Nalan Sultan Mediterranean Grill, Apopka

I tried this newish (7 months) Turkish restaurant in the red brick strip mall across from the Publix strip mall for lunch on Wednesday. It is on 436 where Altamonte Springs turns into Apopka. It was ok. I find that this type of cuisine is rarely very good and often very bad. I am satisfied if it is in the not very bad category. Like this place. I mean ground or cubed meat and bitter herbs can only aspire so far. Like geometric art. I had a ground meat (kofte) platter - lamb for $12 and a starter bowl of cacik - yogurt with mint, dill and cucumber for $6. Let's start with the cacik. How does 25 cents worth of watery yogurt justify a $6 price tag? Maybe it is the half a pita they serve with it or the essence of cucumber. Not that this was bad. It's just an industry wide outrage. It's a dip/side. It should be free or $2 max. But, I guess it is like trading with a team that has a poor minor league system. They over value the talent in their bare coffers. The lamb was ok. Four "thumb to middle finger" sized patties. Not much if any seasoning. Tough. Stringy. It came with "soggy to wet" rice, a salad of lettuce and parsley and a tiny cup of tzatziki. The soda came in a can and since they poured the contents into a glass, I'm not sure I got the whole can. The main issue (I think) is that the owner/cook is a one man band and looked disinterested/hung over. Let's hope it was an off day. The interior is pretty bare. The kitchen/grill is on the right in the back. Five or six light wood benches round out the rest of the room. They have some travel posters of Turkey on the wall. I'm not putting it in the "very bad" category because the other employee (owner's wife?) was nice about boxing up the large portion and she also gave another table's child some crayons to play with. Plus a few guys on the patio said they love the place. Plus the gyro meat wasn't pre-sliced. See I am not always so inflexible. The menu has the usual stuff plus four seafood options. Now the name may be an "in-sultan" comparison to Turkish royalty , but, I've seen and tasted alot worse around town. A step above a take out gyro place. A small step.