Caravanserai | 1-3 Dornoch Terrace, WEST END QLD 4101
It
had been a while since we had dinner with A & H and baby A. Given
that a catch up was long overdue, we decided to do it over some
delicious food at Caravanserai.
Caravanserai
is a very popular local West End institution that has been around for
years. Painted in red, this Turkish restaurant provides a very exotic
and almost mysterious ambience with its traditional Turkish fabric
tablecloths, flickering candlelights on every table as well as the
colourful glass lanterns hanging from the ceiling. Not to mention
that every now and then, you'll grab a good whiff of the spices from
the open plan kitchen.
The
night started being very quite with only two tables in the restaurant
but sometime between ordering a Turkish lemonade ($3.50) and placing
our dinner order, the restaurant was fully packed. We started off
with Caravanserai
meze
($24.50) which comes with hummus, babagounosh, beetroot dip, carrot
pickle, marinated olives, feta, artichokes, dolma and capsicum salad
with warm Turkish bread. The size was quite generous and certainly
enough for the four of us as an appetiser.
The
main courses for our table were very easy. Three of the chicken
breast marinated, honey almond butter, cous cous salad, capsicum &
walnut sauce ($29.50)
for the others and one sumac
encrusted salmon, sweet potato and cumin seed mash, greens and mojo
verde ($31.50)
for me. The mains took a while to come, but that was understandable
given how busy the kitchen was. I wasn't sure if it was the long
wait, but the dishes looked very appetising. They also came in very
big portions, which I certainly did not mind. The salmon was really
well cooked, the flesh was soft and fatty, and it was so delicious
when mixed with the sweet potato and cumin seed mash, so I hardly
touched the mojo verde. Under normal circumstances, the other travel
bunnie would let me try his dish so that I know what it taste like,
but this time round before I even had the chance, he had already
finished it. Needless to say the chicken dish was well received.
Dinner
was fantastic, but we found it extremely difficult to catch up with
each other as the restaurant was so loud and the acoustics were
terrible with all the doors and windows closed. We found ourselves
shouting at one another and when the mains arrived, our voices had
gone.
I've
never been overly fond of Turkish cuisine but Caravanserai no doubt
puts a modern twist into their middle-eastern dishes and together
with their charming ambience, it's no wonder this Turkish restaurant
is amongst one of the most popular around town.
Total
Bunnie Dollars Spent: $163.50
