Evening!

I’m gonna keep this one uncharacteristically brief, folks – for no other reason than I’m absolutely bank-holidayed out. Decided it was a nice day for a walk, and because I’m an idiot, I decided to embark upon a 10 mile walk in the 21° sun whilst wearing a jacket. In fairness, I have a psychological crutch on wearing a jacket – God knows why, but I just feel, I dunno, insecure when I’m outside if I’m not wearing one? Anyway – I’m shattered, and apologies to fans of my whimsical introductions – I’ll be sure to talk about ghosts, badgers and load-bearing walls another day.

Today, I went to Turkiye in the Merchant City because it’s been nominated for a British Kebab Award, and for once, the assessment of Glasgow’s top restaurants broadly (but not totally) matched Shawarma Police’s views. Four restaurants are up for the gong from Scotland’s largest city, and I’ve reviewed three of them already – ‘Babs, Shawarma King, and Istanbul were all reviewed way back in 2017. Turkiye, whilst it’s been on my radar for a little while, I’ve not had the chance until now… and after a 10 mile walk, a kebab was very much on the menu for lunch.

As with all my reviews, at least when it comes to a first visit, I try to keep it simple and just go for a wrap, or a kebab in bread of some sort. This way, my reviews are like for like – and it’s what I’d most likely order anyway. Turkiye’s menu nearly made me deviate from this strategy – the menu was impressive across the board. For a couple of quid more, I could easily have gone for the Iskender, perhaps accompanied by one of a myriad range of hot and cold Mezze’s to start. As things went, I ended up getting a red-flavour San Pellegrino and a free pide before my main arrived. And what a main it was!

Evidently, in my sun-stroked head, I’d neglected to read the menu properly which states that all kebabs come with rice, salad and coleslaw – for my money, that’s not coleslaw, but I’m not a huge fan anyway – so I was kinda expecting a wrap to turn up. As the waitress went away I must have made an audible “err” or something as she came back to ask if everything was alright – and it was – I can’t fault the restaurant for serving me something that looked different in my head, if anything, my head’s faulty! The rice and salad were demolished in mere seconds, helped down by liberal toppings of the red and white sauces seen in the ramekins above, and the red sauce was especially rather good.

The kebab itself, I’m pleased to report, was very good indeed too. Chicken mince (lots of it) grilled presumably on charcoal, had a very smoky barbeque taste to it, and was accompanied by cheese(!) as well as the red sauce liberally poured on top. The result? It was reminiscent I suppose of a stuffed crust in a stuffed crust pizza, only with the toppings inside the crust. Is this a bad thing? Absolutely not.

It was, however, £15 for the kebab. Merchant City venue, Merchant City prices, I guess. Whilst I don’t imagine Turkiye will be bothering the “Best Value” category at the British Kebab Awards, they’ll certainly be up there taste-wise for best shop in Scotland, and I wish them well!

Turkiye, Candleriggs

Chicken Wrap Beyti

8/10