Dinner At The Newly Opened Roka Turkish Kitchen In Ripley
Published On Friday 28 Jul 2023 by Sticky Beak
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In our house, Turkish cuisine is always a sure-fire winner! Whenever we’ve gone on holiday to Turkey, we’ve always come home yapping on about what fabulous meals we’ve had, so to be invited along to the opening night of a Turkish restaurant in Ripley was music to our ears!
Roka Turkish Kitchen and BBQ was formerly Ranch Gourmet Burger, and owner, Metin, is Turkish and he wanted to bring the wonderful cuisine of his homeland to us all. Now, I know many of you were sad to see Ranch close, thanks to the burgers being so blasted good (you’re not alone, we loved them, too!), but I’d urge you to give Roka a try. Here’s why…
From the pavement, The Man and I could see that the colourful ‘Ranch Gourmet Burger’ sign was gone, replaced by a wonderful faux foliage sign with ‘ROKA’ in the centre. Inside, there were still comfortingly familiar accents left from the former eaterie: the bright colours, the industrial wall lamps and the booth tables, but there were also some fab new touches. The long central bench table and seating was gone, replaced by free-standing tables and mid-back, teal velvet-covered chairs, and textural Turkish rugs and woven decorations adorned the walls.
Metin has extended the counter area, so you get an even better view of the open kitchen as he and the other Chefs cook up all manner of yumminess. If you have any questions about the dishes, please do ask, it’ll make Metin’s day to tell you all about the ingredients that go into them 😊.
All the cold starters are £4 each, but you can pick a quartet of any of them for £14, which is what His Nibs and I did. We’ve had cold Meze at the Turkish venue in South Normanton and there were some familiar choices here at Roka, but there were also some different ones, too 😊.
We had The Mans’ favourites, Cacik: Cucumber in Yoghurt with a hint of Garlic, and Acili Ezme: Tomatoes, Peppers and Chillies mixed with Olive Oil. I liked the sound of the Zeytinyagll Taze Fasulye: Fresh Green Beans, Tomato and Onion cooked in Olive Oil, so we ordered some of that, and I also wanted to try the Girit Ezme: Grated Courgette mixed with Garlicky Yoghurt and Walnuts, drizzled with Olive Oil.
There were two ladies working on Roka’s opening night, and both of them were super; nothing was too much trouble and all questions were answered with a smile. We ordered a couple of cans of Diet Coke (£1.60) to drink and it wasn’t long before a basket of warm pieces of Flatbread and our four cold Meze and additional bowls of finely chopped, seasonal salad, and Aubergine Salad were being placed before us – all housed in beautiful marine-blue dishes 😊.
One thing that hasn’t changed about the food Metin serves is that, if an ingredient is mentioned in a dish, you’ll be able to taste it! The garlic in the yoghurt was nicely discernible, without being over-powering, and you could see the Cucumber (in the Cacik) and the Courgette and Walnut (in the Girit Ezme); an abundance of fresh herbs still runs through Metin’s dishes too. You can’t hide the truth that, no matter what you do with Aubergine, it never looks pretty; however, the flavour of the softened vegetable in the salad was superb, so you’ll have to forgive its plain looks. I loved the still-squeaky Green Beans, and they were partnered superbly by sweet Tomato and softened Onion. His Nibs was properly getting stuck in as well, even to the finely chopped Salad and Aubergine; so much so, that I sat there agog for a couple of seconds!
As we’d been munching away at the Meze, one of the ladies had been keeping a discreet eye on our progress and came over to offer more flatbread as we’d demolished most of it and had dips still to savour. Now that’s great customer care, wouldn’t you say? 😊.
For mains, we ordered the Roka Kebab: marinated Lamb cooked over the BBQ grill and served with BBQ’d Aubergine, then dressed in a special Tomato sauce and topped with Cheese (£14), and the Spicy Chicken Shish: spicy, marinated cubes of Chicken Breast that are cooked over the BBQ grill and served with Tortilla, roasted Tomato and a roasted whole Chilli. Both dishes came with Rice and Salad so we didn’t need to order anything extra 😊.
You get plenty of meat in your Kebab meals; I’d got the equivalent of a Lamb Steak and His Nibs had got a whole Chicken Breast chopped up – neither of us were going to go hungry, that was for sure! When I first spied the timbale of Rice, it didn’t look the biggest if I’m being honest; however, as they say, you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, and it turned out that the portion was a lot bigger than it looked once I’d started to eat.
It's mooted that we feast with our eyes, and if that’s the case then the salad that Metin serves with his Kebabs certainly hits the spot with its rainbow colours 😊. Mixed Leaves provide a cocoon that helps enclose Pickled Red Cabbage, Sweet Grated Carrot, Shredded Iceberg and chopped Mixed Salad; all with a wedge of Fresh lemon to squeeze over, if desired. As with everything else, the portion wasn’t a small one!
Without fail, each morsel that passed our lips was super-fresh and amazingly tasty; the meats were tender and flavoursome, the salad crunchy and crisp, and the rice soft and buttery like proper Turkish Rice should be 😊. Vegetarians have a Moussaka to enjoy, and if you don’t fancy a full-on meal then there’s a range of wraps to choose from. There’s also a range of sharing platters available for 2 people or 4: the Roka Platter for 2 or 4 is priced £33.50 and £48 respectively, and there’s the Roka Chicken Combo for 2, priced at £27; all come with Rice and Salad. Something a little different is the ‘Sauté’ selection, a choice of Lamb, Chicken or Liver, pan-fried with Vegetables, Garlic and Herbs, all served with Rice and Salad and priced between £10-£13.
Our tummies were full, but I’d spied some Turkish Desserts that I hadn’t tried, and curiosity always gets the better of me 😊. The Triliche (cake soaked in three types of milk to make a moist, indulgent dessert) wasn’t available, but it sounds delish so we’ll definitely be going back to have some of that, but the Sobiyet - a variation of Baklava - was on the menu, so I ordered that and His Nibs had the Baklava (both priced £4.50).
Sobiyet is my new favourite Turkish Dessert, hands down! The easiest way to describe it is as having a vanilla slice-esque consistency in the middle, surrounded by crisp, golden Filo Pastry; a combination of boiled cream and Semolina is used for the filling and Pistachio Nuts topped it. Sobiyet is not quite as sweet as Baklava and is certainly creamier, though the Filo still elicits that wonderful crunch when cut or bitten into 😊. The Man Bird has got a sweeter tooth than me, so he was very happy with the rich golden cubes of yumminess that were the Baklava! Metin’s Baklava is still gooey and sweet, but not tooth-chatteringly so and is also topped with fine pieces of Pistachio.
What a brilliant opening evening! The food and service were both spot-on and everyone seemed to be having a fab time, especially the little person in the high-chair whose legs were swinging happily whenever a morsel was offered to them 😊. Roka is definitely family friendly, and it was nice to see children of all ages dining there. Hot Wings given happily to Roka Turkish Kitchen and BBQ 😊.
Roka will be closed on Mondays (this was a one-off for the opening) and opens Tuesday-Sunday Noon-10.30pm. Going forward, Metin isn’t sure whether he will stay open at lunch once Autumn is here so keep an eye on their Facebook page for details!!! Last food order is 10.30pm (close of business) and although they don’t offer a delivery service, Roka are more than happy for you to phone your order through and come and pick it up from them 😊.
To book a table or phone an order in, ring 01773 475075. If you type ‘Roka Ripley’ in to Google, Roka Turkish Kitchen Ripley, pops up; just click on there for all the menu details etc.
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