Turkish Restaurant

Puffy breads oozing feta, spicy salads and flavorful kebabs make this ethnic restaurant in Bristol, Pa., an exciting place for culinary exploration.

By: Richard Burns

   EVERY once in a while, you happen upon a restaurant that is a real gem. For me, it happened when we visited the aptly named Turkish Restaurant.
   This is an ethnic restaurant of the first order. It has been open for about three months now and is located on Route 13 in Bristol. Going south, you have to cross the Bath Road intersection and take the jug-handle on the right to get back on Route 13 going north.
   Everything about this restaurant is authentic. It is owned by Michael Selvi, who came to this country about 15 years ago and also runs the Turkish Delicatessen farther north on Route 13, where all kinds of good foods from Turkey are available. I spent a year in Turkey in the ’50s, and a more recent tour brought back many of the flavors enjoyed on the first trip.
   Turkish food is not familiar to many Americans. It is a very old cuisine that goes back to before the Ottoman Empire and bears the influence of early Greek and Arab foods, although the Turks would argue the influence went the other way. I’m sure it was both ways. It is a complex cuisine, and the varied tastes reflect that complexity.
   The restaurant is painted a bright blue outside and has tables for al fresco dining in front and in a small courtyard to the left of the main building. Inside, the restaurant is neat and clean, with cloth tablecloths and napkins, wood-paneled walls and Turkish artifacts on the walls and a high shelf. There is a large window allowing a full view of the kitchen and the chefs at work in a modern and effectively laid out kitchen.
   When we arrived and were seated, we looked through the window and saw a chef taking a large, puffed loaf of bread out of the oven. He slit the side and put large chunks of feta cheese inside. It looked wonderful. We later learned this was one of many "Turkish Pita" dishes — there are about half a dozen offered — ranging in price from $7.95 to $12.25 depending on the filling. We had to try it and ordered the Karisik Pride ($12.25), which arrived with beef, Kasari (a Turkish/Greek cheese), Turkish sausage and pastrami on two halves of a long pita that had then been quickly placed under the broiler. It reminded me of pizza but more delicate. We used this dish as an appetizer, and there was more than enough for three of us.
   The menu is extensive but not organized like typical American menus. There are salads, soups, vegetarian entrées, pilaf dishes (rice and bulgar), Boreks and Turkish Pitas, desserts, and a few fish dishes. There is also a separate menu of "daily stews with meat." While the menu is designed for ordering a dish per person, we treated everything as a "family" dish and shared everything. Although there is no appetizer section of the menu, many of the dishes under the various categories can be used as such.
   Prices are moderate, ranging from $1.95 for a plain pita, $3.75 to $4.95 for the salads and $3.25 for any of the soups. Vegetarian dishes cost $4.95 to $6.95, and grilled meats run from $8.95 to $13.95. There is a roasted lamb at $15.95, but it was not available the night we were there.
   Even if you are somewhat familiar with Turkish food, the menu can be overwhelming. Fortunately, our waiter was up to the task. He brought plastic-wrapped, uncooked versions of what we might order and explained each of them. Those not available in that form were fully described.
   We ordered three salads: a bean salad, a spicy salad (each $3.95) and a Manco salad ($4.95). The later was a combination of eggplant, zucchini, green peppers, tomatoes, onion and garlic, and came with either tomato sauce or garlic sauce. They were nice enough to serve ours with a different sauce on each half.
   Some of the best bread we’ve encountered came to the table with the salads. It appeared to be freshly baked and was chewy and flavorful, with a marvelously light crust. Our spicy salad was indeed spicy, with finely chopped tomato, onion, parsley and hot peppers. The bean salad was a mixture of white beans, onions and pepper in a simple olive oil and vinegar dressing — very refreshing.
   For entrées, we selected the classic Turkish beef sausage kebabs wrapped around a sword and grilled. There are two types offered, one spicy hot, the other with milder spices. Again, they accommodated by letting us have a sword of each for the price of a common order, $10.95. We also had a grilled lamb dish ($11.95), which consisted of four skewers of medium rare pieces of lamb that had been grilled. Both dishes were served with pita bread (without the pocket), some bulgar pilaf and a large roasted pepper that turned out to be very spicy hot.
   We also tried their moussaka ($7.95) from the stew menu, quite different from the Greek version familiar to most people. It was more of a loose ground beef and eggplant stew and didn’t have the body of the Greek version. In addition, we tried a cold green bean dish with tomatoes that was unusually good. We thought the kebabs were excellent, the lamb was tasty but a bit tough, and the moussaka, while flavorful, too runny.
   The dessert menu includes baklava ($3.45) and other Turkish delicacies, but the only dessert available by the time we got around to it was rice pudding ($2.95). It was a large bowl of very nicely vanilla flavored, soft rice pudding that we all enjoyed.
   Our waiter could not have been more accommodating and friendly. Our only problem was that, because the kitchen was not too busy, all of our salads and entrées arrived at once. (Some friends visited the restaurant a few nights later and found the service much slower than we did but loved the food.) The general atmosphere of the restaurant is friendly, warm and welcoming.
   This is a new ethnic restaurant that offers unfamiliar but delicious food at very reasonable prices in an attractive and responsive atmosphere. We only scratched the surface of the extensive menu and will be back — probably many times.
For directions to Turkish Restaurant, click here.