Konak Turkish Restaurant — Restaurant in Sydney

Visited Konak for my 30th birthday. I popped into the restaurant few weeks prior and was able to Ali the owner and communicate with him my arrangement for my booking. He was kind enough to ensure we sat in the courtyard area and cater for my large group (21 people).

When you first walk in (the best part of venue) you instantly see the incredible kitchen and is aesthetically pleasing. The ambience and setting of the rest of the venue is pretty good. Some tacky arrangements but gives it that home/ authentic feel.

We opted for the banquet for my birthday and had to go on $50 pp as they had changed the original banquet of $60pp by dropping the Pide option.

The dips, breads, salads were very nice. For our group size they served out 5 plates per dish. The moment the meats came out they served 4 plates. Unfortunately this was not enough meat to completely satisfy all my guests. 6 grown men shared one plate of meat for example. I should add here when I visited the restaurant weeks prior I specifically asked Ali if the food would be enough for all my guests as I absolutely despise knowing my guests leave hungry…. There is nothing worst. He looked me in the eye and said there will be plenty, don’t worry. I even pointed at myself (I’m a Pacific Islander) and jokingly asked are you sure, there’s a few people who look like me and we like to eat… and he laughed and reiterated his answer.

On the night when I realised the meat wasn’t enough I approached Ali for one more plate of meat given the context of our convo weeks prior and I was simply refused. He said that’s what’s been allotted to us and everyone is assigned 300g of meat. This was unfortunate. I wasn’t going to argue cause at the end of the day it’s his say, but it was ashamed what I was told weeks ago was simply a lie and wasn’t honoured. The desserts was nice but only came out in bite size and probably 1-2 small pieces each.

Started well and sadly ended disappointed. I would not recommend the banquet menu. The food is nice, but the experience was soured...

4.1/5*

The Feed Punchers ventured into Newtown to try out ‘Konak’, a traditional Turkish restaurant. The food was tasty, offering a variety of flavours, but the portions were very small, bringing the value down.

The mixed Mezze contained a variety of Turkish inspired dips, including; Tzatziki, fava, muhammara, and of course, hummus. Accompanied with freshly baked pide, these dips were perfect. Our favourite component on the mezze came from the spicy capsicum flavours found in the muhammara dip.

The Adana kebab was the next endeavour for the punchers - A lamb kebab accompanied by a bed of almond and currents rice, with onions. The lamb carried strong flavours of garlic, cumin and sumac. Cooked to perfection, mouthfuls accompanied with raw onion and rice made us feel as if we were in Turkey.

The chicken shish spoke to us through a strong smokey profile. Brought out beside the smokey taste was prominent flavours of paprika, tomato and garlic. Again, accompanied by rice and onion.

The lamb shish utilised lamb back-strap, a tender cut of meat which was perfectly complimented by the charcoal method of cooking. This lamb shish harnessed beautiful smoky flavours with paprika, cumin and garlic and was complimented by a citrusy lemon-sumac flavour.

The Beyti tasted like a sausage roll with strong Turkish elements. It featured lamb mince intertwined with pistachio and strong tomato-paprika-capsicum flavours. This was rolled in a fried tortilla and served with yoghurt in bite sized pieces.

The falafels were very moist, cooked very nicely with a golden herb crust. They paired nicely on the bed of hummus they were served on, topped with a sprinkle of sumac.

The Sucuk was a pide which featured; Sausage, egg and mixed cheese. Topped with fresh coriander, it was like a wood fired pizza in taste.

Overall, Konak presented the Feed Punchers with a tasty array of Turkish flavours, but fell short in portion sizes. Two little kebab sticks for $34...

12/5/2021 - we came back for dinner this time and managed to sit at the court yard, which was nice and intimate. Food was delish! The lamb and beef cheeks were my faves. Servings were on the smaller side but the taste makes up for it. Service was really good too, our waitress was attentive and knew when to clear our table or serve the next course.

Our first time here for the Turkish breakfast banquet and it was ok, didn’t blow my socks off like I expected from previous reviews and photos. The cost of the banquet is $30 per person and the servings weren’t huge or generous so to speak. One sigara borek and one fried donut each and one pide per table to share, plus the other cold stuff like cheese, olives and jams. Wouldn’t call the banquet value for money. We asked for more tea and was left a metal teapot with super hot water, is much so you can’t even serve yourself like at yum cha places because the teapot was too hot to handle, had to wait a while for it to cool down to handle. Service was unlike the other Turkish places we’ve been to. Probably won’t return for breakfast but might come back to try other dishes.

20/1/2021 - Edited to reply in response to owners reply: Thank you for your reply @KonakTurkishKitchen, yes you are correct, we were never told that the banquet was free-flowing. When we ordered, and during our time there, the impression we were given was, that’s all the food we get. At no point were we told about your breakfast banquet. Also, point to note, that your website doesn’t also talk about the breakfast banquet and price, nor does it say the inclusions of the breakfast banquet. Might be a good idea to advertise these things for clarity to avoid confusion and disappointment from...