Eating out: A trip to the suburbs brings delicious Turkish discoveries

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Iskender Doner Kebab House
1750 Inns Rd., 613-321-1700
Open: Sunday to Thursday from 10:30 am to 9:00 pm, Friday and Saturday from 10:30 am to 9:30 pm
price: Shawarma and Kebab Platter $17.60 ～ $22.99
access: No steps to the entrance

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taba kitchen
7B Kakul Road, 613-435-7888, tava.kitchen
Open: Wednesday to Sunday 11am to 6pm, closed Monday and Tuesday
price: pide flatbread $9.99 to $15.99
access: small step at the entrance

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In the past, Ottawa’s suburbs and their strip malls were vastly lacking in attractive restaurants compared to the downtown core. How would Hazeldene Road in Kanata and Longfields Drive in Barhaven meet the restaurants of Preston Street, Elgin Street and Wellington Street West?

But in the decade I’ve been writing about the city’s restaurants, dining in Ottawa’s suburbs has become far more interesting, especially when it comes to the breadth of cuisine on offer. Suburban fine dining is still lacking, but more and more hidden, more affordable gems are popping up. Think Tilweka, or Kohka Eatery, a small but mighty Pakistani spot on Longfields Drive that opened last year. For anyone downtown, both are worth the drive.

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And then there is a modest but very attractive Turkish food business that I tried this month.

First up is the Iskender Doner Kebab House, which opened a few months ago in the Ines Road Strip Mall. The inside looks pretty generic, like the old fast food restaurant that must have been there, but now there are posters of Turkish scenic spots on the walls. I chose Iskender over the store.

One is the eponymous dish, Iskender ($22.99), or Iskender Kebab, according to the Wikipedia entry. Sliced ​​doner kebab meat topped with a rich tomato sauce, placed on pita bread and served generously with plain yogurt.

In Turkey, this former national dish has become a national favourite. The reason was that I could taste it based on what I ate at Ines Road. The meat is rich, the tomato sauce is rich, the pita bread is pita bread, and the yogurt is creamy but refreshing.

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(Side note: Wolf Dawn on Bank Street and German Doner Kebab on Elgin Street are international franchise operations serving doner kebabs inspired by the Turkish fast food served in Berlin. These locations die-hard fans might want to sample Iskender’s Turkish beef shawarma, for comparison.)

Iskender also made impressive charcoal-grilled kebabs ($17.99 for both platters). These include a very moist and flavorful chicken kebab and a slightly spicy Adana kebab of ground veal and lamb named after a province in southeastern Turkey.

The halal meat platter was served with a variety of impressive accompaniments. For me, the only component that didn’t outperform similar items elsewhere was the garlic sauce that accompanied the chicken shawarma plate.

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This week, take home a variety of Turkish pides (boat-shaped flatbreads with a variety of toppings, likened to pizza) from Tava Kitchen, which will open in a secluded Kanata strip mall in the summer of 2021. I was.

I’ve happily eaten at Pita Bell, a Turkish-Mediterranean restaurant on Carling Avenue before, but Taba’s chef and owner Fati Anderoglu’s three pides were certainly at least as good. (Again, some A/B testing is required.)

Tava is a charming but small takeout place with two stools at the counter, and Anderoglu makes 14 varieties of pide ranging in price from $9.99 to $14.99.

Featuring a blend of ground beef and five cheeses from Montreal ($11.99), the pide (pronounced “pide”) was hearty and flavorful. The Spinach and Cheese Pidet ($12.99) had a milder yet pleasantly salty flavor. Lovers of Middle Eastern/Mediterranean cured meats will want to try the ‘Deli Pide’ ($15.99).

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I’m kicking myself for failing to rush to order Tava’s Antep pistachio dolama ($6.99). This is a baklava-adjacent dessert that features premium his pistachios surrounded by filo pastry but includes clotted his cream and ice cream toppings.

I brought home a Montreal-made pistachio baklava from Iskender and thought they were excellent.

According to Google Maps, Taba could benefit from its proximity to the Ottawa Anatolian Cultural Center, also in Kanata South. Further searching revealed that Ottawa has an Istanbul food mart he opened in Kanata in 2021 and another in Gloucester on Montreal Road this summer.

A third location for the business is planned for Orléans, home to Little Turkish Village Restaurant, a 30-year-old restaurant last reviewed by the newspaper in 2001.

It seems that sooner or later we have to try new and old Turkish cuisine in the suburbs.

phum@postmedia.com