Ever since my Turkish friend took me to Turkish Kitchen, I knew I needed to go there often. Situated on Shattuck Avenue, it almost blends in with the other restaurants and shops, but what stood out were the mouth-watering photos of dishes displayed on a sign in front of the restaurant. Although displays like these are usually tacky, the taste of the food tops the display.
My longtime favorites were there: chicken beyti and sutlac.
Twelve chicken beytis are served in a subtle creamy flame orange sauce with scoops of yogurt. Beyti is a Turkish dish with grilled ground meat served in lavash, a West Asian flatbread, and topped with tomato sauce and yogurt. The beyti was salty, strong, and spicy, balanced by the lighter and sourer yogurt. The combined textures of the spongy chicken, the sauce, the thin lavash, and the viscous cold yogurt could easily have turned mushy, but Turkish Kitchen made it pleasing with every ingredient standing out on its own, yet everything also perfectly blended together.
Sutlac is a sweet rice pudding, but it is not the traditional rice pudding. The white rice is soaked in an opaque white sauce made of water, milk, vanilla extract, and sugar, which was neither too watery nor chunky. This sutlac doesn’t taste overwhelmingly or artificially sweet, it simply tastes uniquely sutlac; it also reminded me of a lighter version of vanilla panna cotta. Turkish Kitchen also sprinkles cinnamon powder on the dessert, giving it a nice touch of spice.
Following the chicken beyti, the cold and sweet sutlac calms my craving for desserts and completes an otherwise salty meal. The menu also includes many Turkish specialties such as “kavurmali Turkish calzone” – which has lamb, veggies and spices, chicken doner on lavash or pita bread, and manti – Turkish ravioli with ground beef and onions. For desserts, there are baklava and kadayif, both are phyllo dough pastries.
Turkish Kitchen brings the flavors of Turkey to Berkeley in a convenient location on Shattuck Avenue. The exoticism that it brings to the palate satisfies those days when I crave for something different because in Utah, where I am from, it is very difficult to find authentic and delicious Turkish cuisine.
Turkish Kitchen is located at 1986 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94704.