Vine Leaf Of Istanbul, Gillygate, York.

ONLY a few weeks ago, while on an Eating Out expedition to Mamma Mia, I was enthusing about Gillygate's cosmopolitan range of eating places, and noted that this ever-changing street now boasted a bit of a novelty for York, a Turkish restaurant.

Now, unless you count the odd late-night kebab outlet with delusions of grandeur, I can safely say I've not set foot in such a place before, so was curious to find what dining Turkish-style involved.

The Vine Leaf Of Istanbul occupies the ground floor of a guesthouse, the Barclay Lodge Hotel, with brightly-coloured boards outside to entice passers-by with promises of forthcoming belly dancing, bazouki-twanging theme nights.

No bellies in sight as we arrived, though, apart from the gurgling of our own impatient gastric juices.

Inside, we discovered the restaurant is a pleasant, open, wooden-floored room with front windows overlooking the Gillygate evening gridlock, a bar and a back conservatory where the last of the evening sun was indeed coming through the leaves of vines across the roof, while the music did a valiant job of trying to evoke the exotic Mediterranean.

We were warmly welcomed by a friendly host - who as he was the only member of staff we saw, I assume was the proprietor, particularly given his keenness that we enjoyed our evening.

One other couple were dining as we arrived, and as the evening wore on, a steady trickle of guests suggested this restaurant is already attracting curious diners - and working hard to keep them.

The menu offers a good range of mezes - starters or side dishes, mostly priced at £3 or less, including salads, cheese, meat and seafood dishes, and then jumps to the main courses from around £10, including some straightforward steaks and fish for the English palate as well as the Mediterranean dishes.

Our host recommended the house speciality, a selection of mezes for two people for £15 each, but in the interests of research we decided to opt for different starters and main courses.

While we studied the menu, we ordered a litre of a pleasant house red (£11.90), and were brought generous complementary supplies of pitta bread, houmous, olives and pickles to munch on while we waited - not that we were kept waiting long.

I opted for the Antep Ezme (£2.50), a spicy mixture of peppers, tomatoes, garlic and olive oil, with salad. It had the remarkable property of being cool and fresh on the tongue at first, and then seconds later the fearsome spices made your eyes water.

My partner, Vix, went for the Dolma (£3), a hefty pepper stuffed with mince and rice, with salad and as an extra touch, little parcels of mince in vine leaves. Both starters were excellent and filling.

Unfortunately, such was our host's desire to impress that before the starters had even begun to digest, the main courses arrived hot on their heels.

And when I say hot, I mean piping hot. Vix's lamb guvec (£10.90) - appropriately enough for a Lancashire-born lass - was basically a hotpot of meat and vegetables, including courgettes, carrots and whole lumps of garlic, which was veritably steaming as it arrived. When it cooled down enough to approach without injury, she pronounced it very good.

My mixed kebab (£11.90) could have fed an army. Forget any images of soggy pitta bread and meat of dubious origin, this was a vast plate of rice and salad with generous chunks of chicken, lamb and kofte.

The only drawbacks were that following on so soon from the starter, I was soon flagging, and secondly, the lamb was so gorgeous it overshadowed the rest of the dish, making the other meat taste bland by comparison.

Stuffed, we decided to forego pudding - and as the menu just cryptically mentioned 'a selection from the fridge', maybe no-one has ever had room for pudding anyway.

Even so, when our host brought the bill, he also brought tasty Turkish Delight and invited us to sample two complementary liqueurs, lemon and coffee flavour.

The total damage was £40.20, for two people, including wine, but without desserts.

The Vine Leaf is well worth investigating - different, yet friendly and accessible, and most importantly, the food is good and plentiful. Good luck to them.

Vine Leaf Of Istanbul, Gillygate, York. Telephone: 01904 633274.

Fact File

Food: very good

Service: friendly

Value: loads for your money

Ambience: pleasant

Disabled access: No