Souk is the hottest new middle-eastern restaurant to hit the CBD with a stylish interior and exciting menu with traditional flavours from North Africa, Anatolia and the middle east. They have familiar things on the menu like hummus, falafels, kofta etc but when the food is presented it makes you go wow. It looks spectacular and has the flavours to back it up. If you’re planning lunch or dinner with drinks sometime this week, you definitely need to add this one to your list.
Our first drink was the ‘omar sharif’ cocktail (gin, citrus mastic, orgeat, rose water), which basically tasted like Turkish delight in a drink version and it was topped with Persian fairy floss. Traditional middle eastern flavours with a fun and modern twist. I’d say this set the scene for the night ahead.
We started with the chipotle hummus, which is a must. It was drizzled with burnt butter and paprika on top. The adorable round fluffy pitas were so cute and were the perfect accompaniment to dip into that spicy hummus.
The prawn falafel was tasty, it was served on a smear of smoked black tahini (which looked awesome) with coriander mayonnaise and tomato oil. A lovely starter.
KFC is always a crowd pleaser. In this case the acronym stood for Kuwaiti Fried Chicken, the chicken ribs were fried in harissa and paprika breadcrumbs and ras el hanout. So basically fried chicken with middle-eastern flavours, whats not to love. They were served in little metal pots surrounded by greenery, they looked like little pot plants.
I loved the tabouli. It was made Anatolian style with bulgar (cracked wheat), parsley, sumac, mint, cucumber, red capsicum, tomato, mild chillies w roasted pine nuts. It was served in lettuce leaves which made it easy to pick up and eat.
The charcoal octopus was a show stopper. It looked amazing. It was colourful and was presented like a work of art. Don’t be deterred by the tenticles, it was cooked to perfection and was beautifully tender. The curly octopus was served on a bed of mashed potato with roasted potatoes, hot muhammara sauce and herb oil. Amazing.
The chicken and apricot kofta was really juicy and was skewered on a stick of lemongrass. It had apricot, capsicum and lemon zest and was served with a creamy beetroot hummus.
The Adanali Osman was slow cooked black tapioca pearls in a sweet Turkish coffee cream. It was topped with deep fried crispy tapioca on top which had the texture of a prawn cracker. It was a lovely sweet dessert to finish of the meal.
I had a great time, the food was delicious and creative. The plating made it playful and the flavours packed a punch. It’s a great stylish new place for middle eastern food in the CBD.
I heart Souk!
Olives x
Souk
Address: 13 Bligh Pl, Melbourne VIC 3000
Website: http://www.soukmelbourne.com.au/
Phone: (03) 8597 5444
Trading Hours: Mon-Fri: 11am til late, Sat-Sun: 5pm til late
