Mediterranean Cuisine Is a Turkish Delight

Mediterranean Cuisine. Photo by Cari Taylor-Carlson.

If you are Downtown and looking for some tasty Mediterranean food, look no further than the corner of N. Water Street and E. Mason Street. Here you will find Turkish-inspired cuisine that is fresh, light and evocative of the restaurant’s name, Mediterranean Cuisine.

The first thing my companions and I noticed when we entered this long, narrow corner restaurant was gentle background music that set the tone for our relaxed lunch. It’s counter service only, but our meals — the chicken shawarma wrap combo plate and the adana kebob wrap combo plate — were delivered to our table by the counter person.

For the chicken wrap, the chef wrapped chopped grilled meat in lavash, a thin, unleavened Turkish bread. Also in the wrap were shredded lettuce, chopped tomato, sliced red onion and a dash of tzatziki. The combination of spices, including some fruity sumac, gave the chicken mix an unexpected flavor similar to chili.

The adana kebob wrap had a filling of ground beef that was flavored with mint and grilled on a skewer. It resembled kofte, meat wrapped around a skewer, commonly found on the menu in Mediterranean restaurants. Like the chicken wrap, there was a salad made up of lettuce, tomato and onion mixed inside the lavash bread along with the meat. Both wraps called for extra tzatziki sauce, which our server was happy to provide.

The meat was so delicious that my companion and I both wanted more meat and less bread. Another friend and I came back for more, this time for the beef kabob plate and the iskender plate. The iskender, a Turkish entrée, was thinly sliced meat served on pita and covered with hot tomato-red pepper sauce. For the record, this “hot” meant warm, not spicy. I immediately noticed how buttery the dish tasted and learned from our server that the red sauce was made with “a lot of butter” and the pita was generously smeared with more butter before the meat was added. It was rich and delicious.

For the beef kabob plate, two skewers of marinated and grilled ribeye were served with pita and a lovely salad of lettuce, tomato and red onion. The steak had good flavor, but she found it was quite chewy.

Also on the menu are hummus, baba ghonush, stuffed grape leaves, falafel, tabbouleh and Greek fries. You can order a side of grilled pita, feta cheese, rice or a yogurt dip.

To whet your sweet tooth, there are two kinds of baklava — pistachio and walnut — plus chocolate cheesecake and Italian tiramisu. You will not find alcohol on the menu, but you can order, as my companion did, strawberry lemonade. We noticed many meals leaving the restaurant in bags, suggesting Mediterranean Cuisine is a popular place for downtown workers to pick up a healthful Turkish-inspired Mediterranean lunch. We were all pleased with our meals, so the next time I’m in the neighborhood, I will stop by.

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• Location: 753 N. Water St.
• Phone: 920-306-3799
• Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mon-Sun
• Website: https://mediterraneancuisinemke.com/

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