Sofra Authentic Turkish Cuisine

I recently had the pleasure of dining at Sofra Authentic Turkish Cuisine, and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Now, I like to think that I truly appreciate ethnic foods, and love trying new tastes and spices. Mediterranean food is especially attractive to me, being known to be packed with flavor and rich in cultural influence.

For my dining experience, I had the lucky opportunity to sample Turkish cuisine with a friend of mine that is actually Turkish. It’s not every day that I get to appreciate a certain genre of food with someone that possesses so much personal knowledge of a specific style of cuisine, and that heightened the enjoyment.

Décor-wise, Sofra is definitely an interesting place-with a bit of an odd setup that serves to add to its overall charm. I was seated near the Trojan horse, which I thought was a neat piece of historical embellishment. The lighting give the place an intimate feel, what you would expect of a cozy kind of proper mood-setting date spot.

 To start, we each sampled a glass of Canadian Cave Spring Riesling, which was a pleasant sweeter white wine. I appreciated the fact that it wasn’t overly sweet, with a very mellow finish.

For our meal, we decided upon the Orduevi Appetizer Platter and the Sultan’s Sofrasi Assorted Sampler to share. Chef and owner, Yuksel Gultekin, prides himself on his daily fresh-made dishes that are prepared as a rule, from scratch. Most of the ingredients used, such as the olives and olive oil, are authentic and imported from Turkey. My only issue with the items on the menu was that the layout of the menu was a tad confusing the way it was organized, though I appreciated the fine selection offered.

The Orduevi Platter at $27, consisted of stuffed mushrooms, jumbo shrimp, ground beef flat bread, yaprak and pastirmi sarma. Everything was delightful, but I particularly loved the Yaprak and Pastirmi Sarma. Yaprak reminded me of cabbage rolls, but made with grape leaves wrapped around rice (and sometimes meat), and the pastirmi was a similar kind of roll, wrapped in a crispy meat. They were absolutely phenomenal with delicious flavours, and pleasing texture.

Finally, we received the Sultan’s Sofrasi Assorted Sampler, and I was blown away with the size of the platter. It was meant to be a full meal for two, consisting of yaprak sarma, humus, and a grilled meat collection of chicken, swordfish, meatballs and lamb. Baklava for dessert, is included in the price of $84. If we had only ordered that it would have been certainly enough for two people, but as it was we had plenty of leftovers. I appreciated the entire array of meat included, but especially adored the meatballs and lamb-as they were well-cooked with an exotic taste. The dips that came with the meal were a wonderful accompaniment, and I was highly impressed with everything. 

Lastly, the Baklava was probably the best I’ve ever tasted, it had a perfectly flakey exterior and sticky, sweet layers-topped with pistachios.

We finished off our filling meal with genuine Turkish Coffee, served in a traditional Turkish style tea set. I have tried Turkish coffee before, and find it to be very dense and espresso-like, with a somewhat nutty taste. As you near the bottom of the miniature cup it becomes grittier in texture, and there is a semiformal fortune-telling ritual that essentially consists of flipping the cup over onto the plate where it stays until it is cool and ready to be read.

All in all, I had a fantastic experience, and I felt everything was perfect from start to finish. The service was impeccable, our server was properly attentive without being overbearing, and I was also very pleased that we continuously had our water glasses refilled without any prompting. The food was high-quality, authentic and well-made, with generous portions for the prices. I had a lovely time, and would highly recommend anyone to try out Sofra!

Buchanan's

I always like to try new restaurants when I go out of town, and Calgary always has great little foodie places I've never seen or heard of before. I've always liked Calgary, I used to live here before when I was young, and I often go back. On my recent trip I found this family-owned restaurant that was in a nice area downtown, very close to the hotel I was staying at. 

This spot intrigued me, it had pretty good reviews and I generally enjoy dining at family-owned restaurants because I find them unique, and there's something comforting about home-cooked meals that appeals to me. I made reservations, but since it was later in the evening that was apparently unnecessary as it was pretty dead. However, the atmosphere was quaint and the service was phenomenal.
 

The wine was great, served generously and taste samples were offered easily, which impressed me.  I ordered white wine, and it was delicious- not too dry or too sweet. Granted, I'd already had a few drinks before arriving at Buchanan's, but I was very happy with the speed and efficiency of service here as opposed to the previous restaurant I'd come from.

The complimentary bread was like a biscuit that looked like a muffin and even though it wasn't warm-it was delicious. Probably the best biscuit I've ever tried. I didn't expect it to be so good, and it was a pleasant surprise that made me anticipate my meal favorably.

 
 

I ordered crab cakes to start with and they were a very tasty appetizer. They were very crab-meaty and the sauce was awesome. They weren't the most crispy perhaps, but overall were nicely made, if a bit on the pricey side at $16. 

For my main course I ordered the "Buchanan Special" off of their feature menu and it consisted of bacon-wrapped pork loin medallions, mashed potatoes, and roasted spring vegetables with pineapple salsa. It was fantastic, the bacon was extremely yummy, and I was informed it was cooked in real maple syrup. The plate was awesome, my only complaint being the potatoes were passable-but not up to par with the rest of the plate. They tasted like they were those fake, instant mashed potatoes you get when you eat mediocre catered food, and they probably were.

Otherwise, I had an awesome experience. The service was distinctive in its excellence and the food and drinks were all very enjoyable. Drinks, and appetizer, and a main course came to around $70 so it's definitely a bit of a fancier dinner spot, but I loved the atmosphere; it's a great place to go on a  dressed-up date or for a nice dinner party.

MEAT

 

On the weekend I went to MEAT for the second time, luckily was able to get a table right away, although not on the patio like I was originally hoping for. It was a gorgeous evening though, and the patio isn't especially large so that's to be expected in all fairness. Obviously, this is the kind of place vegetarians and vegans should stay far away from, as they specialize in the stereotypical manly man's type of meal- smokehouse barbecue meat, bourbon and beer.

 

 The restaurant is right off of Whyte Ave, in a trendy area, so parking always sucks, but it's definitely in a appealing location to walk around and explore. The sign outside on the side of the building many seem to find (me included) fairly amusing. 

 

The menus are very limited. There's few choices for drinks, and nearly all contain either Bourbon or Whiskey, so be prepared! I ordered a "Lynchburg Lemonade" which I was informed was one of sweetest, or most girly-ish drinks that they offered. I have quite the sweet tooth and so I found that drink to be quite strong, with Bourbon overtaking any potential sweetness in it. Don't come here expecting Cosmos and Martinis is all I can say for that!

 

 

 For the meal we ordered the Smoked Meat Feature, which was basically a little bit of all the meat so you could try a bit of everything. As for sides we decided on the Brussels Sprouts and Potato Salad. The food comes out on large group platters as it's intended to be communally shared by everyone at the table. 

 The portion was fair for the price. It was around $60 for the sample platter of meat, and that is definitely more than enough for two people. It was likely enough for three or four even, depending how hungry the people in a group are, of course. I did enjoy the brisket and the pulled pork, they were my favorite items of the meat selection, although I did find it overall to be somewhat dry and the flavours were decent but not outstanding. 

There are bottles of homemade sauces on the table that are offered to be added to the food, but my intention was to try the meat as is, before adding other sauces and flavorings. Whenever I may come back, eventually, I do plan to try the sauces, although I'm not a big BBQ sauce person overall, admittedly.

In my honest opinion the best part of the meal were the sides. The Brussels sprouts and Potato salad were phenomenal. They were fresh, well-made and very delicious. I enjoyed them much more than the main attractions, and I'm a big fan of meat-especially BBQ.

 

I'd say overall the experience was adequate. The prices are fair, but I wish there was more selection and the food is satisfactory but not stellar. For Edmonton, it is pretty good overall and definitely a different experience than most are used too so I'd recommend trying it. If you want top-of-the-line smokehouse and BBQ meat though-go to Texas. The best meat I've ever had from that type of genre was in Dallas, Texas-hands down. But if you just want a different, fun experience that's in the city-give MEAT a try!

Korean BBQ

I went to the "Lee House" on the weekend, and it's the second time I've been there in the last few months. It opened roughly about 6 months ago, and it's an expansion from the first restaurant that's located near Whyte Ave. First impression, it's in Chinatown, so obviously for anyone that's been in downtown YEG, they know it's the straight up ghetto. Not that you should let that stop you from going there, heck some of the best places look like total dives-but are actually delicious.

Now, the interior is fairly nice when you go inside, especially considering the location-you can tell it's pretty new still. It was larger than I expected, and there were plenty of tables-mainly empty ones even though it was a Saturday night, but still it's a pretty new spot so one must take that into consideration.

 

The food itself definitely seemed pricey; understand that Korean food is not cheap. Almost any good Korean BBQ places are fairly expensive, no matter where you go. If you're thinking it's going to be cheap like Pho, or Westernized Chinese restaurants, you'll be disappointed. Good quality Korean food is something you pay for, it's not extremely expensive to make-but it is extremely time-consuming in a sense, to make. Kimchi and Bulgogi or Kalbi takes days to make properly.

I ended up ordering the Stone Bowl Bibimbap, L.A Kalbi, and spicy soup. I would say for the price, the portions were a bit small, but the quality was pretty good. Not a lot of options for the BBQ meat, there were only a few choices, but it was nice because you could cook the food yourself or have it cooked in the kitchen before it was brought out to you. 

Those three dishes would've been a bit less than $60, but then we grabbed two bottles of Soju- Korean alcohol. They look like Asian beers, but don't be fooled because they're 19% and like $20 per bottle. (That we did not realize, or would've only grabbed one!) Whoops! Yeah we figured out they weren't plain beers when the server brought out shot glasses to drink the Soju with.

Otherwise, the service wasn't the greatest, we had to ask for obvious things like bowls and cutlery, as it wasn't immediately brought with dishes that required them. I'm not surprised, as many Asian restaurants are not well-known for their quality service.

Overall it's a decent Korean restaurant, not the best I've been too by any means, but then Koreans are very picky with their own food, and I'm no exception. It was nice that it was located centrally, as many of the Korean restaurants are in the south side so it's more convenient for many.