Owners of the popular Turkish Grill in Erindale have opened a new restaurant

Husband and wife team Sukru Kocak and Tania Vereschildt-Kocak have owned the Turkish Grill for 18 years. In 2019 was it named the ACT's favourite restaurant in Menulog's Summer Restaurant Awards and best speciality restaurant in the Restaurant and Catering Australia's Savour awards.

"The Turkish Grill is a crazy little shop," says Vereschildt-Kocak.

"When you have takeaway and delivery, you can't offer a very nice dining experience. When you've got the door opening 200 times a night, people walking in, getting their food, walking out, delivery drivers, three telephone lines ringing, three different iPads making sounds. It's a very busy, bustling shop.

"During COVID we extended our kitchen to cope with the demand of takeaway and delivery, we also do lots of large catering. The place is just always on the go."

The pair wanted to be able to offer a more relaxed dining experience and when a space two doors down in the Erindale shopping centre became available they leapt at the opportunity and opened Anatolia Mediterranean Restaurant.

"We've always wanted to do something where it's solely a restaurant, there's no takeaway, no delivery," says Vereschildt-Kocak.

"It's a beautiful restaurant, there's a beautiful bar, there's a little stage where we might do live music, it's a perfect set up for functions and events.

"People love my husband's food and they're always wanting to book somewhere to suit 50, 60 people and we couldn't do that in the Turkish Grill."

As executive chef Kocak has elevated some of the Turkish Grill favourites but is loving the chance to present different dishes from around the Mediterranean.

Order twists on Turkish sigara borek, crispy filo rolls filled with feta and spices, or grilled eggplant with tomato sugo and ricotta.

He's excited by a new charcoal grill, where chicken, lamb cutlets and wagyu steaks feature. There's also plenty of seafood, whole fish done with parsley, capers, crushed red peppers and garlic.

Other highlights include Turkish hotpots: spiced slow-cooked beef in a tomato salsa; seafood with tomato and fennel.

Desserts might include kenefe, kadayif pastry stuffed with stringy cheese and cooked until crispy and golden, served with Turkish ice-cream; or a Persian Love Cake, soaked with a lemon-rosewater syrup, a hint of citrus, pistachios and aromatic spices topped with double whipped cream and fruit.

They're also doing weekend breakfasts featuring Mediterranean favourites such as cilbir (Turkish poached eggs atop garlic yoghurt with a spiced butter sauce) and sucuk and eggs (Turkish sausage with fried eggs and fresh bazlama bread).

Vereschildt-Kocak says even though they thought about opening a restaurant somewhere such as the Kingston Foreshore, they wanted to stay in Erindale where they've received so much support from the community.

"People shouldn't have to travel into the city to find a nice venue," she says.

"And for functions too, it's nice we can offer something a little more elegant than a room in a club or something like that."

It also helps to be close to the Turkish Grill. As well as the two venues the couple also run the Anatolia Mediterranean Market in Fyshwick. Located next to Chemist Warehouse in Iron Knob Street, it sells everything from herbs and spices to Turkish delight and baklava, canned vegetables to cheeses, chickpeas, olive oil and dried fruit.

Add two young daughters, Aylaa and Esah, into the mix and Vereschildt-Kocak is happy to admit life can get a little frantic.

"In many ways it will be nice in the restaurant, where the diners are all calm and relaxed, hopefully some of that will rub off on us."