Sofra Istanbul
Where:
245 Florida Road, Morningside
Open:
Daily 10am to 10pm
Call:
031 303 2285
What a pleasure to leave the
well worn spot at the dining room table where one has been forced to eat for the last 100 days. Despite some fabulous meals, cooked and ordered in, a change really was as good as a holiday.
I’ve always enjoyed the authentic and traditional Turkish food served at Sofra Istanbul. Everything is done the traditional way, the meats cooked over coals, the pastries freshly baked, and tasty but simple zingy sauces to mop it all up.
So I was happy a friend could join me for a late afternoon lunch/supper.
Distancing in a social setting like restaurants can make everything seem sterile, almost clinical, as if everything comes coated in hand sanitiser. But owner Zohra Teke, while stringent about the regulations, has done her best to make it comfortable and create ambience. So you don’t feel like you’re eating in a hospital surgery.
A masked greeting comes with an obvious smile, we’re shown the foot pump hand sanitiser system, temperatures are checked and details taken with a casual aplomb that comes from working in the hospitality industry.
You certainly don’t feel like you’ve just escaped Chernobyl.
At the moment, the restaurant is only open on the deck or the upstairs veranda. The tables have been separated properly, but a nice touch is the addition of screens between the tables. While screens are not going to stop the coronavirus, they take up the dead space between tables and make the restaurant seem full. And they lend themselves to an intimate dining experience and help create atmosphere, which all that hand sanitiser could so easily wipe away. Instead, a complimentary Turkish tea arrives at the table.
Then there’s the menu. A QRcode on the table takes you straight to it, so you don’t have to touch anything but your phone. We settle on a kebab platter that takes in a selection of our favourites.
We enjoy some fabulous home-made lemonade while the various meats are on the grill. This, we’re told, is also to a traditional Turkish recipe. It’s so good I’d like to take bucket loads of it home.
Our generous platter arrives. Designed for two, it could easily feed three. We enjoy making up our own kebabs. The shavings of lamb and beef doner kebab are delicious, as are the chunks of succulent lamb and chicken that come of two different shish kebabs. The super spicy adana kebab - that’s the minced meats mixed with onions and garlic and skewered to form a type of sausage - packs a great punch. We mix them up with a selection of breads, a Turkish-style pizza and lavash, a paper thin flat bread. Then there’s a selection of salads, a lovely garlicky yoghurt dip and a spicy chilli. A perfect dip in and get-messy meal.
We finished off with one of the best baklava desserts I’ve had in Durban. A beautifully buttery melting pastry with a syrup that is not too sweet and cloying. Delicious.
Food:
4
Service:
4
Ambience:
4