Turkuaz: restaurant review

 Last night was the first night of the new Turkuaz restaurant in Eastbourne at 1 Upperton Road opposite the station.

It's a beautifully decorated venue with a menu that has sufficient but not overwhelming choice.

Having taken our order for drinks, they brought us a complimentary dish of bread fried into crisps with two dips, one a mildly chilli pickle and the other a robust creamy dip similar to tzatziki. This was a delicious way to start the meal.

For the proper starters I had sucuk, a spicy sausage in a rather too tomatoey sauce (why is tomato the ubiquitous sauce for Mediterranean cooking?) and Steph had hummus. They were generous portions and came with enough bread to sink a ship; we could have shared one plateful and still have had enough. I began to wonder whether I would finish my main.

Steph had a chicken kebab as her main; I chose the Chicken Ali Nasik which came in a very creamy sauce, delicious but slightly cloying. Both dishes came with white rice, cooked with a few shreds of vegetables which added visual appeal without really affecting the taste, and a small salad which was dressed with a vinaigrette which included sumac: very tasty!

I couldn’t finish my main and neither of us had any room left for desserts.

The service was superb.

One little opening night hiccough that needs resolving came when I went to the gents. The door to the cubicle didn’t fit and wouldn’t close sufficiently to shoot the bolt. I wedged it closed as best I could, only to discover afterwards that it needed all my strength to open it.

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God