Hidden Gems: The new Turkish restaurant making big waves

A lifelong passion for cooking and hospitality has resulted in an incredible new Turkish restaurant in Largo. Turkish Mediterranean Cuisine opened its doors near the end of 2023 at 1921 West Bay Drive in Largo, and it has quickly earned a cult following for its tasty and authentic eats.

Executive Chef Turgut Dogantekin has been in the kitchen for nearly 40 years, having been raised in restaurants by his uncle and spending his adult life perfecting his craft. Most recently, he was one of the culinary minds behind the popular Sara’s Kebab House. This new venture was many months in the making, as Dogantekin and his team completely renovated the building, built out the kitchen, developed the menu, and finally unveiled Turkish Mediterranean Cuisine two months ago.

While many of the dishes will be familiar to fans of Mediterranean eats, most of them are created in the traditional Turkish style, with a few flairs sprinkled in by Dogantekin. With this style of food, we certainly recommend sharing with the whole table, particularly as the lengthy list of appetizers features some incredible breads and dips.

Whether you’re familiar with the fare or it’s completely new, the experience at Turkish Mediterranean Cuisine is a delight for anyone, and our recent visit there was one of the best (and most filling) meals we’ve had in quite a while. We certainly recommend arriving hungry.

The expansive menu truly runs the gamut. Cold appetizers include favorites such as baba ghanoush, tabbouleh, spicy feta dip, stuffed vine leaves and labneh. Hot appetizers range from falafel and kibbeh to baked hummus, calamari, and mussels fra diavolo.

For full meals, there is an incredible range of sandwiches, kebabs, hot entrees, grilled meats and seafood, soups and salads. The house specials bring particularly excellent dinners to the table, from Sultan’s Delight (Hunkar Begendi), baked meatballs, lamb shank and moussaka, to grilled fish, stuffed chicken breast, and sultan salmon steak. Oh, and be sure to save room for some Turkish coffee and Turkish Delight to finish the meal.

The entire menu is far too deep and delicious to list it all, but in our experience, you can’t go wrong with anything. Follow Turkish Mediterranean Cuisine on facebook for more, and visit them for lunch or dinner daily from 11 am – 9 pm.