Turka Café/Meze/Bar
4-6 Willoughby Rd
Crows Nest, Sydney
You will find Turka right on the corner of the highway and Willoughby Rd – the hub of the Crows Nest eateries. There’s a heated outdoor seating area but we choose a table inside. What a warm and inviting place this is – cosy, charming furnishings, Turkish lamps and friendly staff!
The menu offers homemade dips and starters, hot and cold meze items, char-grilled meats and a range of salads. It all sounds so delicious we opt for the Chef’s Selection Tasting menu, which has a bit of everything. A nice glass of Turkish white and red wine starts us on our culinary journey.
The first platter to arrive was the cold selection. It was an impressively arranged and colourful array of five delicious dips and a bread basket, mixed olives, cheese-filled capsicum, smoked aubergine, marinated baby artichokes and finger dolma (stuffed vine leaves). Everything tasted wonderful and there was so much of it. Dame M loved the aubergine with its smokey flavour and Dame T couldn’t decide which of the dips was her favourite. We enjoyed them all.
The cold meze was followed quickly by a plate of the Cyprus Honey Halloumi – grilled cheese with a Turkish honey drizzle. This was a sweet cheesy delight to the senses.
The hot meze and char grill platter was accompanied by the Divan Spinach Beetroot salad, which was topped with toasted hazelnuts. It was a great and tasty combination. The meat platter was super impressive too. Turkish pan-fried chorizo, tiger prawns with paprika and chilli butter sauce, Iskenderun falafels, Turka chiken (marinated and char-grilled), Sultan’s Lamb with dip and pickle accompaniments! They all tasted as good as they looked. We couldn’t finish it all but we loved every bite.
A shared dessert was in order – the “dessert of the day” was a baked cheesy pudding topped with vanilla ice cream. A bit outside the norm but it was surprisingly moreish. The hot, melted cheese was blended with crispy threads which were sweetened nicely by the ice cream. Yum!
We will definitely be coming back to Turka and would recommend the Chef’s Selection Tasting Menu. It represents great value at $39 per head and includes a lovely range of treats. They are open 7 days for breakfast, lunch, dinner and drinks.
Those Dames dined as guests of Turka. Special thanks to owner Alex Buharali for the great hospitality. Thanks also to Hayley for looking after us on the night. Big thanks as as well to the crew at Omptymedia.com for the invitation.