Interesting Food Missing The Interesting Flavour
Efendy is a Turkish restaurant located in Balmain. I've been hearing and reading good reviews about this restaurant. They serve fine traditional Turkish cuisine with modern views. Despite the good reviews, it was a pretty average experience for me, maybe what they serve don't really suit my palate. I guess I still prefer my Turkish food from a kebab shop.
We had the fixed menu of 4 mezes and 1 main of our choice for $43. Mezes are small dishes served before main meal.
Complementary Turkish Bread
Complementary Amuse Bouche: Creamy Lamb Soup
Meze 1: Humus
There were 9 different kind of mezes to choose from. First, we picked Turkish most famous dip 'Humus'. I found the texture of the humus too thick and I'm never a big fan of humus, so I didn't quite enjoy this one.
Meze 2: Patlican
Then we had the Patlican. This dip is made from roasted eggplant, capsicum and pomegranate salad. I love the flavour and the soft texture of this. One of the most enjoyable dishes of the night.
Meze 3: Kadayifli Karides.
This is my favourite dish of the evening, it is shredded pastry wrapped king prawns served with Muhammara. Muhammara is a spicy dip made from walnut, capsicum and garlic. The crispy pastry and the rich Muhammara were match made in heaven. I wish I could have only this the whole evening.
Meze 4: Pacanga Boregi
Our last meze was this yummy triangle pastry with pastrima (air-dried beef) and kashar cheese. It was really tasty and nothing can go wrong with melted cheese. It was delicious!
Main 1: Kiremite Kofte
One of my friends had this traditional claypot baked lamb kofte (which is something like lamb meatball), brown mushrooms, kashar cheese and matchstick pommes frites.
Main 2: Kuzu Tandir
I had this 7 hour slow roasted Bultarra Saltbush lamb shoulder, aromatic baldo rice, currant, and pine nuts. Served with sauteed picked winter vegetables on the side. The lamb was very tender, the lamb was really milky in flavour but the overall flavour of the dish wasn't anything extravagant.
Meze 3: Pilic Topkapi
My husband had the roasted organic chicken with spinach, capsicum and halloumi barley pilaf with roasted almond and dried apricot. The chicken was very dry, if only they could serve it with some sauce to complement the dry chicken breast meat and portion is definitely too small for my husband.
Meze 4: Cokertme Kebabi
One of my friends had this chargrilled rock valley veal backstrap medallions, tirit, iskender sauce and garlic yoghurt. It was the best one of all four main dishes.
We also ordered 2 salads to share. The Efendy Salata which consists of rocket, feta cheese, dried brown Turkey figs, and Hazelnut. The other salad we had was the Ahirdagi Salata which consists of finely chopped tomato, cucumber, red onion, walnuts and pomegranate. It's sad to say but I actually enjoyed the salads more than any of the main dishes.
Efendy Salata
Ahirdagi Salata
Overall, I don't think Efendy is right for me. The menu is impossible to understand. The food tasted pretty bland and portion is quite small. Our table was really tiny too, we had to quickly finish up the food before the next one being serve. Although, I have to say the staffs were quite friendly.
79 Elliott Street (Corner of Darling Street)
Balmain - 2041
Australia
Ph: 02 9810 5466
Ph: 02 9810 5466
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