Astoria, Astoria Arrivals, Food and Drink, News, Restaurants
Apr 02, 2019

Turkish Restaurateur Orhan Yegen to Revamp Broadway with “Lokanta”

Here on the blog we’ve been speculating about what the trendy-looking space on Broadway (between 31st and 32nd St) is going to be—and we know the community has been too! (…)

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Here on the blog we’ve been speculating about what the trendy-looking space on Broadway (between 31st and 32nd St) is going to be—and we know the community has been too! We’ve been getting lots of comments and DM’s on social about it as well.

Well, we have an answer for you now: it’s going to be the latest restaurant project by eccentric, brilliant Turkish chef Orhan Yegen! It will be called Lokanta, which is the Turkish word for restaurant.

Yegen is well-known in the NYC food community for providing the best Turkish food around, even rivaling (or better than) being in the country itself. His Midtown East eatery, Sip Sak, was profiled by the New York Times last year, and Grub Street has highlighted what a character Yegan himself is.

Yegan told us he feels his restaurants are “my art, my culture…I’m an artist.” The menu will offer many vegetarian and gluten-free options (not on purpose, he assured us—that’s just natural for Turkish food), homestyle lamb dishes, and everything will be made fresh to order.

He said it will have a casual vibe, will be open for longer hours, and won’t be expensive.

He wasn’t able to give us an exact date, but said it should be opening sometime this week, so we will have to stop by in person asap! Update: Lokanta officially opened Thursday, 4/5.

Let us know if you make it and what your thoughts are! Definitely something new and different for the neighborhood.

9 Comments

Madalina Iamandi

Thankful for the existence of this wonderful place in my neighborhood.

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Kemal Dundar

The neighborhood is lucky to have him there. A lot of people will come from distance and visit his new adventure. Enjoy his food and presentation creations.

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Ibrahim Yazici

I think Mr Orhan Yegen will bring food quality and his amazing cooking skills to Astoria. And we should all benefit from it. So close to my house :))

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