Some dishes belong to a restaurant the way a song belongs to the voice that made it famous. Other people can sing it. Other kitchens can cook it. But there is a version that is the version, and if you know, you know. At Café Izmir on Lower Greenville, that dish is the grilled lamb chops.
The Nazary family opened Café Izmir in 1996, in a small room at 3711 Greenville Ave. that still feels more like someone’s living room than a restaurant. The recipes come from Mama Nazy, and they draw on generations of Persian, Turkish, Lebanese and Greek cooking. There are colorful Turkish lanterns over the bar and handmade plates on the walls, and on a good night the room is loud and warm and full of people who have been eating here for 20 years. Café Izmir does not try to impress you. It just feeds you, and it has been doing it long enough that the regulars do not bother looking at the menu anymore.
The Grilled Lamb Chops are the reason a lot of them stopped looking. An order is about a pound of bone-in chops, usually three or four depending on the cut, grilled over high heat until the outside is charred and the inside is still pink and tender. They come with grilled vegetables and a baked sweet potato, and that is all they need. The lamb is marinated in the kitchen’s own blend and seasoned the way Persian cooks have been seasoning lamb for centuries, simply and with respect for what the meat already is. There is no glaze, no reduction, no foam. It is lamb, fire and salt, and the fat renders just enough to make the edges crisp while the center stays juicy.
They are the most expensive thing on the menu at $39.95, and they are worth every dollar. In a city full of restaurants trying to reinvent the lamb chop with truffle butter and pomegranate dust, Café Izmir just grills it the way it has always been grilled and lets you eat it with your hands if you want to. Nobody will judge you. The bones are half the pleasure.
While you are there, do not skip the start of the meal. The Izmir Hummus is a blend of tahini, garbanzo, garlic, dairy and olive oil, and it has won Best Hummus in Dallas more times than the family keeps track of. Order it with a round of Hot Pita Bread, which comes out soft and puffy and warm. The Hummus Kawarma takes the same hummus and tops it with roasted lamb, feta and pico, and it is a meal in itself. The Beef Piroshki, a crispy lavash roll stuffed with beef and goat cheese, is the other thing everybody orders, and the Pomegranate Shrimp, sautéed in white wine with a garlic pomegranate sauce, is the best seafood on the menu.
If you want to do it right, order the Dinner for Two, which lets you choose three meats and three sides from the full tapas menu. Add the lamb chops for an upcharge and build the rest of the plate around them. Finish with Baklava, thin layers of phyllo with crushed walnuts, rose water and honey, and a cup of Turkish Coffee made with milk and sugar. The coffee is strong enough to keep you up, and it is served in a small cup that makes you slow down, which after a meal like this is exactly what you should do.
Tuesdays are worth knowing about. The kitchen runs a half-off wine deal all night, and on a good Tuesday Café Izmir feels less like a restaurant and more like a dinner party you were lucky enough to get invited to.
There is an enclosed patio for cooler nights and the dining room for everything else. The Nazary family still runs the place, and they still cook from Mama Nazy’s recipes. Some things in Dallas keep changing. This one has not needed to.
Café Izmir is at 3711 Greenville Ave. It serves dinner daily from 4:30 to 10 p.m. Call (214) 826-7788 or reserve through SevenRooms.
