Tulum co-owner Coskun Uysal is one of only a handful of chefs who’ve managed to coax non-Turkish Melburnians away from the idea of the cuisine beginning and ending with kebabs and gözleme. He’s achieved this by acing a particularly difficult culinary manoeuvre: modernising and refreshing traditional dishes. For starters, his food looks gorgeous with finely tuned splashes of colour (a burnt orange cumin and tomato jam accompanying white Tulum cheese; pink petals topping a golden garlic-stuffed whole roasted spatchcock) and careful plating. But the eating is even lovelier than the looks; a scintillating balance of clean and rich where buttery pine mushrooms are teamed with pickled mushrooms, scallops join forces with tarama butter and preserved lemon, and candied pumpkin and mandarin sorbet love each other very much. There’s an increasingly good list of Turkish wine and clever, pretty cocktails, served by well-versed staff in a room of moody lighting and exposed brick. Clever delicious.
This review was made independently for the Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide. The guide’s reviewers visit unannounced and pay their way.
Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide 2022
Our guide gives a yearly snapshot of the best restaurants to eat at right now. The best-rated restaurants, as judged by the reviewers’ first-hand experience, form our national Top 80.
Brennan Lukuv
