odd area to have a dessert place, especially near the nekkid chicks/smoke shop/adult emporium.

I went a bit nuts trying to look it up but the internet searches did not yield any establishments named "Dessert Cafe" in this part of town...


When my dad drove me and my SIL to the 32nd St. NEX the day after Christmas, we passed by this street again where I got a closer look at the sign...

It was "Lezzet" not "Dessert".  But still, Lezzet? Lezbian? What?

It turns out that this was a fairly new Russian/Turkish restaurant and that "Lezzet" means "taste" or "flavor".

Bert and I recently visited Lezzet Cafe last weekend while TC was out with her friends.

You may see their menu online here



We couldn't figure out what made these burritos "Turkish Style"...

It's pretty spacious inside with a large dining area on the left and a bar area on the right. We were the only customers that late Saturday morning. The guy working there was very nice and happy that we stopped by.

We liked the wheels on the chairs here too! Nifty!

Over the bar were these paintings and a model of a ship...

There was also a patio out in the back.  I wonder if they had a sale on green paint?

Slightly to the right of this (not pictured) was a sleeping person! I didn't venture further for any shots because I was startled to find someone sleeping on a bench there!

While waiting for our lunch, our waiter (who was from Russia but of Turkish descent) brought us some tanur bread with a sauce made of sour cream, spices, dill, and walnuts.

The bread was nice and spongy with a nice chew. I wish I could remember the name of this sauce which we really liked.

The chunkiness from the walnuts provided texture which I like. Here is a look at the underside of the bread (where you can also see my dry cracked thumb skin and the horrible nail polish job, ha ha). Although we liked the bread, we didn't eat too much of it, wanting to save some room for our actual "snacks"...

which was this spread right here...Now this was a lot of food!

We've had pelmeni before at The Village House Kalina, but I wanted to try this place's version. They were described on their menu as little meat filled raviolis. These were served with a side of yogurt and topped with butter, caramelized onion bits and a red pepper powder.

This was a lot of pelmeni with about thirty pieces on this plate.

Below was a salad (lightly dressed thank goodness) that was served with a Turkish offering...

called "Gozleme", a Turkish pancake. These were filled with spinach, feta, and mozzarella cheeses (although I couldn't detect any mozzarella in there). I like the look of these but the feta cheese was a deal breaker for me. I thought the flavor wouldn't be that strong, but it was, so therefore I only had a few bites before calling it quits.

Again, I wished I could remember the name of this side dip, which was served with the gozleme. Loved this dip.

On the menu was another item that we hadn't seen before, the Manti (rhymes with "panty" not "Manti" as in Manti Teo). It was served witha  squiggle of hot sauce and a side of yogurt.

We got the half order...

When looking up what Manti were online, I saw a picture of them but they looked like the pelmeni we were served here, tiny little raviolis. These were big steamed dumplings filled with beef and onions. Of the two types of dumplings we tried at Lezzet, we liked the Manti the best.

The dumpling skin was so soft and tender and the meat filling was finely minced.

I want to try these again, but with the full order.

Here is a cross section, or what I could get of one, of the tiny little pelmeni dumplings. There was too much dumpling skin to meat ratio. These must be a pain in the @$$ to make since they're so tiny. Lots of painstaking work to stuff and seal these.

I wanted to like the gozleme so much. I really liked the pan fried blistered skin and the way these looked. If I weren't so picky with cheeses, I wouldn't have this issue. Sigh.

Bert also had some Turkish coffee...

which was served in a cute tiny cup. He had it before at Soltan Banoo last year where it was served with the traditional serving pot. Not here though. The coffee towards the end was sludgy, which is expected.

The restaurant has only been open for four and a half months according to our server. He seemed amused by Bert's scant use of a few Russian phrases but at least he understood him! There was only two other customers that came in while we were here.

This restaurant seems to want to offer it all, Russian and Turkish food along with breakfast, kebab combos, tacos, sandwiches, burritos, soups and salads. Maybe in the hopes of pleasing a wide audience? I hope they find their stride here.

Lezzet Cafe
3586 Main St.
San Diego, CA 92113
(619) 756-7997

lezzetcafe.net

This place definitely deserves another visit. We'd like to have that manti again and perhaps try some dolmas and kabobs.  Even though it was next to a seedy place, I'm glad that we stopped by here.

Our day wasn't over yet...there were a few other places to explore on this beautiful sunny day!