Brisbane is a city blessed with excellent Mediterranean food, be it Greek, Turkish or Italian. I have recently tried out three popular Turkish restaurants: Caravanserai, Ottoman Cafe(no website), and Mecca Bah, a national Turkish restaurant chain with a branch in Fortitude Valley. My verdict is, Caravanserai is the best, then Ottoman Cafe, then Mecca Bah, and here are the differences.

Caravanserai excels in BBQ meat and lamb. Their juicy and succulent lamb is the best that I have ever had in my life, this place is definitely a lamb eater's heaven. We had banquets (set dinner) with very generous portions and flavorful combinations that are both distinctively Turkish yet appealing to all tongues. It also has an open kitchen at a corner where chefs prepare your meals, so I deduced that their hygiene standard must have been a notch higher.

Ottoman Cafe is a place that I walk by every day on my way to grocery shopping at Coles, and appeared always full on weekends. The owner seems to be living upstairs, which is sure a vote of confidence to the fire safety of his kitchen. Their tapas (Turkish pizza) are excellent, we ordered two rounds of those, but other foods are just average.

Mecca Bah has the best interior and therefore ambience.  Maybe my taste buds have been destroyed from indulging in Chinese food for decades, Mecca Bah just tastes too...well, subtle to me. Everything is on the lighter side, even the portion. We walked out on a dinner feeling unfulfilled. Also, its dishes are the least ethnically distinctive, so while it attempts to appeal to a wider audience with more fusion with elements of western cuisine, it loses the edge of Turkish flavor.