Sirali – Al Habtoor City Dubai

Sirali truly serves authentic Ottoman cuisine. This is the restaurant to be if you ever wanted to try authentic Ottoman or Turkish cuisine. Whatever came to our table has been just mind blowing. Be it the presentation or taste, you are just bound to be mesmerized with new flavours to your taste buds. The food is a pure representation of their culture and traditional cooking and you really can feel it in their dishes from the ingredients used. If you’ve never been here then you are bound to see dishes that you’ve never eaten before and you definitely going to love them for their freshness and flavours. Scroll down further to know what you can expect at Sirali…

We began our dinner with hot breads and 3 kinds of butter on a small plate. The accompanied bread was light, hollow and crispy. These came as complimentary on every table. We picked 3 different drinks and all of them had very distinct taste from each other. The Arnold Palmer mocktail was really different and nice for what it contained was Turkish Tea, Honey, Fresh Mint, Soda, Strawberry Ice. The other mocktail was even more satisfying which was mainly a mix of pineapple, orange, lime and I loved the touch of cinnamon in it. Ayran is a typical Turkish classic yoghurt drink which is good to have especially if you’ve got some spicy dishes in your order.

The starters were exciting. We haven’t see anything like it before. Beginning with the striking dish on our table which was the chili dipped in yoghurt. It was a simple dish of just chili and yoghurt but wow what an impact it had on the presentation level. The chili at first didn’t feel spicy but as you wait a minute you begin to feel it in you, so beware the chili isn’t as nice as it’s good looks, it could get spicy for some. The fried kibbeh was one of the best we’ve had. Heavily loaded with meat, nuts and it has a slight touch of sweetness to it. It was a giant heavy kibbeh but everyone on the table finished it easily because it was that good. The salad was just ok, the more I ate the more I felt I was eating tomato and cucumber. One dish which I am going to order first next time would be the Sirali zaatar that comes with strained yoghurt. Simply an amazing dish. Eating the zaatar dish felt so good in the stomach and ingredients such as pomagranade, olives, olive oil adds additional zest to this beautiful starter. The stuffed pumpkin felt like eating rice wrapped by pasta sheets which you enjoy along with spicy yoghurt.

Main course was a platter of meats. The first one had different kinds of meat specialties. The second platter was mainly chicken drumsticks. Both platters had the bulgur rice as a side. We thoroughly enjoyed the Sirali Mix special platter as it had different kinds of meats, some of them even stuffed with cheese. The different spices on these meats made them taste different. Love the green chili pepper, yoghurt and other condiments that come along in the platter. Also notice the style plate, it comes in wood and steel.

For the desserts we had the Turkish signature collection. The katmer with Turkish ice cream is a must try. A thin flaky pastry stuffed with pistachio which comes warm and then you stuff it with the cold Turkish ice cream which has a different texture than a regular ice cream. The combination of hot and cold by itself was like a wow effect in the mouth. The milk cake is also one of the signature desserts, you most likely will find it in most Turkish restaurants and this one is a perfect one to enjoy. Creamy and milky in texture and that’s the best part about it.

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