Telva at The Ridge

Experience at Telva at The Ridge

Telva at The Ridge is a bit of a hike for me, about 15 minutes across town to Old Webster. I got there at 10:30 on a Friday and it was packed. There were like five tables open at 10:30 on a Friday.

I tried coming a month ago at 10 on a Saturday, and that did not work. It was a 20 or 30 minute wait. So you got to come at off hours if you don't want to wait.

You order at the front, they assign you a table after you order, and you go sit down. Very similar to Balkan Treat Box in that regard, which is the spiritual sister of this restaurant. Same owners, same kind of food.

I think part of the reason the line is so long is they only have one cash register. Give them two and the line would go more than twice as fast. That's my theory anyway.

Once you order, though, the service is incredibly fast. They got the food out in less than five minutes. I went to pee, sat down, opened my computer up, and the food was there.

Tip: The parking lot is across the street, and it can be a little hard to find.

Even with all that, I'd come back in a heartbeat. It's worth the drive across town.

Food at Telva at The Ridge

It was just me, so I got the Cilbir. Turkish eggs.

Cilbir - $15

It's two eggs over medium in a whole bunch of tomato and herb flavoring with garlic yogurt. It honestly brings me back to my Ali Nazik days, my favorite dish from a Turkish restaurant back in Raleigh-Durham. One of my favorite dishes ever, and this is in the same vein.

The tomato-yogurt combo is what does it for me. You can taste the herbs in every bite, and the yogurt mellows out the tomato. It's nice and roasted, so it has an extra roasted flavor to it, while the yogurt adds fat and fullness to each bite.

I left no sauce, yogurt, or anything edible behind. It's delicious. Totally full of flavor.

My really only complaint was I wish I had more. An extra piece of bread and maybe an extra egg would have sealed the deal. The portion size is big, but I'm on Ozempic and I still wasn't full after eating it.

I'd call this much more brunch food than breakfast food for most people. It's got a whole ton of flavor, way more than your standard eggs and potatoes.

But it's expensive, $15 with a platter. Tax and tip, just myself, it was over $20. That's a lot for breakfast food, honestly a lot for lunch food too.

Somun - $3 apiece

You get Balkan Treat Box's bread here. Instead of being a giant pita, it comes in little mini form, like a small, mostly English-muffin-shaped version of their pita.

And I love that stuff. It's really, really good.

They give you one piece on the side, and you dip as you please. If it was chopped up and toasted and in the dish itself, that would be Ali Nazik.

I ordered three extra orders to go at $3 apiece. That was actually kind of stupid. They're not big enough to justify the extra $3, so $9 total was just totally not worth it.

But I'm going to bring my wife back for them anyway. They're very good. I could go eat the bread right now.

Telva at The Ridge Atmosphere

You walk in and it's big and open. It almost feels like the inside of a wooden cabin, big open floor plan with almost like an A-frame. It's an interesting building there in Old Webster.

And it fills up. I got here mid-morning on a Friday and it was already pretty much full in there.

One heads up: the entrance is in the back of the building, away from where you park.

Parking At Telva at The Ridge

Parking is actually a little bit difficult here because it's so crowded. There's not a lot of street parking, but they do have a parking lot across the street that you can look for. It can be a little bit hard to find. You park out on the other street.

Telva at The Ridge Receipt