Twickenham’s New Turkish Kitchen – At this time of the year in many past years, we have been enjoying a wonderful holiday in Turkey, but not this year. However, the other evening we discovered a newly opened Turkish restaurant here in Twickenham: Turkish Kitchen TW1, and it was just like a quick trip to Turkey. Formerly a cafe called Seyri, it’s now run by the same team but upgraded to a restaurant.
After a warm welcome from Seyri, the proprietor, I enjoyed a glass of raki – my first one since our last trip to Turkey. There are four different rakis on the menu. My husband enjoyed a Peroni Zero.
We tried tasters of a number of dips as starters including a wonderful muhammara, kisir and baba ganoush (the latter was beautifully smoky and the kisir had so much flavour). The Turkish Kitchen Shakshuka is served as a mezze, not with submerged poached eggs as we so often see. It was really beautifully seasoned and very delicious. Even the olives were top notch.
Seyri wanted us to try the Turkish pizza (Lahmacun). We shared a portion and it was so good: a thin and crispy base with a touch of minced lamb and veg spread over and served with tomato, pickled red onion slices, parsley and a squeeze of lemon. Enough for a meal in itself.
A few hot Turkish starters were also excellent: some spiced beef sausage, grilled halloumi cheese and cheesy pastry rolls were light and piping hot. Everything so far was really good, so we were looking forward to the ‘main event’.
This was certainly spectacular… We shared a portion of the mixed grill…wow! The attention to detail in the food and its presentation is something very special. We had chicken cubes that had been marinated and were incredibly tender and tasty. Generous cubes of lamb and liver, plus chicken wings were accompanied by sliced onions with sumac and a lovely fresh salad with red cabbage and grated carrot. This was accompanied by a garlic sauce and a chilli sauce, but to be honest, the marinating of the meat was so good that they really weren’t needed. The whole dish was zingy and beautifully fresh.
We were thoroughly ‘pogged’ as my mother used to say. A glass of piping hot Turkish tea and a shared portion of the homemade baklava was the perfect end to a wonderful meal.
Seyri has worked hard to upgrade her successful cafe into a full blown Turkish restaurant and I take my hat off to her. And the prices are very reasonable too. The wraps that a couple at the next table were enjoying looked really excellent, and there are loads of options for vegetarians.
If, like us, you’re a fan of Turkish food, do check it out.
The Seasoned Gastronome