Restaurant Review: Pera Wine and Tapas

Our waitress couldn’t contain her excitement. “Oooooh, Turkish wine. I love it. It goes so well with our food. I may have to have a glass with you,” she said with a wink. True to her words, the bottle of Yakut red paired perfectly with chef and owner Habip Kargin’s Mediterranean fare. Both were approachable with a hint of spice. This is Kargin’s second Far North Dallas restaurant; he also owns Pera Turkish Kitchen. His latest fills a void in a neighborhood full of chain and fast food options. In fact, the new Pera is in the shell of an old Taco Bueno. Happily, Kargin’s food exorcises the ghosts of grande burritos past. The menu is neatly divided into two halves by price ($6 and $12). The $6 tapas were smaller and easy to share. Pachanga borek—Turkish pastrami wrapped in a flaky phyllo—and a seared duck salad with baby kale and peaches were gobbled up quickly. Alas, the octopus carpaccio disappointed with its tiny flecks of chewy meat. The larger $12 tapas were tough to share but worth the effort. Shrimp kadayif featured plump shrimp baked in a shredded wheat-like crust and bathed in a fragrant stew of chorizo, orange, and chickpeas. An overly chewy apple baklava ended the meal on a not-so-sweet note. But by that point, we were already on to our second bottle of Turkish red and toasting Kargin’s latest success.