Craving Turkish delights? Funnily enough, Turkish delight is one of the few items not on the menu at Turks KL, a Turkish cafe and restaurant at Taman Tunku. Located in the half-moon-shaped plaza, The Stories at Taman Tunku, Turks will tempt you with their authentic cuisine.
Ambience & Amenities
The place to be is on the Turks’ patio. Marble-style tables and metal chairs look out at the small lawn and play area at the back of the restaurant. The roof protects from rain, and there are blinds at the edge of the patio to shade from the sun. There were only a couple of standing air conditioners, so it was mostly Westerners on the patio while all the Malaysians dined inside.
Turks’ washroom is in front of the patio entrance. There are two unisex stalls with toilets.
Menu at Turks KL
The menu at Turks KL is broad and sure to have something for everyone. Not into kebabs? No problem, there’s pide, borek, an assortment of delicious bread, and more. There are even some non-Turkish dishes like mandy on the menu too. Turkish breakfast is an experience, and Turks offers a 2-pax big breakfast deal that includes a huge smorgasbord of traditional food.
Click on menu pictures to enlarge
Food at Turks KL
The Turkish Tea Pot (RM19.90) is the only thing worth coming back to this restaurant for. The taste is correct, though it’s not served in a double pot, which means we couldn’t control the severity of the flavour. The cups are also larger than the traditional small tulip-shaped cups, which discourages slow sipping and cools the tea faster. We only poured ourselves half cups to make the pot last.
The Sigara Boregi (RM16.90) were ridiculously small. They weren’t cigars, more like cigarillos. In Turkey, an order of Sigara Boregi could be the better part of a meal – here at Turks, it’s a child-sized appetiser. They had a satisfying outer crisp, but it was too much pastry for the amount of feta stuffed into the miniature roll.
I had instant regret when my Beef Gozleme (RM22.90) arrived. It looked dry and had only a barely-there smear of beef filling in the middle. When eating gozleme, your hands should be so greasy that they turn the napkin clear when you wipe up. I only had a light blot of oil on my fingertips by the end of the dish. Some people might find this a positive thing, but not me. The accompanying garlic sauce and red pepper dip were essential to keep the dish from being utterly boring.
The Lamb Bursa Kebab (RM43.90) arrived, and the server poured some extra bubbling hot oil over the dish. The dish looked proper with the charred green pepper and dollop of yogurt. There was too much bread underneath, and it was too soft. It turned into an unappealing soggy mush from the sauce and oil, so we didn’t finish it. I think it would’ve been better if the bread had been, strangely enough, more stale and thus firmer. The lamb is also very thinly sliced and not adequate for the volume of bread. We needed to have two slices of lamb in our bites, otherwise its flavours completely disappeared among the sauce.
Saturday Worthy?
As someone who lived in Turkey for a year, everything we ordered was a let-down and not authentically Turkish in some way. I had high hopes for Turks to be great – we wanted to have a true taste of Turkey locally. Turks might be passable if you’ve never been to Turkey and don’t know how the food is supposed to be. Or, if you’re Turkish and desperately craving manti and sucuk, since Turkish restaurants in KL often don’t serve anything more exciting than kebabs. It’s a shame, but we won’t be back here.
Price for 2 Pax: RM113.95
Turkish Tea Pot: RM19.90
Sigara Boregi: RM16.90
Gozleme Beef: RM22.90
Bursa Kebab (Lamb): RM43.90
10% Service: RM10.36
Turks KL
Address: Unit A2, Block A (next to Kenny Hills Bakers), The Stories of Taman Tunku, Jalan Langgak Tunku, Taman Tunku, Bukit Tunku, 50480 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur
Opening Hours: 8am – 10pm Daily
Alcohol Served: No
