Turkish Delight

When we lived in Edinburgh, there were two things we used to enjoy about our visits to London (apart from visiting all our friends obviously) - Dim Sum and Turkish food, both of which were sorely lacking in our hometown. Since moving to Singapore, we've had Dim Sum a-plenty, but we hadn't yet ventured into any Turkish restaurants.

Well, all that changed on Friday evening, as we made our way up to the Arab Quarter and settled into a table at the cozy Alaturka restaurant on Bussorah St. Unable to make a decision on the starters, we opted for the Mixed Mezze plate which came served with Lavash, their 'balloon bread with sesame seeds'. We were slightly disappointed with the mezze - the aubergine in tomato was delicious and their dolmades were pretty good, but nothing else stood out and half of it went back to the kitchen (partly because our main courses arrived before we were even half way through the starter and there was no more room on the table!)



All was forgiven once the main courses arrived. We had chosen the Karisik Kebab, which was a combination kebab (lamb, kofta, chicken breast, chicken drumstick), served on an enormous copper platter, with chillis, rice, vegetables and salad. It was truly awesome, every mouthful was heavenly... the meat had been perfectly cooked and the accompaniments were also delicious.



Alongside the kebab, we had also ordered our old favourite, Imam Bayaldi - stuffed aubergine. Again, this was absolutely to-die-for, with its filling of tomato, herbs, onions and pine nuts (and what else, I'm not sure - I was too busy wolfing it down to take too much notice). Both dishes were also served with little candles underneath to keep the plates hot, which we thought was a nice touch.



We took a little wander afterwards to see what other potential dinner spots we could find, but to be honest it will be hard to see past Alaturka (although obviously for research purposes we will need to try a few others also!)

We left this restaurant very satisfied, and very excited to have found such a great Turkish restaurant... in the city we live in... no more visits to London to get our fix...

Alaturka - http://www.alaturka.com.sg/