We took my in-laws here for lunch because my mother in-law loves the restaurant; it has a homely…read moreatmosphere with Turkish souvenirs on the wall. I think that the relaxed atmosphere and that it is quiet on Saturday is one of the reasons why my mother-in-law likes it. The menu is not extensive but covers all the main Turkish dishes and even had something for my fussy brother-in-law - the hamburger and chips. That satisfied him. The Turkish bread comes out of the oven, is cut up and brought straight to the table - we kept on going back for another basket of it. Apart from my brother-in-law who just ate the plain bread (it is tasty enough). The rest of us enjoyed the Turkish bread with the two large humus and carrot dips. My mother-in-law likes the chicken kebab but I prefer the doner kebab covered in yogurt and a tomato sauce. All of the dishes come with salad and rice with pine nuts except for the hamburger and chips - I can't imagine my brother-in-law eating salad. And the cost of the meal and keeping the in-laws happy was very reasonable.

My family is Turkish. We cook Turkish Food. My parents own a kebab shop. My mum's cooking is…read morefantastic. There you go - my biases are on the table! I never like going to Turkish restaurants. I find my versions of everything to be much more interesting, and generally, Turkish restaurants are lazy. A bit of yoghurt, a bit of garlic and throw in a random vegetable - voila! A Turkish dip. Zzzzzzzzzzz So my hopes weren't very high. I have learnt to keep my expectations pared down. Well, I can reveal that this is the best Turkish restaurant I have ever been to. We walked in at about 12:30 on a Saturday and there was no one in there. The baker was there and he gave us a table and told us someone would be out shortly after giving us some menus and telling us he was still baking. We ordered some Turkish beer (clean, crisp, fresh), a couple of dips and a couple of mains and a potato salad. It was all to die for! The capsicum dip is the nicest dip I have eaten in my life. I don't know what was in it apart from the roasted capsicum, but I wanted to lick the plate. The beetroot dip was a very good version. The very lovely lady who appeared to be the owner and our waitress was just sublime and she threw in a smoky eggplant dip for free. This too was divine, as was the potato salad. The mains we got were the Turkish pizza and an iskender. The Turkish pizza was paper thin and beautifully crisp - beautifully flavoured. The iskender was an excellent version - the bread was beautiful. I have to say, this place is more expensive than your average crap Turkish place on Sydney Road, and the serves are smaller, but it is fantastic. I would highly recommend it. (when we paid, the lady gave us a piece each of her home made Turkish delight - OMG!!!)

Great authentic Turkish food. Location isn't the best but it's worth it for the food. I've always…read morehad attentive servers. They do take away as well and last time hey offered me a free cup of Turkish tea with my main. If you've never had a full Turkish breakfast I highly recommend you go try it and order several things on the menu sit back and take it easy. You'll be there for hours if done properly. Love the tea pots they bring out to the table too, it's clear to see they are authentic Turkish cooks cooking up authentic Turkish food.

Tulum is a hidden gem in a rough neighbourhood. Though Tulum appears to be named after a city in…read moreMexico, it is actually a Turkish restaurant. Make a booking as it gets pretty busy on a Friday evening. Free street parking available after 5pm on a Friday night. The menu offers small and large mezze with all dishes designed for sharing. Don't let the word mezze fool you. You don't receive a platter. Dishes are small and tapas sized - even the mains. So I recommend going for the 6 courses menu. Between us, we had the following 1. Kuzu lamb - slow cooked Lamb with smoked aubergine under grilled capsicum - smoky in flavour and delicate lamb 2. Fava bean - two squares of almost cheesecake textured fava bean topped with berries, peas and some herb. Very uniquely flavoured with a slight citrus flavour. Unique. 3. Pilaf with mussels - two small mounds of deliciously flavoured Rice with mussels in some oily souplike substance. Quite buttery 4. Barramundi in yoghurt sauce. - who knew barramundi went well with yoghurt. And safrron flavoured too. Yummmmm. The food was so good that we had to try dessert. We went for the Jerusalem artichoke crumble with plum. Tasted like a cinnamon rice flavoured pudding with crumble. So many flavours and quite sweet. The Turkish coffee is quite strong and comes with some dark smooth Turkish chocolate. Service is great. Each dish is introduced and explained when it arrives. Food is served quickly. Each dish comes out one at a time giving you time to enjoy each dish. Plates are cleared after every dish; So you can enjoy the new unique flavours of each dish. Split billing provided. For bigger heavier portions I think next time my friend and I will go for the Turkish pide or the cheese dish. Fancy venue. The cocktails look delectable with great attention to detail. Definitely a great place for a date. Definitely expensive so be prepared to spend 70-80 per person excluding drinks.

Can't speak highly enough of this place, it's an absolute gem and I'm so happy it's located in this…read morepart of town. The food is incredible, definitely has that home-cooked with a lot of love flavour. The guy there is really friendly and welcoming. If you're in the area, you must try it, definitely a place that's gone under the radar.

We came for breakfast, and left planning a trip to Turkey…read more We started with a Turkish coffee each, and then shared a lamb mince Gözleme and a Turkish breakfast, which was an amazing array of bowls filled with olives, boiled eggs, cheese, small slices of sausage and more - with plenty of Turkish bread to eat it all up on. Surprisingly filling, we struggled to finish it all. The decor is great - and makes the Teahouse double as a bazaar of sorts, with everything from lights to rugs, handbags and decorative doors all carrying price tags. Definitely something different from your 'smashed avo' cafe on every corner, but that's a good thing. Might not be a place we visit every weekend, but will be sure to pop in from time to time to shake things up and try something new and interesting. Service was incredibly friendly too. Worth checking out.

Yummy, juicy and generous serving of kebabs. Friendly staff and reasonable prices. I go there as a…read morefamily, my kids love the food. I recommend this lovely place for kebabs anytime.

From the owner: Traditional Turkish Kebabs, Grills, Gozleme, Deserts & more....read more

This place as just down the road from my work, which was really convenient because it means that I…read morehave someplace to go if I want something that it definitely not going to be all that healthy, but consists of meat, chips, and gravey, a dish that is just devine, even though it's pretty easy to make. Actually, their HSP (or AB as South Australian's call it), isn't all that bad, so I guess this is definitely a place I could return to, even though it isn't as good as some other places I've visited.

I ordered their mixed HSP comboed with coke as well as extra meat for 18 dollars. Then asked them…read moreto swap the EXTRA MEAT I paid 2.50 extra for with some falafels but instead they swapped the entire meat with some falafel and gave me this. A complete rip off. They also refused to fix it. I used to buy from them twice a week but now gonna look elsewhere. I can't believe this.

Babajan has an interesting menu with lots of options but their exorbitant prices and elitism is a…read morebit much So my friends and arrive to a very busy crowded cafe. We are seated outside on little stools. It's a hit day. We feel like salads. Their counter salads look great but come with a catch. You can't order a salad as a main only as a side and you can't mix two. And it's a small side place of 13.50. Or you can get takeaway for two salads for 13.50 is a small sumo sized salad cup. Why because they're promoting something called responsible cafes so apparently cardboard takeaway containers and plastic spoons are responsible. Yes the waiter thought it was a bit much too but what can he do. 13.50 for a small salad takeaway is already overpriced. Yes I had the fish bulgur salad which was sensational and their eggplant tahini salad was to die for but I had takeaway walked 10 minutes to Edinburgh gardens with better seating less noisy and a nice atmosphere. Also their small sized coffee is 4 dollars and weak. Recommend getting takeaway only. You won't be saving the environment but you will definitely make less of a hole in your pocket. Menu is definitely to die for and staff are lovely despite the insanity that prevails.

Best breakfast I've had in a while! I kinda don't want to tell you all how amazing it was so I can…read morekeep this place to myself! We got greeted with smiley and friendly staff - always a good start to the day. Place is small but the turnaround was pretty fast! We got a table straight away. The cuisine is turkish-greek and the dishes are absolutely delicious and full of flavour. We tried a bit of the spanakopita to start, which was no less than my greek grandmother's homemade pita! We had the baked eggs and avocado ezme with a side of sesame koulouri and no joke we licked the plates clean! So much flavour and very generous portions. There are so many options for those who want a takeaway - a cabinet full of delicious pitas, salads, boreks and little bites! Oh coffee is from code black and perfect! Can't wait to try some more dishes!

This place is one step up from fast food/kebab shop and one step down from actual sit-down…read morerestaurant. Which makes for a bit of an odd vibe, because it's super super casual but still pleasant enough to sit down and linger over a meal. This was especially noticeable when we went, because we arrived quite late (after 10pm). Your typical fast-food or kebab shop would be filled with dirty wrappers and the usual drunken riffraff (no judgment here -- I've often been part of that drunken riffraff!) But instead, at I Love Instanbul after 10pm, we found the diners consisted of two quiet couples and a large group of well-dressed Sikhs. So not your standard late-night food-grab type of place. They have your typical variety of kebabs, HSPs, and boreks. There's also a huge display case filled with yummy rice dishes and things like potato salad and chickpea salad. There's also a variety of dips. Staff knows what "vegan" means and can advise you on what to get. She told me almost everything that was vegetarian in the display case was also vegan, with the exception of the potato and feta patties and anything with garlic cream sauce. They have a few vegetarian platters that look nice, but you'd need to confirm if the tabbouleh contains a yoghurt sauce -- I didn't order it so I didn't check, and sometimes they do. They are known for their boreks here. They have three vegetarian boreks, but only one of them (potato and spinach) is vegan. Interestingly, the lady behind the counter told me that they didn't make too many of the vegan boreks in the past because there wasn't enough demand, but now there are so many people wanting vegan food that they actually can't make enough to meet the demand! They had run out when we got there. (Fair enough, it was pretty late.) So instead, we shared a smorgasboard of things from the display case: cabbage rolls, bulgur rice, chickpea salad, potato salad, and dolmas. It worked out to be a lot of filling food for a reasonable price (around $15 each). The flavours were nice but the food definitely didn't taste super-fresh (which is understandable given how late we got there!) I bet if you go at lunchtime, it would taste a lot fresher. They also have a variety of gluten-free options. Service was really nice -- both of the staff members were super friendly and went out of their way to answer our questions and accommodate us (and even brought out extra plates and extra water for us periodically, which felt like table service even though I'm not sure this place is really a table service place). The place was clean and comfortable, brightly lit, but not much by way of atmosphere. But there was a nod to hipsterism with an ancient sit-down video game console in the corner with old-school games like Pac-Man and stuff. Definitely worth a try if you're in the area and wanting some filling, reasonably priced Middle Eastern food.

I have been dropping into this place for years - I found it by chance and love it's convenience and…read morecommitment to a range of tastes at entirely affordable prices This evening I ordered a vegan felafel kebab, studded capsicum and 2 dolmas - plus a bottle of water and we are only looking at $19 in toto Gluten free options are priced only $2 more Come on - you can't get better than that in Carlton !!

Just how Souvlaki King on Brunswick Street takes the prize for the best kebab in the area, I'd say…read morethat Efe's Kebab takes that accolade amidst the host of kebab shops up and down Smith Street. I remember being apprehensive at first. The shop does not look the most welcoming of environments. But after tasting their kebabs I was convinced. This is just down the road from Yah Yahs and the busy part of Smith Street. That makes it the perfect spot to go to after getting a little bit peckish/drunk on a night out. A word of warning: as with most places like this, I'd stick to the kebabs. This is their specialty and this is what they do best. I always stick to a kebab and they are pretty cheap too.

Despite the large Turkish population, Melbourne's not really a place you can find a lot of pide…read more (Bendigo, on the other hand...) So, I was sad the other day when I went out to Smith St and found my favourite pide seller had upped and left me. (Contextual note here: pide is a dish where it's a flat loaf of Turkish bread with a filling inside. I generally go either the sausage, or the sausage and egg.) Disconsolate, I wandered further down Smith until I came to Efes Kebabs. And then, lo and behold, I was happy again! Not only do they serve pide, but they charge about $4 for one. As you'd expect, they seem to do the standard kebabs as well. And how was my pide, do you ask? It was good. It wasn't something you'd eat before a date, as it had enough garlic to depopulate Transylvania, but that's kinda what I want in my pide.