Ahmet's Bulimba

I really should learn my lesson about taking only a single shot of something. If I need that shot, it's inevitably blurry, dammit!

Aside from football we haven't really had any social outings for a while, so Gam and I arranged with some friends to have dinner at Ahmet's restaurant at Southbank on Friday night. By the time we finalised numbers it was Wednesday night, so Gam used their website's online booking facility.

It wasn't until Thursday afternoon that Ahmet's called to let us know that they were fully booked for large groups, so we decided to try Ahmet's on Oxford, the newer operation at Bulimba. It's directly down the road from the Bulimba City Cat stop, so it was still easy to get to, and we figured a night-time City Cat ride past Southbank would be quite pretty besides.

We first went to Ahmet's Southbank restaurant a couple of years ago with some of the same friends. The food was fantastic, the quantities of it astonishingly large- so large that I was the only one to finish my meal of 5 fist-sized falafel on a massive bed of salad, a feat I only achieved by plugging away at the meal over the course of a couple of hours! I recall a couple of people ordering meat dishes and being presented with a large plate containing a veritable mountain of spiced, shaved meat and nothing else. That said, we had ordered plate after plate of the fresh turkish bread to eat with the numerous delicious dips they served prior to the main meals being brought out. Best of all was being able to watch the bread being cooked from where we were sitting, before it was rushed out in baskets for us to eat. Along with being one of the biggest meals I have ever eaten, our meal at the Southbank Ahmet's ranks as one of the best.

The Southbank Ahmet's called Gam on Friday after we'd booked Bulimba, but when he tried to phone them back he only reached the answering machine.

Bek and Michael on the City Cat

We had everyone except Amelia and Victor (who have real jobs) over for drinks beforehand- I thought it would make the 4 minute City Cat ride go faster, and maybe it did (Bulimba City Cat stop is the second last on the river), but it was such a nice night and so pretty that it was actually quite good fun and hardly seemed to take any time at all. For the $5.20 cost of two concession return tickets, it's a hell of a way to travel.

That bloody one-shot habit again...

Um...

When we got to Ahmet's, the decor wasn't quite as warm and inviting as the Southbank restaurant (although they have the same comfy seats), but the service was impeccable. It's quite usual to be presented with bottles of water and glasses to drink while perusing the menu, but the main waiter who served us throughout the meal ensured they were consistently replaced when they became empty, without any of us having to ask.

Did I mention they have bellydancing?!

When I went to use the toilet, and my friend Nicole came in (telling me her modus operandi on visiting any establishment was to first check out the bathrooms- not a bad policy, really), we discovered that there was only a single toilet. I give them positive marks for using decent quality toilet paper (Kleenex Cottonelle, I think), but a negative for the complete lack of hand-drying facilities (they were all out of paper towel). The bathroom was clean, brightly lit, and didn't smell, which gets it a passing grade. It's not the sort of bathroom you would linger in (if you were a woman, ok!) to admire the facilities, but it's not the sort of bathroom that you leave feeling dirtier than when you went in.

This time at Ahmet's we were tempted by the 'feast' options on the menu. We eventually went with two of the options- a 'Vegetarian Feast' for 4 ($29.95 a head), and a 'Sultan's Feast' for 5, figuring we could all help ourselves. Gam grumbled good-naturedly about the Sultan's Feast being the 'wussy' option, given that there were one or two more feast options that promised even more platters of meat.

The first course was the bread and dips, and it was as good as we'd remembered. We did run out of bread before we'd finished all the dips, so when the waiter asked if they should be cleared away we requested that they be left, as there were plans to purchase another basket or two of bread with which to polish them off.

Some of the dips... mmm

For drinks, the boys had beer, I saw Amelia order one of the cocktails on the menu, and I ordered a turkish coffee, which was really nice (I don't think I've had turkish before, and I haven't had any coffee in ages, which probably made me enjoy it all the more). Our new friend Michael ordered the ayran, which is described on the menu as being like a 'yoghurt shake'. Personally I love the stuff- it's a cool, salty, fresh-tasting yoghurt drink. But if I'd never tried it before and was told to expect a 'shake' I would probably expect something akin to a sweet lassi, which is why Michael found his ayran an unpleasant surprise. I helpfully offered to finish it off for him :)

Nicole suggested we go halves in trying a Tekirdag raki (raki is the name of the spirit, I think Tekirdag is a brand or variety), billed on the menu as a 'traditional Turkish spirit'. I (correctly) guessed that it would be an anise-flavoured drink somewhat like ouzo. It had a really cool and refreshing taste- would be fantastic on a hot summer night.

Vegetarian guvec... vegetable hot-pot... whatever.

Chicken guvec

That instruction was remembered until the second course of various hotpots (chicken, lamb and vegetable) with rice and salads were served, eaten and cleared away... the dips magically vanished along with them, probably cleared up by a waiter who hadn't been informed of our earlier request to leave them. That was a sad moment, and my only complaint of the night. I think we'll have to make a return trip sometime just to fill up on bread and dip.

A 'Vegetarian Feast' platter

The next course was the most impressive: the Vegetarian Feast consisted of a large plate of stuffed vine leaves, two stuffed capsicums, some stuffed zucchini and some stuffed rolls wrapped in rice paper (Nicole's guess) or cabbage (my guess... I just ate the things- they tasted good and I wasn't in a mood to analyse what I was eating, probably thanks to the pre-dinner cocktails). Oddly, there was only a single falafel on each platter, and not a particularly large one either. I thought it looked rather forlorn. Certainly they were nothing like the falafels I had at Southbank Ahmet's a couple of years ago- I would say they were a little pale and insipid by comparison.

Carnivore's Sultan's feast

The enormous meat platter for the Sultan's Feast looked very impressive, and obviously very tempting, as I didn't even have time to photograph it before the meat started disappearing. I tried a piece of the spiced lamb shish thingy- it was tasty but could probably have done with a bit more bite. Gam was highly enamored of the spiced chunks of beef.

I think we had all psyched ourselves up for another couple of courses, given how much trouble we'd had finishing our meals last time around. So we were surprised when the plates were cleared away and the turkish delight and brewed coffee were served. I think we were all merely full when we expected to be bursting at the seams!



Given that the best turkish delight in Brisbane is served at A Salt and Battery (made, if I remember correctly, by the owner's mum!), I didn't have high hopes for the Ahmet's turkish delight. Just as well- it was acceptable, but nothing extraordinary. Just a tad too chewy for my liking, the flavour was a bit flat, and I disliked the drizzle of strawberry coulis over the top... Still, you don't go to Ahmet's for the Turkish delight. I have been known to make a trip to A Salt and Battery just for the turkish delight, but nowhere else. The coffee was quite good, but Niall said his was too cold (I would have swapped if I had known, as I can't stand my drinks too hot).

Once we'd all put in the cash for our meals there was an excess of $13 or so, which we were happy to leave as a tip, considering the service we'd received. I'll even forgive them for running off too soon with those delicious dips.

The trip back on the City Cat went so fast I find it hard to believe it took 40 minutes. 40 minutes in a car, on a bus or on a train is hell, but I'll say it again- the City Cat is the way to travel.

Picture of Nicole turned out just beautifully.

Pictures of me, on the other hand...

... left something to be desired!