The Turkish Steak Restaurant & Café in Jumeirah 1 has jumped straight into my top ten of Turkish restaurants in Dubai. Located in a stand-alone building similar to Emigran Sütis and Sultan Baba Iskender with which it also shares the same two-story layout, the restaurant has a well-appointed, handsome interior and an outdoor dining area which should be quite pleasant in the winter. Shisha is served upstairs yet (thankfully) I got no smell of tobacco where I sat downstairs. Valet parking is available.
Turkish Steak opens at 10:00 for breakfast. I hear the Village Breakfast platter for two is amazing. I was there for lunch however and ordered a cold Mix Platter of mezza to start and the Sultan Plate as the main for our table for two. Half the mixed mezza platter was a disappointment simply because it wasn’t Turkish. Let’s face it, I can get hummus and mutabbal anywhere. That said, the hot and spicy Acili Ezme made up for any gripes I may have had, and the Cacik (JAH’- juck), yogurt with diced cucumbers and finely chopped fresh herbs was both homely and refreshing.
Delicious Ayran 
Cold mezza platter 
Fresh hot bread
The Sultan Plate for 2 is a meat and chicken kebab fest served on an impressively long wooden plank (size does matter). It comprises of Adana (minced meat) Kebab, Kuzu Shish and Chicken Shish Kebabs, and a couple of lamb chops which I would have called excellent if they hadn’t been a little overcooked. The Adana kebab however was superb, easily one of the best I have had outside Turkey. The chicken was also very good, moist and juicy. Again, with the Kuzu I felt the meat was slightly overcooked. But these are steak people, so I am sure if I ask them to dial down the doneness of the meat the next time I am there, they will.
One of our waiters with the Sultan’s Plate 
The Sultan’s Plate
No Turkish meal is complete without some Baklava and, while Turkish Steak’s is not in-house made, it was excellent. Especially when enjoyed with an istikan of piping hot Turkish tea.
Turkish tea 
Baklava with ice cream
None of the staff were Turkish but I found them friendly and hospitable. But I felt they were a little disorganized; we had three different waiters visit our table, something I did not appreciate (imagine having to explain the same thing over and over again). Compounding this was the fact that our food took far longer than expected to be brought to the table. Despite these two hiccups I still had a wonderful meal at Turkish Steak. I liked the fact that there were so many locals there, it gave the place a believable ambiance. I really want to go back to try their steaks…watch this space.
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