Efes Turkish Restaurant
Bringing the Tradition to the Bedford Highway
BY LAURA OAKLEY
PHOTOS MICHELLE DOUCETTE
Efes Turkish Cuisine has a new home on the Bedford Highway. After taking ownership of the former location on Spring Garden Road in 2019 and then facing the pandemic, Zeliha and Turgay Erdogan continued to operate until that building came down. “During the pandemic, everyone supported us,” says Zeliha. Since so many customers ordered their food, Efes survived and relocated to 771 Bedford Highway, opening there last April.
It’s a new chapter in a long journey. Turgay’s grandfather first opened a Turkish restaurant in Ottawa in 1974. When he passed away in 2009, Turgay’s uncle took over and hired him to come to Canada to be the chef. “But family and business doesn’t always work, so...we moved to Halifax,” says Zeliha. “My husband always thought to be like his grandfather, he wants to come to Canada and have a restaurant.” Zeliha and Turgay both started working at Efes (then called Café Istanbul) in 2012. New ownership in 2016 brought a name change, and in 2019, the couple took over, keeping the name Efes Turkish Cuisine.
New digs meant a chance to create a new atmosphere, with pops of gold and rich royal blue.“We ordered from my designer in Turkey,” says Zeliha. “She did all the design, and then everything was custom-made. We brought it from Turkey, we shipped everything.” The plush blue banquette complements soft bar stools in the same hue. Slim golden bars with ivy woven throughout adorn the bar’s overhang, and two large arch-shaped mirrors on the back wall reflect light from the windows, opening up the space. Even the plateware has come from Turkey, in various colours and shapes—all beautiful.
Efes specializes in traditional Turkish dishes, which, according to Zeliha, are difficult to rotate because customers keep coming back for their favourites. Mediterranean food is my love language, so I am beyond excited to try a few meze, main dishes, and desserts. But first, raki gets poured. Raki is a Turkish spirit made with twice-distilled grapes and aniseed. It is clear but served diluted with cold water, which turns the liquid a cloudy white. This process happens at the table, so I can see the colour change. “In Turkey, we drink it with meze,” says Zeliha. It tastes similar to ouzo and is even served in an ice-filled holder to keep it cold.
My meze course begins with a selection of hot and cold appetizers. The colourful “chef’s choice” mixed cold meze plate is something I have been looking forward to. It includes spinach tarator—thick strained yogurt with puréed spinach, olive oil, and garlic (my favourite); lentil kofte, a red lentil patty with bulgur, parsley, green onion, and tomato paste; and vibrant red pepper purée made from roasted red peppers, olive oil, parsley, and feta. It also features earthy eggplant sautéed in a tangy tomato sauce, traditional hummus, and cacik, a tzatziki-like strained yogurt infused with garlic and mint containing chopped cucumber, accompanied by grape leaves stuffed with rice and currants (dolma), which bookend the rectangular platter. The meze platter also comes with a warm sliced pita. It is beautiful to witness and wonderfully flavourful to eat.
Efes has signature cocktails, and I sip on—the Sultan’s Secret—gin, blackberry liqueur, lemon juice, and lavender. It’s shaken and served with egg-white foam. It’s refreshing and oh-so-pretty. There are local beers on tap behind the bar, and the wine list is well-rounded and diverse. I noticed on the drinks menu that the Efes signature martini features Turkish coffee.
I’m shocked that this is my first time trying kiymali, a dish of warm hummus topped with minced lamb in a rich tomato paste-based sauce. Rich, saucy lamb on creamy hummus? I could eat an extra-large portion of this as my main course. But there is so much to try. Shrimp guvech cooked in eggplant and tomato sauce, grilled slices of Turkish halloumi complemented by bright roasted cherry tomatoes—it’s all so good. The beet salad features pickled beets, mixed greens, crumbled goat cheese, and walnuts, topped with a maple vinaigrette, a classic combination that always works for me. Even the simple Turkish salad is bright, crunchy, and bursting with fresh flavour, thanks to its cucumber, bell peppers, and mixed greens tossed in olive oil, lemon, and garlic vinaigrette.
“Yogurt kebab is the special dish. It's my favourite,” says Zeliha. Lamb kofte and pieces of marinated chicken on a bed of toasted pita, all tossed generously in a tangy yogurt-tomato sauce. The chicken is so tender but lightly crisp on the outside. The sauce has a rich tomato flavour balanced by the thick yogurt, and the small pieces of toasted pita soak up the sauce as you eat it—just delicious. The marinated lamb shish kebab is incredibly tender and very flavourful. It gets a hint of smoke from being cooked on the charcoal grill. It comes with plenty of Turkish rice, a simple yet very satisfying dish.
Dessert time calls for Turkish coffee and tea, along with bite-sized pieces of homemade Turkish delight. That would be enough after such a big meal, but there is a special dessert today called kinefe. Also spelled knafeh, this dessert features shredded phyllo dough (think the consistency of shredded wheat) layered with mozzarella cheese, which is baked until crispy and then soaked in syrup. It’s served warm and topped with crushed walnuts. The dessert is quite sweet but offset slightly by the cheese. I enjoy the complex flavour and especially the crackling texture. I also try the baklava—because, of course, I have to. The phyllo pastry with walnut filling, baked and soaked in syrup, does not disappoint.
The Erdogans have seemed to retain many of their customers from when they operated downtown—Zehila says those who worked downtown but live in Bedford now come in for dinner instead of lunch. They are steadily building up new clientele at this new location. The quality of the food and level of care are evident in every detail. It’s a truly family-owned business, authentically Turkish, and worth a visit. Efes Turkish Cuisine is open seven days a week at 771 Bedford Highway, Unit 6, for both lunch and dinner.
Efes Turkish Cuisine
771 Bedford Hwy #6, Bedford
Turkish Restaurant $$-$$$ L/D (GF/V)
efesturkish.com
