Masa Restaurant; Istenye Park Shopping mall (Istanbul, Turkey)

This is going to sound strange to you; but one of my objectives of the day was to go to Banana Republic to buy t-shirts. Yes, you heard right. Banana Republic makes amazingly soft and yet rugged t-shirts. Since we do not get them in Asia or Europe, and we read that there was one in Istanbul. Banana Republic was our first stop of the day.


The Banana Republic (where they had a men's section) was at the ultra-stylish Kanyon shopping mall. Harvey Nichols was also in this shopping mall. I was delighted to find out that there was a sale on t-shirts at Banana Republic. So, I bought several. Then our next stop was the ultra chic and 'IN' shopping mall at the moment in Istanbul. It is called Istenye Park. Its amazing, it seemed like every beautiful and rich person of Istanbul was at this shopping mall. Its tha place to be seen and show-off.


After walking around for a while. It was time for lunch and we decided to eat where the beautiful and chic Istanbulers were eating. The restaurant is called Masa and it reigns as the center point of the outdoor shopping mall. We wanted to eat in the al-fresco terrace but it was packed and had a long waiting list. However, the inside of the restaurant was empty (I guess because you cannot be seen or show off from the inside). We did not mind because it was getting hot and it cooler inside the restaurant.


The first dish was grilled lamb salad. This was a very tasty dish. So, simple but hearty and filling.


The second dish was minced lamb kebabs. I can eat hundreds of these things. They were grilled very nicely. Every bite was full of spices and herbs.


The third dish was grilled lamb chops. Grilled very nicely. The lamb was tender and juicy. Did not need any sauce with this dish because the lambs were already so tasty.


This is the very busy terrace that we could not get a sit. I was very sceptical at first that a place like this could make such good food. Just because of the sheer size of the place and the amount of people. I just assumed this would be a factory that made mediocre food. But, I was proven wrong. It was very good.