Akdeniz Mediterranean Restaurant

Well you can’t argue with their generosity. Prepare to be stuffed!
We were seated and quickly given some excellent, well-​seasoned, warmed bread and olives as an appetiser. Very nice indeed and washed down with an Efes Draft. Lovely! I had the Kofte to start and they were not bad, not the best koftes I’ve had, and like Katie Price a bit prone to breaking-​up, but tasty nonetheless. I had Beef Stifado to follow (yes, I know it’s Greek) and it was very rich and flavoursome with lots of accompaniments. The two-​types of salad were possibly twice as much as were required, but the little dumpling things and the quenelle of bulgar (?) and harissa (?) or whatever they were were different and added to the dish. I had a bit of my partner’s Adana Kebab — well actually most of it — and it was really nice, dense, juicy and spicy, with a mild, herby yoghurt to calm it down.
I would definitely go back here, my Turkish dining partner and myself are agreed, the best Turkish restaurant in the city is probably Alla Turca but this may be second. Good, attractively-​priced, and honest!

Not long back from a holiday in Turkey, we decided to try to see if we could keep that holiday feeling alive and check out this Merchant City/​Trongate restaurant serving up Turkish/​Greek dishes. We headed in around 7pm on a Wednesday and had the restaurant to ourselves. It’s a nicely decorated space with prints of Turkey on the walls and some nice atmosphere-​setting music.
The menu is pretty mouthwatering with a huge range of dishes. Starters are split between hot and cold — we opted for the cold meze for around £6 to share to start, although I’m already thinking about some of the dishes in the hot section — borek, dolma, bayildi (aubergine with tomato), and calamari. Mmm.
The meze was presented on a large platter and had a delicious selection including what I think was kisir (like cous cous), a spicy tomato dip and houmus. Nicely garnished with parsley and tomatoes, it was so fresh and all the dips were really delicious. The waitress even brought over more bread without us having to ask when she saw that we’d run out. And the bread was toasty warm which was even better!
I ordered the halep for main — chicken doner kebab with yoghurt and special tomato sauce and Graeme had the mixed kebab. These are massive portions — absolutely huge so I would recommend thinking twice before you get a starter. As you can see from the photo, the plates take up a huge part of the table, and it wasn’t a small table we were sitting at! The halep was delicious, small chunks of chicken in a rich tomato sauce and the yoghurt was a nice balance. Perfect chips and a good mound of rice made for good accompaniments, and the salads were also really tasty. I was really stuffed though and struggled to eat even half of it, if we weren’t off to a gig afterwards I would have asked to take it home with me!
We decided against dessert and just got the bill which was about £40 including an Efes beer and a few soft drinks. Service was friendly and warm, and even though we were the only people in the restaurant we didn’t feel uncomfortable or awkward. This is the kind of restaurant I’ll be sure to head back to sooner rather than later as it was just so delicious and tasty, and gave me that holiday feeling for a little bit longer.

Bought 2 deals for this restaurant and went with 3 friends this evening. It was for a 2 course meal for 2 with a bottle of wine.
A cosy, homely place with a timbered ceiling and spotless white walls hung with Mediterranean seascapes.
The food is freshly cooked to order and was wonderful as was the wine — none of your cheap plonk — a lovely Pinot Grigio and a Merlot.
Fresh bread with olives and a herb butter started us off. The bread is baked fresh daily and there was plenty of it. Good choice of starters and mains– we had Borek (Filo pastry filled with feta cheese, spinach and herbs), Kofte (Minced lamb with tomato sauce) and Dolma (Vine leaves stuffed with rice and fresh herbs and a rich tomato sauce). This was followed by Lamb shish, Chicken shish and Mousaka. All of them came with rice, chips and salad. Portions were ideal.
We added 2 sweets — Baklava (pastry layered with pistachios and topped with syrup) and Kadayje (shredded filo pastry with a nutty filling topped with sweet honey syrup) Yum Yum — and 4 coffees but were only charged for the coffees which came with a choc chip cookie. Just to round it off, Turkish Delight pieces with the bill. I do not like it so my friend had 2 pieces and was over the moon. There were nuts in it!
The waiters were great, chatting to us and sharing a laugh.
Worth every penny. We will return.