Sofra Turkish Cafe & Restaurant

This restaurant has two entrances, one via the main building lobby and the other via a small stairway hidden at one corner where it is being lit by candles and small ornaments adorn the sides of the stairs. Quite a nice setting. The restaurant has some sofa seats and utilizes a rustic approach towards their interior design. Wooden chairs and tables, wooden screens. Colourful lanterns, it creates a soothing yet cheerful and romantic atmosphere.

The occassion for today is a gathering of friends. A nice place to have gathering because it cater to muslim friends as well with their Halal certification and the ambience is rather nice. However, it is not advisable to hold a gathering for more than 25 people, it creates an awkward seating arrangement.

The waiters and waitresses are rather friendly although I hope they would be more attentive and take the initiative to serve water and refill water without prompting. As we were celebrating a birthday, they offer to light the candles and even provide the candles normally we have to provide ourselves.

As I had a heavy lunch earlier at Amirah's Grill, I decided to share a Chef Plate ($17.50) with my friend who also had lunch with me earlier. The Chef Plate was recommended by the waiter as one of the most popular dishes in the restaurant. It is a combination plate of Doner kebap, Izgara Kofte and a skewer of Shish Kebap served with some bread and a salsa like mixture (the salad) on a onion 'flower'. The meats are rather nice although it is abit on the drier side. I like the mixture of the salad, bread and the various kinds of kebap that you can choose to consume with. The Izgara kofte (grilled flat meatball) is rather tantalizing, it has a nice blend of spice and lean, juicy meat. The Shish kebap is abit dry (grilled cubed meat). The Doner Kebap is quite okay.

My friends had other dishes. The most prominent one is the Adana Kebap ($14.80) which is being served with a sword-like skewer. High points for presentation. White he gave it a 4/5, he described it as tasting like an otah.

Another had Chicken Baked Rice for $13.50. The chicken here is very fragrant and flavourful. The rice isn't that great though. My friend prefers to have more cheese on this dish. It scored 4/5 for him.

Shish Kebap (Lamb) is described has being tender but my friend felt that the food portion is alittle small for the price of $14.50. It scored 3/5.

The Sofra Kebap ($15.50) scored 3.5/5.

Shish Kebap (Beef) - $14.80 scored 3/5, its weak points being small quantity and the meat hardens quickly when it starts to cool down.

Along with the food items. I also had the Turkish Iced Apple Tea which tasted like Lipton Iced Apple Tea or something. It is rather ordinary. It cost about $2.80

Overall, I found the food acceptable but not awesome quality. The ambience is quite good with its quaint interior and the view outside is nice, you get to see the traffic along Beach Road, quite a nice view at night. The service is okay too and they surprised me with their offering of sweets and scented liquid/ sanitizer when we made our leave.

i can't comment too much about the authenticity of turkish food, since this can be considered my virgin experience. however, i really enjoyed myself at this place.

ambience-
this place is nice and spacious, and the view overlooking the junction is really therapeutic. i was here on a weekday night, so that could explain the few patrons. liked the fact that the tables were suitably spaced apart.

food-
between the four of us, we ordered hummus, turkish and sesame bread for starters, sultan kebap, jumbo kebap combo and sofra yaprak tavuk.

my friend and i who shared the combo had a fun time figuring out the various meats on the plate (by making my friend who is averse to lamb, smell it). i really enjoyed the sliced beef, although it looked really dry on the plate, it was surprisingly flavorful and not tough at all. however, the eggplant kebap was not satisfactory. the eggplant was burnt and all i could detect was a charred taste. the minced meat accompanying the eggplant was well-flavoured (beware, spicy!). the sliced chicken is really tasty and more tender than i would have expected it to be.

this plate is probably a carnivore's dream come true, but the purple cabbage and tomatoes with capsicum accompanying the meats were a welcome respite for my tastebuds. the two accompanying slices of bread was not really sufficient for two for carbo.

i only had a taste of the rest, but no one had any trouble finishing up their food with glee.
overall, i enjoyed this place. looking forward to visit again to try the rice dishes and desserts

tucked in a little corner on the 2nd floor of shaw towers, i haven\\\'t heard of the place before. instead i was brought there by a friend, who had eaten there previously. it was relatively empty when we went at 7pm and service was rather quick. we could see the two middle-eastern looking chefs in their kitchen, and they smiled at us!

food-wise, we ordered the turkish bread, hummus, chef\\\'s plate and the sultan kebab dish that had cheese with mutton on top of mashed potatoes. that was my favourite one. the chef\\\'s plate consisted of the flattened meatballs, a stick of chicken kebab, some sliced chicken, mutton slices and some veggies with 2 pieces of turkish bread. quite a good deal since you got a bit of everything. the hummus was quite well-flavoured and served with a cherry tomato and olive.

my friend ordered the iced turkish apple tea as well and it was quite refreshing - tastes like normal apple tea but without the artificial flavouring like in season\\\'s. overall it was a great meal. see pics!

With the numerous number of articles and accolades plastered on the transparent glass at the shop front, I had heightened expectations about the impending meal here.

As the first customers, S and myself were privileged to get the best seats in the house, window seats facing Rochor Road. The scenic view of an urban backdrop doesn't really appeal to me though so I sat facing away from the window, choosing to people watch instead.

S and I shared the Hummus with Turkish Bread as starters. When S asked what was Turkish Bread, the waiter replied nonchalantly, "It's the same as normal bread.". Tsk Tsk, we were so not enlightened. When the bread arrived, clearly there was a slight different from your generic Gardenia. The Turkish Bread was nicely toasted, more dense than conventional white bread and had the subtle hint of fragrant sesame from the sprinkling of sesame seeds. Not a connoisseur of Turkish food, I can't really give an objective comparison for the hummus but on a superficial level, I thought it was rich and appetizing and reminded me of salmon spread from childhood days. Anyway, inquisitive me continued asking about the powders sprinkled on top of the Hummus. Clearly this was a toughie but the waiter tried to smoke his way through saying the red powder was chili powder and the brown powder was paprika. My goodness, brown paprika indeed. Later on, I did clarify with the cook that the red powder was chili powder and the brown one was cumin powder.

For mains, Sultan Kebap(typo on the menu?) was in short, mash potatoes baked with an excess of mozzarella and lamb stew. I don't know if this was authentic Turkish cuisine but I ordered it anyway since I'm a sucker for mash. Lucky for me, this proved to be the highlight of the meal. The mildly spiced lamb was so tender and can easily be mistaken for beef due to the lack of pungent taste normally found in badly cooked lamb. However, I would have preferred a larger mash to mozzarella ratio.

The chef's plate is probably one of the more popular items here since it has a little of everything and knowing Singaporeans, we are all gluttons at heart. There was grilled chicken, grill sliced beef, chicken kebab, spicy chicken hamburger, lamb hamburger with a mound of diced tomatoes, a separate mound of onions and more Turkish bread. When I queried the waiter about the assortment of meats, I couldn't believe it when he uttered "I don't know.". A more senior waiter tried to recover the blunder by immediately stepping in to provide me with a decent answer. Food wise, the hamburgers are nothing short of fantastic. The grilled chicken and grilled sliced beef was nothing special but S did tell me the Turkish food he ate in Europe did emulate what was on our plate. What surprised me though was that the chicken kebab, a staple in Turkish cuisine, was bland and slightly tough(attributed to chicken breast meat nontheless), definitely the black sheep of this family of chicken, beef and lamb.

Skipped dessert here as I had already decided to proceed to Tom's Palette for sinful Rum and Raisin ice cream.

With the average food and disappointing service, I see little reason to patronise this overhyped establishment again.

Bon Appetit!

It was one of the workday evening most probably Wednesday. We reached there around 8pm. We wanted to try every thing from the menu but as we were only two persons so we decided to order Hummus(S$3.50) and Turkish bread as Starter, Jumbo kebap combo(S$34.50) as Main course, Stuffed figs and Bakiava as Dessert.
The food was so delicious, kebap were well cooked, tender and juicy.
First we thought that the food may not be enough and we may need to order some more as we were very hungry. But later we discovered that the food was too much for both of us that we couldn’t even finish.
We ordered two cold apple tea which were pretty same like orange juice. In short we spend total of S$68.50 but I believe it was value for money. I definitely return to this place.

I went to Sofra on a friday night to celebrate my friend's birthday. The place was rather crowded, probably due to the fact that its a fasting month. Anyways, i made reservations so we didn't have to worry about getting a table. In fact we got a really nice table right next to the window. (10 of us)

Having checked the reviews online i already knew what i've order before i even looked at the menu.
Obviously i ordered the CHEF's PLATE. since i wanted to try all their meat dishes.

My friends had very different dishes. Some had shish kebab some had the chicken bake rice, baked fish, doner something,... As one of my friends was a vegetarian she had quite a difficult time choosing her food as she was afraid that what she ordered would turn out bland.

After my friends decided on what to get, we took a really really long time to get the attention of the staff to take our orders.
After they took our orders, we waited really long for them to serve us our iced water. (they served half of us water and then probably forgot about the rest)

When the food came, the manager kinded adviced us not to wait for all the dishes to arrive before starting to eat as the meat would turn hard. So we quickly dug in.

My chef's plate didn't have a really large portion (i expected a guys portion of meat, since other reviews said even their guy friends couldn finish their food) The meat was not bad.. rather tender, the lamb was a little salty but the chicken was excellent. juicy and yet not oily. I quickly finished my food (yes everything) but still felt a little hungry.
My friends and i felt that the best dish on our table was the chicken baked rice. YOU SHOULD TRY IT. the Shish kebab was not bad as well!

Since it was my friend's birthday we brought a cake to the restaurant earlier and a staff lid the candles and brought the cake out when we were about done with out food. (we had to sing the song our selves though..) Their birthday celebration wasn't really a birthday celebration but well... i didn't expect much..

My advice?
Make reservations, ask for the window seat (its great for people watching), order the sesame bread and hummmus (im not sure how u spell it), order the shish kebab, chicken baked rice, the lamb if u like your meat a little salty or the chef's plate if you wanna try everything.
If you're a big eater, expect to order more or leave the restaurant a little hungry.

me and my geefs (again) ordered a couple of kebab dishes along with hummus ($4.20) and the sesame bread ($3.40), and a rice pudding. i think the highlight of the entire meal was the chicken kebab (Chef's plate--$17.50 or Shish Kebab $14.50) and the Doner chicken side on the Chef's plate. I really dig the chef's plate for its value, the variety of meat, and the complementing veggies you get. some nice veggies is definitely a nice way to avoid feeling like you just overloaded yourself with proteins. we also enjoyed the slightly wet turkish rice on the Shish Kebab plate. it was fragrant, and absolutely brilliant! i loved the slippery texture and how it was bursting with flavors in my mouth. the meat patty was well-seared and wasnt at all flaky. at this point, i also feel inclined to mention the almost perfectly-baked sesame bread--it was served hot (no mean feat imo) in a pretty-looking basket (you eat with your eyes too, you know). the aroma of sesame was just so luring and the cackling of the crispy bread in your mouth was so beautiful.

our dessert--rice pudding--had an interesting texture and a mild sweetness that didnt remotely remind me of the ingredient, rice, in this dish. i think it's the rice bits they're after, but there werent that much rice bits in the pudding to say the least. the top surface was also too charred to be edible. the pudding itself didnt taste anything bad, but it didnt stand out that much either.

i like the idea of grilling, but i felt that there was too much grilling that night. the bell peppers and meat were quite charred and it took us a while to remove those carcinogenic parts. overall, the chicken was better seasoned than the tough and bland lamb/beef.

the hummus was just alright (i generally try to make things sound neutral if they're not great) so $4.20 for probably 2 tablespoonfuls wasnt that great of a deal.

service was quite beyond our expectations--the very friendly waiter took care of us and even asked for our thoughts on the food. we highlighted our concerns, and he even thanked us with a smiling face! this other guy in plain clothes walked around refilling our cups of water very promptly, with a brilliant smile that cant seem to be wiped away no matter what your requests are. i was very satisfied with their friendly and warm service the minute we walked into the restaurant looking lost. no kidding.

I've fallen in love with Middle Eastern cuisine ever since I first tried it at one of the ubiquitous Middle East cafes while studying in New Zealand. It's considered as an "exotic" cuisine to most Singaporeans as there are not many such cafes or restaurants in the main shopping and dining areas such as Orchard Road. A pity, as the food is really delicious!

The Salad Plate ($11.50++) is meant as a starter for 2 persons but I chose to have it as my main as I'm hankering for hummus. There's a combination of Sofra salad, eggplant salad and hummus. This was really great, especially the well-marinated fried eggplant with peppers, tomatoes and onions. I also liked the hummus which had a smooth texture and rich, creamy consistency. The plate was supposed to come with vine leaves rolls but the kitchen ran out of them so this was on the house.

The Chicken Baked Rice ($13.50++) looked quite good with its cheesy topping.

Now, this is truly a feast for carnivores. The Jumbo Kebab Combo ($34.50++) consists of beef, lamb and chicken kebabs, using swords as skewers. There were also bread and salad on the side. I liked the grilled eggplants but some of the outer skin was too charred to be consumed. This is best to be shared as even the 2 guys had difficulties finishing the whole dish.

The portions are very generous and prices are kept within a reasonable range. Even though the restaurant does not serve any meals in between lunch and dinner, the chefs were kind enough to cook for 2 ladies who arrived late with their babies in tow. Now, this is what I call good service! All in all, I really enjoyed my meal here.

For photos/reviews, visit My Food Sirens =)

I really like this place. Especially their soup. A great place for when you've got the meat munchies and need to feast on copious amounts of roasted animal. Love their Turkish tea too.

Went there last Sunday with a group of gal pals. The place was almost empty if not for a family of 5 and us and it was only 3pm. We ordered two Chef Plates (a plate of different types of grilled meat) and two plates of Chicken Shish Kebabs (chicken cubes on skewers were dry, not salty but could have been tasty). The Chef Plate was like meaty and I don't eat lamb, and came with bread. The whole meal was dry. I ordered the chicken kebab for myself everytime I come here cos I LOVE the pilaf (tomato whet) that comes with the kebabs. My friends tried their speciality mocktail (Sofra Mocktail) - it's quite nice cos it's got a fruit coctails and a rectangle of pink jelly in it. We enjoyed our time there and the staff didn't bother us. Maybe cos we were like the only ones left after 1.5 hours. So, service was okay. Oh, I like people-watching from the windows.