The Orange Line

Riding the V Line: A Turkish Oasis at Sip Sak

We’re riding the B and V from Coney Island all the way to Forest Hills, jumping off frequently to rave about our favorite restaurants and food stores near the subway.

This week’s location is 53rd and Lex, the V’s last stop in Manhattan. It’s delis and hotels everywhere you look, and it doesn’t get much better as you head east on 53rd Street. But hang a right on Second Avenue, and pop into Sip Sak, Orhan Yegen’s one-of-a-kind take on Turkish fast food.

How are you supposed to enjoy your lamb chops after all of this?haha

But is it really fast food? Celery root in olive oil, crispy böreks filled with bubbling goat cheese, vivid cold leeks and carrots — and that’s only the appetizers. Yegen, when he’s there, inevitably descends upon us with assurances of his greatness and the supremacy of Turkish food over all nationalities, but it’s the food that girds his spiel. As long as we’re eating that simple, perfect, ridiculously inexpensive food, we’re happy to nod in assent. Exhibit number two is the doner kebab, which, when served with Yegen’s hot yogurt sauce, is the only real rival to Yatagan’s lamby supremacy. And let us not forget the fine lamb chops and short ribs, which we managed gnaw on before we returned to the subway, sated and happy, with Yegen’s not-unjustified boasting ringing in our ears.



Related: ‘Dog Food!’ ‘Idiots!’ and Other Sweet Nothings From Orhan Yegen

Riding the V Line: A Turkish Oasis at Sip Sak