Dining Out: Kebabs and generosity make Turkish Anatolian Restaurant worth the drive to Orléans

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Turkish Anatolia Restaurant
4434 Innes Rd., 613-834-0112
Open: Monday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.. Sunday noon to 8 a.m.
Prices: most kebab and doner platters $17.99 to $29.99

If you like Turkish food, your options in Ottawa practically doubled this spring.

Bank Street alone has seen the recent openings of Sultan Ahmet Turkish Cuisine, where the Clocktower Pub just south of the Queensway had been, as well as two restaurants south of Heron Road. That pair includes Azra Turkish Cuisine, and not even 200 metres away, the second location of Turkish Kebab House, which opened last year in Kanata North and quickly attracted a carnivorous following.

Then there’s Turkish Anatolia Restaurant, which opened a month ago on Innes Road near Tenth Line Road in Orléans. That’s the eatery I’ve been trying recently, even if it feels like a destination on the other side of the world for this west-ender.

I braved Tuesday’s rush hour this week to determine if the restaurant’s lamb chops ($29.99 for four) were as tender and well-seasoned as they were wallet-friendly, given that comparable dishes elsewhere can be $5 to $10 more. Happily, they were.

Bang for your buck is one reason to make the drive to Orléans when the craving for Turkish food strikes. But Anatolia deserves kudos too for its range of dishes, its commitment to making items in house and its pleasant hospitality.

The menu here will appeal to meat-eaters seeking a break from the usual chicken and beef doners and kebabs of chicken, beef or lamb, not that these staples should be avoided at Anatolia.

The fully loaded mixed grill for two ($59.99, compared $75 or even $80 elsewhere) included lots of tasty grilled chicken and beef as well as copious shavings of chicken doner, which admittedly were a little dry.

I’ve also had a top-notch lamb kebab wrap ($13.99) at Anatolia. Frankly, in the future, I might prefer sandwiches to platters, because the starches (tomato-tinged bulgur pilaf or rice) that came with the platters didn’t thrill me. Meanwhile, while the desserts, about which more will be said later, are worth saving room for.

But I was talking about the off-these-beaten-paths choices at Anatolia. The eatery also serves veal liver kebabs ($17.99), chunks of which were charred and creamy, and an eggplant kebab ($24.99), which alternated its knife-cut mix of lamb and beef with similarly sized chunks of eggplant. I’ve yet to try sac tava ($24.99), which I’ve seen described as a stir-fry of beef and vegetables, or the beyti sarma ($24.99), which involves ground lamb kebabs wrapped in lavash bread and topped with tomato sauce and yogurt. That these lesser-known dishes are available at Anatolia speaks to its intention to do Turkish cuisine proud.

An Iskender kebab platter ($23.99) was our only disappointment. Its doner meat was too dry and the cubes of stale bread under the meat and its tomato sauce never really softened, despite the moist ingredients that blanketed them.

However, Anatolia bakes its bread daily, we were told, and we were lucky enough to get some fresh-from-the-oven bread with a plate of ezme, the spicy tomato-based dip. Other dips ($6.49 each) were even better, including some wonderfully smoky and rich baba ghanoush, and the hefty, minty, yogurt-based cacik.

While the platters came with various simple slaws, we also tried the shepherd and mountain salads ($7.49 each), both made with chopped tomato, onion, parsley olive oil, and either a basic, drizzled, creamy salad dressing or pomegranate syrup. The salads were fresh, including some chopped-to-order ingredients, and generously portioned.

Speaking of generosity, at my last two visits, the owner-operator brought dips on the house to our table. I don’t know what we did to deserve these gifts, or if other guests were also recipients. Either way, the freebies made our dinners more memorable and left us more likely to return.

House-made desserts (up to $8.99) have included not only toothsome variations on baklava but also servings of baked rice pudding and balls of choux pastry and cream submerged in chocolate pudding, which Anatolia’s menu lists as profiteroles.

Among the beverages here were Turkish soft drinks, ayran, the Turkish salted yogurt drink, and even salgam, a fermented carrot drink that was intensely sour, spiced and deeply purple.

We had some small quibbles. We needed to ask for serving spoons and plates to facilitate sharing, and for bread to go with our dips. With the mixed grill platter, I wish there had been more of that sweet garlic sauce.

But more importantly, Anatolia served solidly made Turkish food that tasted of care and pride, at prices that should have Ottawa’s more deluxe Turkish restaurants looking over their shoulders.

Plus, Anatolia’s owner told me that he plans to upgrade soon from a gas-powered grill to a charcoal grill, which will only make the long drive (at least for me) to his dining room more worthwhile.

phum@postmedia.com

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