Under slightly different ownership arrangements, this is the rebranded Turquoise which has been a mainstay of Cheadle’s High Street for years. There’s still a solid offering starting with breakfast (including the “Full Turkish”) through daytime sandwiches and cakes then into a full restaurant menu for the evening. Thankfully, they still have their two course set menu during the early part of the week which, at £17.95, is a bargain in anyone’s book. And there’s decent choice on that menu – eleven starters and a similar number of mains, picked from the main menu offerings. And there’s no cutback on portion size – so you won’t be going away thinking about getting a bag of chips on the way home. Service is hospitable, as you sort of expect from Eastern Mediterranean places.
So, from the set menu, there were falafels for one of us. Nice texture with a little hint of spice. They come with a spoonful of cacik and another of houmous. The other starter was their “hot mezze” (there’s a cold which is also nice) – falafel, cheese borek, slice of sucuk sausage and another of hellim, together with some of the cacik, a very pokey chilli sauce and a little mixed salad.
For mains, there was kulbasti – thin slices of chargrilled lamb. It’s difficult to get the cooking right for something so thin and I thought they were a tad overcooked (although I am nit-picking here). It comes with rice and salad. And, served separately, more cacik, chilli sauce and a little jug of a tomato based sauce which moistened things nicely. Seabass was OK – two fillets, plainly grilled and served with new potatoes and mixed vegetables. Nothing Turkish about the plate (except more cacik) but nice enough.
A pleasant midweek dinner.
