Restaurant Review: Ilan, Homburg, Germany

Kaiserstrasse 1, Homburg
http://www.ilan-homburg.de

"Einfach gut essen" = simply good eating

When my friend and I took our trip to Homburg, we stopped by Ilan for lunch. We wandered a bit before finding a restaurant that looked good. I was wanting something with vegetables, and by vegetables, I mean vegetables, and not potatoes that are fried in one form or another or salad that was drenched in salad dressing (as most German salad seems to be).

We came upon Ilan and decided to give this Turkish restaurant a go. It has a really pleasant patio where we escaped the sun and placed our order. There is also a take-out section to the restaurant and they deliver, too.

We tried the Jasmin-Röllchen as an appetizer. They were little fried tubes of tastiness. Röllchen means little rolls. They were made of a phyllo type dough and filled with a cheese and parsley mix and fried. 

I ordered Pide, which is something between a pizza and flammkuchen, in my book. I chose the Peynirli Pide,
mit Schafskäse, Zwiebeln und Petersilie, according to the menu. In other words, it is the Pide with sheep's cheese, onions, and parsley. The crust was light and crispy, slightly similar to phyllo dough, and the onions and sheep's cheese were a nice complement to each other. It was served with a small salad...drenched in dressing. Sigh. I think I need to learn how to ask, auf Deutsch, to have the dressing "on the side." I don't think I've had a German salad yet that wasn't drenched in dressing. It makes the lettuce limp. Plus, I like to actually be able to taste the salad a bit. Despite this, the salad was not too bad.

See the dressing that has a little bit of salad with it?

My friend ordered the falafel plate with salad and pommes frites. She was disappointed to find that the falafel were the kind bought premade and frozen. I've had that kind before too and don't care for them. She thought the salad and fries were fine.

I would recommend the Pide, as it is quite good. The fried rolls were nice, too. Prices were reasonable (my Pide and roll came to 7.50 euro) and service was okay.