Brisbane Turkish restaurants: Olive Thyme Albion review

This Turkish eatery in Albion whacks you in the face the minute you walk in the door. These are no part-timers; they know the business and they care.

Olive Thyme is one of those restaurants that whacks you in the face (in a good way) the minute you walk in the door.

Partly it’s the aromas – Turkish bread being toasted, meats grilling, garlic (plenty of it), herbs, spices.

It’s a heady melange, mixed in with the serious intent of the people manning the place. These are no part-timers; they know the business and they care.

I’ll be frank, knowledge of Turkish cuisine – in fact Turkish culture in general – is well beyond my ken.

But I’m intrigued; it promises so much magic and mystery – Scheherazade, Constantinople, genies and eunuchs, rosewater, pomegranate, dates and pistachios, cardamom, pastries and meats on spits.

Olive Thyme Turkish Cuisine, Albion. Picture Lachie Millard

Or am I muddling my Middle-Eastern cuisines? Possibly.

But Olive Thyme certainly smells exotic and even if Albion is a far cry from Istanbul, it oozes promise, somehow doing so without the aid of carpets decorating the walls and hookahs dotted around the place.

OK, there’s a wall with a display of ceramics, but that’s about it for frippery in a room full of linen-covered tables, bentwood chairs, a bar and open kitchen.

I settle in with the menu and a mocktail of sour cherry juice, mineral water, pomegranate juice and Persian fairy floss ($11) and I’m hooked.

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Here’s the exotica I’m seeking and I haven’t even got to the food. OK, perhaps a shot of raki would make it better, but it’s lunch time and I’m driving.

The Olive Thyme menu begins with a couple of Turkish breads, through dips, meze and pide, to larger, meat based dishes. We have a crack at all but the pide.

For $19 we get a plate with all four dips plus a puffed lavoche.

There’s hummus with currants and cured beef; eggplant; muhammara – peppers, spices, walnut and labneh – and yoghurt, zucchini and walnut. The hummus is awesome.

The Lahmajun Pide at Olive Thyme Turkish Cuisine at Albion. Picture Lachie Millard

Then, from mezes – a fabulous, rustic, ridiculously generous plate of grilled octopus (two hefty tentacles) with celery, capers, beans, dill, parsley, and grapefruit dressing ($22); it tastes like the ocean enhanced by just the right amount of chargrilling and the bits on the side. And a plate of lentil kofta ($17).

By the time we get to the meat platter ($33) our appetites are spent, but we can still taste the work that has gone into bastes and marinades.

There are both chicken and lamb shish, plus adana, which is minced lamb cooked – like the others – on a skewer.

To the side are by now superfluous rice, salad and sauces.

It’s the trouble with this style of food and a table of two; temptation trumps appetite.

If I had my time again I’d tackle Olive Thyme with a larger table, and wade headlong into the pide menu.

I’d make sure I had enough time to do everything justice, because it deserves a better look than I gave it – effort, passion and talent have obviously been spent on the restaurant.

And I probably wouldn’t drive: the raki beckons.

SCORES OUT OF 10

Food: 7.5

Drinks: 7.5

Vibe: 7.5

Service: 7.5

Olive Thyme

293 Sandgate Rd, Albion

Ph: 3862 4599