Tasting Notes
Turgut Kebab is at Akbıyık Caddesi 64 in Sultanahmet, and its listing shows it open around the clock. The terrace on the roof looks across to the Blue Mosque and the sea, and live kanun music and folk dancing are staged on some evenings.
Kebabs and clay-pot dishes
The kebab list has Adana and Urfa kebabs, lamb and chicken şiş, lamb chops, İskender, ali nazik, aubergine kebab and a mixed kebab. Testi kebab comes in lamb, beef and chicken versions, and the oven and clay-pot section adds sac kavurma, tile-baked dishes, roast lamb leg, and salt-baked fish or chicken. Starters begin with puf ekmek, the puffed bread.
Pide, vegetarian dishes and breakfast
The oven list is mostly pide, with diced meat, minced meat and kaşar, or sucuk and egg, plus lahmacun. A vegetarian list repeats the main dishes without meat: pide, lahmacun, kebab, sac kavurma and testi kebab. The breakfast section has menemen, omelettes and fried eggs, and desserts include baked künefe, katmer, baklava and rice pudding.
“Ask for a rooftop table in the evening, start with the puffed bread and a meze plate, and order the testi kebab or, for a group, the mixed kebab.”
LR Kitchen — field note