Istanbul Hawaii

Istanbul Hawaii reviews from people who’ve dined at this restaurant. Based on recent rating.

Review summary

1. C

   Christine

   Hawaii3 reviews

   5.0

   Dined 2 days ago

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 5

   Always consistently good! Wagyu Shish (first husband ordered, usually goes for the lamb) was excellent! Also, first time trying the labne with dukkah. SO good!
   

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2. M

   Me VIP

   Hawaii16 reviews

   5.0

   Dined 2 days ago

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 4
   4. Ambience 4

   Istanbul is an amazing restaurant food is great it’s always one of our favorites for special occasions
   

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3. C

   Colleen

   San Diego2 reviews

   5.0

   Dined 2 days ago

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 5

   Istanbul is without a doubt one of our favorite restaurants on the island. We’ve been a handful of times and always thoroughly enjoy our food and the service!
   

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4. C

   Christine

   San Diego45 reviews

   3.0

   Dined 2 days ago

   1. Overall 3
   2. Food 3
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 5

   I love the ambiance and the service! Our waiter was amazing. Food was ok in my opinion. Maybe because I had better Mediterranean food. My lamb sish was overcooked. The only thing that I love from our dinner was the sourdough bread and the hummus and other dip. Their cocktails were ok. I feel the food could have been better. We came here to celebrate a bday.
   

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5. S

   Susan

   Hawaii1 review

   5.0

   Dined 3 days ago

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 5

   Food and service were great as always! Don’t miss Meze platter and Kunefe!!!!
   

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6. H

   Holly

   Hawaii7 reviews

   5.0

   Dined 4 days ago

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 5

   Lovely relaxing lunch. Too many good options so I need to go back more often because the food is delicious
   

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7. M

   M

   Hawaii1 review

   3.0

   Dined 5 days ago

   1. Overall 3
   2. Food 1
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 5

   Hot honey chicken wrap contained burnt, hard pieces of chicken. It really shouldn't have been served. Pitas were good, but not enough vegetables and chicken for the price of $22 for a wrap. Honestly, an overrated restaurant. I see lot of good reviews, however I didn't enjoy my food with my first visit.
   

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8. J

   Joe

   Hawaii1 review

   2.0

   Dined 7 days ago

   1. Overall 2
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 1
   4. Ambience 4

   Generally our experience is great, but we brought family with tonight and had a poor service experience. TL;DR: Our waiter was slow to refill drinks, lacked expertise or recommendations for our guests with the menu, lacked knowledge about the wine offerings, and forgot a drink order. Overall disappointed in the service tonight for a restaurant at this price point. My wife and I order from the planet based menu when we are there (which is awesome), but our family does not. It was clear that they had not been here before and our server let them struggle with the menu before we asked if he could make some suggestions as they have not been here before and we generally don’t order form the main menu. Our family was also looking for wine options as well and when asking if they had a wine available the server said, “No” and just moved on with orders. We had to ask him if he had any recommendations or similar type tastes to what they were asking for. It was clear that he had little to no experience with the wine selections. Later in the evening, we had noticed that our drinks had been empty for some time and I was finally able to flag him down and ask for another drink. A while later he comes out asking about dessert and we ask for a menu. We order and more time passes before I am able to ask if I’ll be able to get this drink before the dessert arrives. He then apologizes as he forgot what I had ordered. He then lets me know that they are out if that drink tonight. By this time the dessert is about to arrive and makes it poor time to order another drink. We had a similar experience with our dessert— after ordering he returned after some time to inform us that the dessert wasn’t plant based. He left us with no time to order anything else to arrive with the other food and offered no additional recommendations. Overall was a poor service experience for a $300+ bill.
   

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9. OT

   OpenTable Diner

   Portland1 review

   5.0

   Dined on 23 March 2025

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 5

   Definitely something unique and fresh. Must try!!!
   

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10. R

    Renee

    Hawaii1 review

    5.0

    Dined on 23 March 2025

    1. Overall 5
    2. Food 5
    3. Service 4
    4. Ambience 5

    The food was delicious. We all had a good time. There were 8 of us in the party. Although, the server forgot 2 baklava orders of desert and the crem brulee was unavailable that night, we still had a lovely experience and Istanbul made my son's birthday memorable.
    

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