Black Sea Restaurant
Restaurant, Coffee/Tea/Juice
Hours
Profile
$ - inexpensive
Turkish
The Black Sea offers inexpensive Turkish cuisine in an informal environment in the Hamline University area
Black Sea Restaurant is a small deli but does have a sit-down portion with table service.
Vegetarian soups, appetizers, and dinners are clearly marked in separate sections on the menu. Vegan dishes are not, so it is best to ask if unsure.
Also offers Turkish coffee and tea.
Black Sea is cash-only.
Near intersection of Snelling and Minnehaha Avenues, 6-8 streets north of University Avenue. Metro Transit route 84.
- Quiet
Added by Armed with a Banana on Mar 4 05 (updated Oct 30)
Reviews
The owners are amazingly nice. I am a vegan and love this place. Everything tastes so good, you're full and it's super cheap.
The food here is incredible and the owners are even more incredible. They are so sweet and their food is so fresh. I can always count on a great meal here. It gets really busy at lunch time so stop in early or late to beat the rush. I highly recommend this cute little YUMMY place!
The falafel here is terrific! The prices are very reasonable, and quite a few things can be made vegan.
This is my new favorite restaurant. I love the food and the atmosphere. This is a very small restaurant, so I wouldn't plan on going to it with 10 of your closest friends during a regular mealtime, there have been several times that I have gone and there was nowhere to sit. There is also nowhere to wait for a table; I would gladly wait outside, only in the summer!
The food is very delicious and inexpensive. They also sell fun non-food items -- I bought my favorite bracelet here. I would especially recommend the soup. It's fantastic.
This is a tiny, cash-only hole-in-the-wall that almost makes you feel like you're somewhere in Turkey with the elaborate, and perhaps excessive, decorations and bead-curtains all over the place.
I came here around 1:30 p.m. on a Thursday and it was packed, though people steadily started clearing out. Be warned about this if you're looking to get a lunch table (there are only a few) at peak time.
I had a falafel sandwich ($4.65 without tax) combo which comes with fries. It was okay at best. Basically it was a white flour pita pocket stuffed with four or five falafel pieces, a few shreds of lettuce, and exactly one small slice of tomato. I felt kind of jipped on the ingredients. The lettuce and tomato were really low-grade, too, and completely flavorless.
The falafel pieces themselves were passable. My main gripes are that they were too soft and that the filling was not flavorful enough.
I don't like white flour pita so I wish they offered a whole wheat option. This particular pita wasn't very good either---too paper-y and chewy.
I give this place three stars instead of two because I liked the service and the low prices. The owner was a super-friendly guy who promptly greeted me upon entrance even though the place was bustling. I also like the Turkish coffee and tea which they serve in tiny glass cups.
On a whole, if you're looking for good falafel, my three top spots remain: Mim's (St. Paul); Abu Nader (St. Paul); and Loon Deli (Minneapolis).