Sofra Turkish Cafe & Restaurant

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Sofra is the Turkish word for table located in a comfy corner in town. You can sip a cup of relaxing turkish tea while enjoying the renown hospitality from the dedicated kitchen crew, all of whom hail from turkey. It is located on the second floor of Shaw Towers which gives you a great view of the bustling street. It is a about a 3 minute walk from Bugis MRT.Checking out the menu, you will realize the exotic foods of Turkey mainly come with bread or rice and for protein, you can pick from Chicken, Lamb, Beef or a mix of these 3 meats.The restaurant ambiance is comforting and cosy. The atmosphere has a Mediterranean feel with soft Turkish music playing in the background and an open concept kitchen with a see through window where you can see how the kebab is prepared.If you like meat, you will feel quite at home over here.They have quite a huge dining area and there were big families coming in to dine on a saturday night.1. Pretty Dolly $4.90++The Pretty Doll was a lemon soda that tasted like a lemon flavoured sprite. Nothing fancy to be honest. I would rather get the Sofra Mocktail which had almonds, plums and pistachios in the drink for $5.20++. Nonetheless it was still an interesting drink to test out.2. Turkish Bread and Humus $2.90++ + $5.90++I love bread with dips and this Turkish Bread was shaped like a UFO dish and steam was still piping out as it was served to us. The thickness of the bread was just right and it reminded me of my trip to Israel for weeks we ate hummus and pita! The bread dough was very flavourful but with the hummus dip, it was perfect! Hummus is a traditional turkish dip of mashed chickpeas and spices and with a zest of lemon juice. Sofra's rendition of the dish was even better. The flavours blended well together making it a delicious appetizer and complimenting the freshly baked bread.3. Jumbo Kebap Combo $38.90The Jumbo Kebap Combo is great for those that love their meat but can’t quite decide what to get. The meat is served to you on skewers hot off the grill. When it arrives, our jaws drop. Sword, candle, flowers, all the works. It certainly has that wow factor doesn’t it?This Jumbo combo comes with various kinds of kebab, or kebap in Turkish, including shish and döner. This dish can be quite initimidating too! While the menu advertises this as being a platter for two, the generous portion makes it large enough to feed three adults.The eggplant kebap was a roasted SWORD of eggplant and minced beef. It was an actual stainless steel turkish sword that the wait staff would gladly get it out of your way, in case you hurt yourself with it!I love the touch of a onion flower bowl to hold the salad. So pretty to look at and the salad was so refreshing to eat!4. Shish Kebap (Lamb/Beef) $18.50++ per choice of meatAnd it wouldn’t be a Turkish meal without Shish Kebap (Kebab/kebap) would it? I’m not so sure why the menu description says it comes with ‘cracked wheat’, since the plate seemed more like a generous platter of vegetables, protein and carbohydrates. It was a melange of pickled red cabbage, onions, roasted peppers, tomatoes, deliciously smokey chicken and beef chunks, and a tasty mound of short-grain rice with chickpeas. If this isn’t a well-balanced dish, I don’t know what is.5. Chef Platter $22.80The Chef Platter is a combination plate consisting of Doner Kebap, Izgara Kofte and a skewer of Shish Kebap . The mixed beef and lamb was tender and juicy and so was the chicken! The skewer of chicken Shish Kebap was a tad dry to me but it was nicely marinated. Izgara Kofte which is actually grilled flat meatball. This piece looks like chicken meat to me as the colour was quite pale as compared to the other piece. It was juicy and delicious! The other grilled flat meatball on the plate, probably a mixed of beef and lamb, tasted great too!6. Yogurtlu Kebab $18.90++Beef and Lamb Kebap flavoured in Sofra's own yogurt sauce. It had bits of bread mixed in with the meat. The bread would be soggy but would've soaked up the yogurt goodness. I think this is a high protein and yet rather healthy main! The rice was also very flavourful and not too oily. I had trouble trying to finish this dish despite sharing it with someone else!We were really full and satisfied so gave dessert a miss. Anyway we will still go without it as Turkish desserts are generally too sweet for our liking.All in all, great service and great food. The ambience is truly exotic and you can have a fun time. I witnessed several groups of people celebrating birthdays at Sofra. If you are huge fan of Authentic Turkish food and dessert, this is the restaurant you should try out. They have everything under one roof!As you walk out, the staff will offer your a lemon scented hand sanitizer, don't be afraid to try it! It's apparently Turkish custom to do so! continue reading

We braced ourselves for their poor services when we came here for dinner. Maybe because we were here at 6pm and we were only one of two tables occupied, service was ok. Not the warmest expected but no bad. We had a Chef Platter to share and the meat slices though they looked very dry, they were full of flavour in your mouth! Very very good!!!We also has their Hummus which was also very good with the Turkish Bread. Roasted Eggplant Salad turned out to be a cold dish and we kinda didn't expect it. It's not bad but I won't order it again. I had the Sultan Kebab which I didn't realize it was with that much cheese. I loved the cheese and stewed meat combo. Hubby had the Pide which is essentially a Turkish pizza I guess. He enjoyed it. Two of my friends had the Chicken Baked Rice and they liked how cheesy and creamy it was, with a generous amount of grilled chicken meat that's with good flavour. We enjoyed the Chef Platter the most in the end and would probably get that...one for each one of us! Haha continue reading

Sofra Turkish Cafe & Restaurant offers affordable set lunches which include a main and a drink. The set lunches starts from $7.90 for a Sofra Kebap (baked bread filled with meat, walnut, eggplant, tomato and cheese). You can choose either Doner Kebap Rice (doner kebap served with Turkish fragrant rice) or Pide (Turkish pizza) for $9.90 and Guvec Tavuk (oven baked chicken and mushroom served with rice) or Mushroom Fish (baked cream dory with mushroom sauce serve with rice and salad) for $14.90.I curious to know the difference with Turkish pizza and the usual pizza we eat hence I ordered Pide. It came in a boat-like shaped with its sides folded in and chicken and cheese generously spread in the middle. The chicken is well marinated and the cheese simply softens in the mouth but nothing very much special. continue reading

Went to Sofra to celebrate a friend's birthday. The place was very empty when we reached, only one other table was occupied. There were some very value for money lunch sets (price range from 7.90-14.90 nett). I had the Doner Kebap Rice with chicken, there was a very generous amount of meat. The rice was mixed with short strands of beehoon, giving the rice a very fragrant taste and smell. It tasted a little like coconut rice, very yummy. There was some veggies at the side comprising of cut tomatoes, cucumbers, green and red pepper. The mix was very good, with the juicy tomatoes and cucumbers complementing the slightly spicy and drier green and red pepper. The kebap chicken was very delicious! It's tender and not hard like other kebaps, and cooked to perfection! Best kebap I've eaten. My friend had the Doner Kebap Rice with beef and lamb, the mix of the two meats gave a very strong taste and smell. For diners who don't like the strong smell of lamb, I would suggest not going for this option. The chicken is a definitely must try for kebap lovers! continue reading

Since my last visit to Sofra Turkish Cafe & Restaurant, I’ve have been craving for their Chicken Kebap. This time, I brought love <3 there for lunch. Since Doner Kebap Rice is highly recommended by me, love also ordered that. This time we ordered starters to share – Salad Plate – a combination of sofra salad, eggplant salad, hummus and vine leaves roll. The presentation for this Salad Plate is eye-catching. The eggplant salad is well marinated and delightful. The vine leaves roll is something unique and sweet tasting. We also ordered a Turkish Bread to go along with our Salad Plate. The Turkish Bread is warm and fluffy and taste great with the Salad Plate. continue reading