just when you thought that the flower of turkish cuisine was at the peak of its season, along comes a la turca to gild the lily. i think this restaurant is one of the reasons i stay in dubai, for from the moment you cross the threshold of this beautiful place, you are transported...let's start with the setting: you can sit comfortably indoors, on well-spaced tables perfect for business meetings and private conversations; or you can put on your sidney greenstreet (he of rick's in the movie 'casablanca') and dine al fresco, beneath the overhead fans, with a view of the waterfront between palm jumeirah and duba. if this is starting to remind you of that beautiful restaurant in istanbul with its magnificent views of the bosporus, sunset grill and bar, it should.
a la turca proffers its offerings along a series of tables and counters which adds the element of discovery and surprise to the heady sensuality of its stylish presentations. but pace yourself, and remember this: about ten minutes after you sit down the staff is going to come over and erect a small oval platform on your table and then serve you a piping hot "turkish pizza" (lachmacun)directly from the oven. this is sophisticated pizza indeed, redolent of tomato, cinnamon, clove and pomegranate molasses over a minced beef and onion concasse (and it also feeds my schadenfreude that children don't like it, the poor spoiled dears.)
a four meter long table groans under the weight of at least ten different kinds of fresh-baked breads here, and this yeast-feast backs onto a table featuring twenty some-odd different salads. don't miss the red-colored bulgar wheat salad which is labeled something like muhammara (but it isn't the arabic condiment that goes by the same name) and the octopus salad and the meltingly tender eggplant salad; on the other side, a series of crisp-tender vegetable salads (zeytin yaghn and don't miss the tase fusulye, a green bean salad), and did i mention the shotglasses filled with gazpacho, ceviche and other delicacies too numerous to mention. the problem here is having appetite enough, since we are only at the salad stage and have yet to visit...
...the entrees. now among the ten hot entrees there is always a roast--beef tenderloin, medium rare at a carving station, a concession, no doubt, to the bland leading the bland and in four visits here i saw four variations on grilled and baked fish dishes, classic turkish offerings, including doener, koefte and several kinds of kepabs, and, on my last visit, the improbably situated and wonderfully delicious polish style cauliflower (kalafior po polsku?) to carry all the food i wanted to taste to my table would have required a livestock hauling permit, and all of this precedes the desserts.
this is the moment when you know a type 2 diabetic reaction is about to onset, and so you reduce the profiterole ziggurat under construction on your plate by a morsel or two. yikes, i didn't know there were thirteen variations on halwa nor seven on baklawa, each with its own shelf, fresh fruits, dried fruits, nuts...oh come on, how much better could the sultan's palace get than this?
a few words about the service: it's the best in dubai. i used to say service in dubai is an abomination. now i say service in dubai outside of a la turca is an abomination. restaurants everywhere should send their staff to train here, for never is a napkin left unfolded, a glass of water unfilled nor does the staff hover and fawn and smother you with phony smiles; there is something heartfelt about the way the waitstaff executes its perfect, understated style.
if i don't say something critical now, you will suspect that i work for owners (i would consider it, if the job came with a meal plan) and so i would ask only that the managers forbid young children from eating in the restaurant after 8:00 pm. their noisiness and unruly behavior (running around the food stations, shrieking and crying) can, at times, give the exquisite face of a la turca a black eye. and yes, i know it's the parents' fault, that it's their responsibility to reign in their charges, that they think the world owes them a favor because they have children or because their nanny is taking a well-deserved day off, but it's awful. in new york (outside of staten island) or paris or london such things are not permitted and for good reason: it ruins an otherwise perfect evening for everyone except the solipsistic parents.
now for some good news: this whole ravishing experience costs a whopping aed 160. it is extraordinary value for money. and the only other thing like it in dubai is the friday brunch at al qasr. a la turca is surely one of the great restaurants in dubai and one of the few where such exquisite levels of cuisine may be enjoyed in an informal and beautiful setting.