Title: Lokanta
Author: jean komatsu
Last saved by: Owner

Lokanta (Turkish) in Pleasanton, CA – update, lunch
http://www.eatlokanta.com/-lunch.html
Review date: September 2014
(previous reviews appended below)

This is our fourth visit to Lokanta, with our last dinner in May 2014. We don't often come out here for lunch, but our first two choices turned out to be closed on Mondays, so we came back here. The menu is very similar between lunch and dinner.

Carlos ordered the avgolemono soup, which is shredded chicken and orzo pasta in a chicken broth perfectly balanced with lemon. He's fond of this soup, and Lokanta makes one of the better versions of it.

I had the beets salad (yes, the menu refers to it in the plural). This time it was all red beets – before it's been colorful layers of alternating red and yellow beets. The dressing is mild and piquant, a honey-balsamic. The greens are fresh, the chevre lightly dabbed on the plate. Nothing unusual, but well-executed and satisfying, a pleasure to eat on a summer's day.

For my entrée I picked the talas, chicken wrapped in filo with a curry-yoghurt sauce. The chicken is in good-sized shreds, with some chopped vegetables. It's in a giant triangular filo pastry, fried crisp and served in a creamy curry sauce. The latter was a little more piquant than usual, but I love yoghurt so that was fine with me. It's garnished with thin slices of raw green apple and sprinkled liberally with dried currants. It's a generous entrée, and something a little different than the usual Mediterranean menu offerings.

Carlos ordered the Greek Style Roasted Half Chicken, which is served with Greek Salad and roasted red potatoes. The chicken was a little overcooked as is so often typical, especially with that nasty super-salmonella that's been showing up lately, so better safe than sorry. It was heavily rubbed with an olive oil mix of fresh herbs, with a lot of rosemary and thyme. Carlos doesn't normally love rosemary, but he enjoyed the chicken and it was a good-sized plate. The Greek salad was a nice mix of kalamata olives, cucumber, onions and fresh crisp romaine shreds; he was very happy with it.

Lokanta is on Pleasanton's downtown Main St., less than ten minutes from the 580/680 interchange. There's a fair amount of parking behind the storefronts, similar to San Mateo but much less crowded overall. Like most of the restaurants here, it isn't a four-star standout, but it is steady and reliable, with excellent service. 

We find the food here to be consistent and a good value. You can't ask for more than that from what are really "neighborhood" style restaurants that happen to be grouped together for convenience, in a smart mix of cuisines and styles. More cities should think about doing this, rather than chasing the fancy names that are higher-priced and don't always serve the needs of locals so well.

Two people, lunch: two starters, two entrées, two beverages with tip was $80

Lokanta Mediterranean Grill in Pleasanton, CA – update, dinner
http://www.eatlokanta.com/--dinner.html 
Review date: May 2014
(previous review appended below)

Upon our return from Reno where we spent the weekend with our friends Mel and Christie, the four of us ended with dinner at Lokanta. We first ate here on January 2013, and enjoyed the food and cheerful service. I was looking forward to seeing if the return visit would be as good as the first. We've been disappointed lately in a few of our dinners; most recently Five/Berkeley slid so badly it fell off our "A" list after a listless, sloppy meal.

Lokanta is in Pleasanton's downtown, where there's been a fair amount of turnover over the last year and a half. Similar to the intelligent urban design of San Mateo but crossed with the free parking policy of Albany, the half-mile downtown area has meter-free parking lots located behind the street-facing shops on both sides. It isn't as convenient as Dublin's right-off-the-freeway strip malls, but one can park and walk easily here, something that's difficult even from inside Dublin's malls.

We started with the saganaki, the flaming Halloumi cheese dish, served here with sliced pear and tomato wedges. This is actually an American invention, credited to The Parthenon restaurant in Chicago's Greektown, from a customer's suggestion to owner Chris Liakouras back in 1968. The fresh bread goes well with this, as does the gratis dip of Turkish EVOO and chopped mixed olives that's brought to each table.

Both Carlos and Mel started with the avgolemono soup. Mel had to ask if there was any rice in it (she's allergic) but Lokanta uses orzo, the rice-sized pasta. We actually couldn't find any in the soup; it's possible they had been cooked long enough to disintegrate. The soup had a nice thickness that was wheat-based, not cornstarch-based. It was also rich with chicken flavor and lots of juicy shredded breast meat. The lemon flavor was bold but not overwhelming; it tasted like Meyers rather than the more acidic Eureka/Lisbon type. Many restaurants offer this soup, which is one of Carlos' favs. We consider Lokanta's to be one of the best versions around.

Mel opted for the braised beet salad. This is a stack of red and golden beets, alternating in a colorful tower. There's a small amount of mixed greens, slices of a fresh chevre log,  and a honey balsamic dressing. She took most of it home for lunch the next day, as her soup starter was very filling.

Christie chose the Talas entrée: chicken breast encased in filo pastry with apples, currants, and a coconut cream curry. She received an enormous triangular pastry of golden brown filo filled with tender chicken and chopped vegetables. It was topped with thin batons of crisp green apple. The coconut cream curry was delicious, spread on the plate underneath the pastry and scattered with currants. She gave us all a taste and we agreed it was exceptional. She loved the contrast of textures and flavors.

I chose the manti, the little meat dumplings beloved by all cultures throughout history. These triangular beauties aren't delicate like fine ravioli, but instead hearty and filling, more a homestyle dish. The slightly chunky tomato sauce goes well with the dumplings, but it's even better when you add generous spoonfuls of a side order of tzatziki, made with the lusciously thick labneh, incorrectly known in the U.S. as Greek yoghurt, mixed with fresh dill.

Carlos borrowed some of the tzatziki for his lamb kebabs. The kebabs were a perfect medium-rare as ordered, tender and savory with no need for gravy. The rice pilaf was dark brown, delicious with the lamb. There was an interesting side salad of shredded red cabbage, all of it complementing one another (especially with that luscious tzatziki). Originally it was correctly listed as cacik on the menu, but Lokanta has surrendered to the more widely-known Greek name for this side dip.

We ordered two desserts: the wonderful yoghurt me meni, unsweetened labneh with fresh fruits and nuts, lightly drizzled with honey. This time it could have used more honey, but we finished half of it off with pleasure. Christie took the rest of it home, as she loves to have yoghurt for breakfast.

Carlos ordered the khunefe, intrigued by the description of filo, sweet cheese, and rose syrup. We received a shallow round metal gratin, filled with a mild, mellow stringy cheese that was a cross between mozzarella and feta. It was generously topped with finely shredded filo pastry and then browned to melt the cheese. The syrup is poured over and absorbed by the filo. Not much syrup is used, so the dish is only a bit sweet. It's hard to scrape it out of the gratin, as the cheese sticks to the sides. 

The mix of softened and still-crisp filo shreds on top gives the dish an odd look, as if it were crabmeat. It's an unusual dessert, but Carlos and Christie decided they liked it after eating the first half of it. Mel was too full to eat any, and I had a few bites but decided I didn't care for it.

Carlos ordered coffee with dessert, and he and I both had iced tea with dinner.

We enjoyed Lokanta. It was wonderful to see that the restaurant is maintaining its quality and value in these expensive (for wholesale food) times. Our waitress was young but cheerful and quite efficient; it was a pleasure to enjoy the more relaxed, less pretentious service compared to Reno's Charlie Palmer and Sterlings.

Around here, restaurants don't stay open late. We were fortunate to get in early enough to be served – although we closed them down, the last diners to leave.

No prices this time; Mel and Christie picked up the check. Thanks to both of them for a great finish to a fun trip!

Lokanta
443 Main St., Pleasanton, CA
http://www.eatlokanta.com/--dinner.html
Review date: January 2013

On February 2012 we had a very good dinner with our friend Mel at Agora Bistro in downtown Pleasanton. But before we could make a return visit, Agora announced it was closing.

The location didn't stay empty for very long. Almost immediately the Chronicle's Inside Scoop announced that a Turkish restaurant named Lokanta would take over the space. One of our mutual friends subsequently tried Lokanta and reported they were very pleased with it. As they are Turkish and severe critics of most Bay Area Turkish places, their positive review pushed it up on our list to try. We invited Mel and Christie to join us for dinner.

The space hasn't changed at all from what we recall. A long open kitchen occupies approximately one-third of the rectangular space. It's a handsome older building, with the brick walls giving the interior a warm and welcoming feel. They don't cram in the tables, which is always appreciated. 

The menu isn't large but it's very similar, although not identical, to the old Agora menu. They bring a basket of fine-crumbed, tender bread slices to start, with a great dipping sauce of Turkish olive oil, chopped green olives, capers and garlic. 

Lokanta offers the 'flaming cheese' starter, which neither Mel nor Christie had ever tried before. It's a showy presentation and a lot of fun. Lokanta uses a small square of hellumi cheese, along with wedges of sauteed Bartlett pear and Roma tomato halves, set afire with ouzo. It's excellent with the fresh bread.

They had a starter special of the zucchini pancakes, the mucver we love so much at Zatis/Oakland. Their mucver are not quite up to Zatis' level, but the tzatziki is outstanding, much better than not only Zatis but most of their competitors. The yoghurt is rich and mild, very thick and creamy. All of us love tzatziki, and Mel and Christie enjoyed their introduction to this traditional Turkish vegetable patty.

We appreciated the waitress asking how we wanted the starters to come, when we placed our orders. Carlos chose an additional course of the beet salad, which he had separately after we finished the hellumi cheese and mucver. Fresh sweet slices of alternating yellow and red beets were stacked high in two mini-towers, with mixed greens in a honey mustard dressing alongside. A couple of slices of soft chevre and some halved cherry tomatoes completed a beautiful plate. 

Happily, it tasted just as good as it looked. This was sized big enough for two people to share. As Carlos gave generous tastes of everything to us, quantity-wise this worked out very well. It should be noted the menu lists it as "braised beets salad", but it's more likely they just meant 'cooked'.

Mel chose the musakka, which she had also eaten at the Agora dinner. It was very tasty, and is a slightly different version than Agora's kitchen made. Agora used a bechamel for the top layer, while Lokanta uses mashed potatoes. The neat square sits in a pool of bright red tomato sauce, much more attractive than the usual pale-topped square on an empty white plate.

Christie picked a skirt steak, which was grilled to a medium rare, served with mashed potatoes and a red wine-peppercorn sauce. She really liked this dish, which had a slightly different seasoning to the steak. 

Carlos chose the lamb kebabs, which he asked for on the rare side. They took him at his word, serving it very rare. Although he actually prefers the stronger taste of New Zealand lamb, the U.S. lamb was mild and tender, of very good quality. It was served with a rice pilaf, so we flagged one of the waitstaff down to ask for a side order of the tzatziki, for Carlos and me to share on our entrees.

I picked the manti, the ubiquitous meat dumplings that are found from China to Italy. Lokanta chunks up baby vegetables into the tart tomato sauce, and adding the tzatziki made the dish perfect (and a couple of slices of bread helped sop up all the sauce – yummy!).

Three of us decided to have dessert, while Carlos contented himself with coffee. I chose the Turkish apricots filled with yoghurt cheese and rolled in chopped pistachios. Expecting to get rehydrated dried fruit, I was surprised to receive six fresh small apricots, neatly pitted and filled with yoghurt cheese. Although apricots aren't in season – the dish will be much better when they are – this was a refreshing dessert that I liked very much.

Christie had the baklava, which came in three small squares with a generous layer of chopped toasted nuts. Baklava is never sweet enough for Carlos (he likes his dripping with honey) but the rest of us thought this was a superior version. 

Mel received the best dessert, the yoghurt with honey. The square of yoghurt cheese was much bigger than any of us expected, tasting like a fabulous cheesecake without the sugar. It was lightly drizzled with honey, and topped with a generous amount of mixed fresh berries and toasted walnuts and almonds. This is one of the best versions of this dessert any of us have ever had, and all of us loved it.

Service was cheerful and efficient, even as the tables filled up on a Friday evening. We liked Agora and were sorry to see it close, but Lokanta is a worthy replacement. All four of us want to return to work our way through the menu, and hope that yoghurt-honey dessert remains on the menu permanently!

Four people, dinner: three starters, four entrees, three desserts, three beverages, with tip was $188 – very reasonable for such a well-executed, satisfying meal.