~ Curious Charlie ~

Dine with Dimmi @ Marmara Turkish @ Sunday, August 13, 2017

Tuesday 18th July

Dinner at Marmara Turkish. Expectations were high as I've been to exactly one other Turkish place and loved it. Black and white lighting as street lighting isn't great.

Marmara Restaurant - "Named after one of the seven regions in Turkey. The region is home to cities such as Istanbul, Bursa, Canakkale and Gelibolu (Gallipoli). Istanbul, the most densely populated city in Turkey, is the former capital of three successive empires, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman."

Cozy and full at 8pm we were excited to have stumbled upon this restaurant (ok carefully selected, curated, I don't stumble unless it's up the stairs and people are watching). Warmly lit both visually and in heat it was a very welcome change from the winter night.

I have no idea what to order as this is my third time trying (and liking) Turkish food, so we went with the special banquet.

What's the difference between the two other than $10? The $50 menu has +1 dip, +1 entree (the spring roll), seafood instead of lamb cutlets (under mains) though this is a real banquet with a series of small dishes to share, a different dessert and a drink. Whether or not we'd recommend it depends, do you like seafood?

To start we had a huge platter of dips to go with Turkish bread, 5 Dips (Chickpea, Eggplant, Carrot, Cucumber, Capsicum). The chickpea was less hummus-se than hummus, jas loved the eggplant while I loved the carrot dip! It was funny because we couldn't actually identify what they were, only that they were creamy and yummy!

All contain Yoghurt & Extra Virgin Olive Oil:
Chickpea Dip - (Humus Ezme) - Chickpea, Tahini, Lemon Juice, Garlic & Seasoning
Eggplant Dip - (Patlican Ezme) - Roasted eggplant, Garlic & Seasoning
Carrot Dip - (Havuc Ezme) - Pan-seard caramalized Carrots, Garlic & Herbs
Cucumber Dip - (Cacik Ezme) - Seasoned Fresh Cucumber & Dill, Mint, Garlic
Capsicum Dip - (Biber Ezme) - Seasoned Roasted Capsicum, Chilli, Herbed Garlic,

Vine leave Dolma (4 Pieces) - Yaprak Dolmasi (green thing under the basket)

Seasoned rice wrapped with vine leaves & finished with lemon & extra virgin olive oil

Also on the platter was Baked Eggplant with a tomato salsa, served warm. Don't think we had the Fresh Green Beans? Vine Leave Dolma was like a lemony yoghurty rice wrapped in leaves, jas quite liked it while I was indifferent.

Baked Eggplant - Firinlanmis Patlican (Patlijan) (middle stuff)

Slices of eggplant seasoned then baked & finished with our tomato & yoghurt sauce

Spinach and Feta Cheese Spring Rolls (2 pieces) - Sigara Boregi

Turkish style spring rolls with traditional feta cheese and baby spinach

Though we both really liked sharing one large spring roll, with spinach and feta (Spinach and Feta Spring Roll) at this size half each was perfect.

I reckon you could have filled up on entrees alone :P we didn't finish the dips as the serving size was quite generous and I'd say for three.

Are we ready for mains?

First up, pan fried calamari, herb dusted and served with a squeeze of lemon it was well cooked, juicy and sweet. Jas didn't like it though (why?) I think he said it was too rubbery and over cooked.

Iskender Kebab

Thin slices of our famous tender lamb from the turning roast (Doner Kebab) enriched

with home-made tomato Salcha sauce & Yoghurt served in a sizzling claypot

Soft/tender juicy lamb this was beautiful. The description given says it all. Do order this one.

Garden Salad - Choban Salatasi

Mixed lettuce, roma tomato, cucumber, Danish feta, red onion &

tossed in our balsamic vinaigrette & extra virgin olive oil dressing

Grilled Prawns

Marinated overnight & char-grilled. Served with Pilaf & Cracked Wheat Rice

The prawns were tossed in herbs and a buttery delight, they smelt amazing!

I did love them.

Ayran (Beaten Yoghurt) Drink $3.50

Tastes like salted lassi, but less salty than usual, it was smooth, but we didn't like it.

Skewered Chicken & Lamb Fillets

Tender juicy marinated meat served with rice (the prawns) and other grains. Full of flavour though I felt the chicken in particular could have used a yoghurty sauce.

We were struggling at this point, and only had a couple teaspoons of the grains. But fear not for we have a dessert stomach!

Turkish Apple & Turkish Black Tea (T2 Tea) $3.50

With dessert we also had tea, the waitress recommended the Turkish Apple (T2 Tea) and made it extra sweet for me. Yay! It was perfect and I love it! Served warm, gosh I think I might go buy this one. I haven't really experimented with hot teas, preferring the sugary iced ones myself.

Kadaif and Turkish Delight

Served with tea (though you could pick any hot drink including hot chocolate)

Kadaif - Sutlu Tel Kadayif
Oven baked Kadayif (finely shredded filo), soaked in our unique milky honey syrup, topped with crushed walnuts and served with creamy Mascarpone

It's soft and I like it! It's like nothing I've ever had before but reminds me of the singing beared guys and their cheese tarts (knafehbakery by The Bearded Bakers).

The Turkish Delight was quite soft and nice. Jas really liked it and bought a box to bring home.

The place was lovely, minus those few minutes where the lights flashed different colours like a club. But then again a Thursday is a second Friday! Jas reminds me that it's a Tuesday. Oh... It was nice and warm, there wasn't much room for coats and bags. The food was delicious, I do feel like the dips were the highlight though tender & juicy marinated meat I also love. There wasn't anything that I didn't like really.

The bill was $50 per person, though through a dimmi offer we had 50% off food, making it $25pp! What a great offer!

Service was excellent, very friendly from both waiters and the manager. Good timing in between courses and the tables was cleared often (we had a lot of plates, more plates and elbows than table).

We defintely reccomend checking out Marmara! If you bring a friend you could order the banquet like us! Do make a booking as they were almost (if not) full tonight and it was just a Tuesday.

We'll be back for the Turkish Fruit Juices! And also another banquet in the future of course :P