Arabesque

Comfortably seated on a striped banquette, behind a table swathed in maroon and crisp white linen, gives you a ringside seat for the heady Ottoman flavours in Arabesque's dining room. Filo pastry fingers redolent of cinnamon, lamb and pinenuts are tempered by a syrupy sweet pomegranate molasses and make a perfect start. Moist charred calamari tentacles rest on a rocket salad bright with lemon. Lengths of roast red capsicum are simply sublime between creamy feta chunks and fat slices of fiery sucuk (sausage). A tower of vibrant yellow saffron pilaf is the piece de resistance, speckled with meaty kofta balls, a velvety tahini sauce and lashings of coriander. And while the day's fish (perhaps blue-eye) may arrive a tad dry despite a rich ratatouille topping, it's all speedily whisked to the table with affection and just enough cheek from the staff to enliven proceedings. Arabesque dishes up warmth, baklava and Turkish delights in all the right quantities.