Turkish delights abound at new Hobart eatery

If you’re in the city and have a craving for a kebab or some other Middle Eastern delicacies, Seher and Marut’s place is your ideal destination, writes TasWeekend’s Alix Davis. REVIEW >>

TasWeekend. Indulge. Halal snack pack with chicken. Liverpool Kebabs in Hobart. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Do you HSP? If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, you’re obviously not a member of the Halal Snack Pack Appreciation Society – a Facebook group that started in December 2015, gained 16,000 members within a month and 90,000 members four months after that.

Not bad for a group celebrating a box of hot chips topped with kebab meat and drizzled with garlic and/or chilli sauce (the use of tomato sauce is greatly frowned upon).

Former Labor senator Sam Dastyari was a big fan and members would post about their favourite HSPs. The Facebook flurry around HSPs has died down, but the packs themselves are as popular as ever and I was thrilled to see them listed on the menu at the new Liverpool Kebabs in the city.

I ordered a chicken snack pack ($18) and (obviously) opted for chicken salt on the chips. I was rewarded with a generous serve of very fresh chips, doused with a satisfying amount of chicken salt and topped with spiced chicken carved off the kebab. It was all drizzled with fiery chilli sauce and a garlic sauce that lingered well into the afternoon. There’s nothing fancy about this mouth-watering pile of hot, salty carbs and protein, but it was fresh and fab and satisfied any hot chip craving I could throw at it.

Liverpool Kebabs is run by Seher and Murat Akyuz, who also run the popular dessert stall Lokmanca at the Salamanca Market.

Liverpool Kebabs co managers Seher and Murat Akyuz. Picture: Chris Kidd

They first visited Hobart for their honeymoon 20 years ago and yearly visits since then led to them falling in love with the city.

They moved here with their family four years ago, before the children started high school. With 20 years in the restaurant and kebab industry, Seher says they have tried many different suppliers and now have their firm favourites. “We want everything to be the best,” she says. “Not just the meat, but also the bread, the salad, the sauces. It all needs to be up to scratch.”

With that in mind, they are working with local bakers with the goal of getting the pita bread just right, and, while they can make baklava themselves, theirs comes from a woman who makes nothing but the traditional sweet pastry. Seher says the lamb snack pack is proving popular – “with the blokes, it’s a big serving” – while the gluten-free chicken kebabs also hit the spot.

A tasty lamb kebab from Liverpool Kebabs in Hobart. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

There’s not a lot of seating on offer here, but I arrived just before the lunch rush and snagged myself a spot on the bench. From here I’ve got a view of the street, as well as the constant stream of hungry customers. Some of them are obviously already regulars, while others get a rundown of the menu from Seher, who runs the front of house, while Marut handles the open kitchen.

One lunch is better than two and, of course, I can’t skip a kebab at a kebab shop. I order the lamb kebab ($16) and it arrives plump and stuffed with lamb, carved from the gyro and then crisped on the griddle, as well as tomato, lettuce, onion and tabbouleh as an extra. Everything is wonderfully fresh, and the chilli and garlic sauce (don’t worry, I have mints in my bag) binds it all together.

Turkish baklava holds a special place in my heart after a visit to Istanbul many years ago. We went on a wonderful food tour around the Old City, being introduced to tucked-away local gems – one of which was a baklava shop. Their shelves fairly dripped with these syrup-soaked pastries – some cut into traditional diamonds, others in squares and still others rolled into tiny bundles of honeyed sweetness. From that point on we ate as much baklava as we could (which was a lot) and it’s one of my enduring memories of this Turkish city.

There might not be quite as much variety on offer here, but I have a piece of both the baklavas on display ($4 per piece), The traditional pistachio is sprinkled with the distinctive green nut, while the “choclava” is a tidy roll, drizzled with chocolate. The only thing missing is the kaymak – traditional Turkish clotted cream which is surprisingly easy to eat in vast quantities.

If you’re in the city and have a craving for a kebab, Seher and Marut’s place is your ideal destination.