A Review of Efes Mediterranean Grill, in Princeton EFES MEDITERRANEAN GRILL is the kind of restaurant everyone wants in the neighborhood, with a simple, satisfying menu, bargain prices and hours of operation that extend until midnight. Efes's arrival in Princeton in February means that Middle Eastern classics are available after many other restaurants have turned out the lights. And those classics, including a $4 bowl of Turkish lentil soup and a $13 lamb and okra casserole over rice, were solidly good on two visits I made on weekend evenings. Some - lamb chops, branzino and dorado from the grill - were very good. And only a couple - a poorly chopped tabbouleh and an overly sweet baklava - were left on the plate. Bilal Bodur and his brothers, Celal and Ekrem, opened the restaurant after eyeing the town for 10 years. They honed their game at their first restaurant, also Efes, in New Brunswick, which they opened in 2001, Bilal Bodur said in a phone conversation after my visits. In Princeton, Efes, though a full-service restaurant, has a fast-food feel: harsh lighting, a massive drinks cooler, clunky furniture and a combination dessert counter and cash register station. This is made more pronounced by an on-again, off-again stream of takeout customers who must make their way to the back of the room and stand around behind seated diners near the corridor to the restroom while their orders are filled. But enough grousing. The food at Efes is worth the bother. Ingredients are fresh; recipes are traditional. The brothers are originally from the city of Giresun, on the Black Sea in Turkey, from which they emigrated with their family as children, said Mr. Bodur, who has worked in Turkish restaurants since 1992. Standout starters (salads, soups and appetizers) included a generously portioned shepherd salad that would have been sublime if New Jersey's juiciest, most flavorful tomatoes had been used along with the mix of cucumbers, onion, parsley and feta, instead of the rather hard and mostly taste-free ones that were in my portion. Others, in addition to the aforementioned Turkish lentil soup, included a small plate of hot fried pancakes made with mashed zucchini, scallions and dill, and also a small plate of dark brown falafel, hot and crisp on the outside, steaming and tender inside. The hors d'oeuvres platter, which comes in small or large, turned out to be a collection of cold appetizers, generously portioned even in the small version and separated from one another by slices of those extremely firm tomatoes. It included a classic hummus, with chickpeas, lemon, tahini and garlic; little cubes of fried eggplant mixed with a tomato sauce; baba ghanouj, with mashed eggplant and garlic; spinach with yogurt, sour cream and walnuts; mashed fresh tomatoes with walnuts and onion; white kidney beans cooked with scallions and tomatoes; and yogurt mixed with cucumber and dill. As for main dishes, the stars were three charcoal-grilled items: domestic lamb chops, beautiful to see, with a dark brown exterior opening to reveal a perfectly cooked interior; and two whole fish, a sweet branzino and its equal, a dorado, both served with salad. The aforementioned lamb and okra casserole, basic and satisfying on its own, hinted at other possibilities for meals that might center on lamb and are on my list to try. Two chicken dishes were less interesting. The first, a charcoal-grilled chicken wrap, chosen from a selection of nine sandwiches, was essentially a green salad with tender pieces of marinated and grilled chicken, rolled into a wheat tortilla and held in place by foil. The second was an oddly flavored grilled kebab - think of a chicken meatball flavored with red bell pepper. The three desserts available on the nights I visited were house-made, Mr. Bodur said, and apart from that tooth-jarringly sweet baklava, they were keepers: kadayif, browned and shredded phyllo dough layered with nuts, and sobiyet, a custardlike sweet given structure with phyllo and flavored with pistachio. And, of course, there is Turkish coffee. Order it sweet or not - the good news is that you can order it. Efes Mediterranean Grill 235B Nassau Street Princeton (609) 683-1220 efesgrill.com THE SPACE Full-service restaurant with a fast-food atmosphere. Seats 24 inside and 15 outdoors on the sidewalk when weather permits. Wheelchair accessible, but the space is tight. THE CROWD Noisy and casual, with many children on my visits. Servers are accommodating. THE BAR Bring your own beer or wine. THE BILL Main dishes, $8.50 to $24. MasterCard, Visa, American Express and Discover accepted. WHAT WE LIKED Shepherd salad; lentil soup; hummus; mixed eggplant; baba ghanouj; ezme (mashed tomatoes with walnuts); eggplant salad; spinach with yogurt, sour cream and walnuts; zucchini pancakes; falafel; lamb chops; dorado; branzino; kadayif; sobiyet; Turkish coffee. IF YOU GO Open seven days, 11 a.m. to midnight. There is some parking behind the building, as well as on the street. Reservations are accepted only for parties of more than 10 people.