Ephesus Mediterranean Grill

Ephesus is the kind of restaurant where the first impression is misleading. Its atmosphere is peculiar, and its appetizers can be shaky, but dig deeper to reveal a kitchen turning out delightful Turkish comfort foods. The best starter choice is a sample platter of meze, the small dishes and dips that introduce a traditional Middle Eastern meal: a huge platter of unusually thick, garlicky hummus; baba ghannoush (eggplant dip); a dip of diced feta cheese bound together by paprika; minty stuffed grape leaves; and pita bread still smoky from the oven.Keeping it simple is good advice for the main courses, too. That means kebabs, like iskender kebab, a genuine pile of beef-lamb mixture, carved off the rotisserie and served under a tomato-based sauce. Another dish just waiting for Americans to fall in love with it is beyti kebab. This one’s a regular beef kebab skewer wrapped in a tortilla-like flatbread and doused in both spicy tomato sauce and tzatziki.