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A Turkish delight: Meso Grill is clearly a labor of love
The country of Turkey is not only a geographical crossroads, linking Asia and Europe, but a culinary one as well. Over the centuries, the Turks have incorporated the dietary traditions of their neighbors in the Middle East, the Balkans and Central Asia to create one of the world’s great cuisines.
There are several places in Albuquerque to get Turkish food, but none as laser-focused on it as Meso Grill in Sawmill Market.
Turkish immigrants and brothers Umut and Mehmet Kokangul opened Meso Grill in 2022. The Kokanguls previously ran Anatolia Turkish & Mediterranean Grill on Central Downtown.
Open seven days a week, Meso Grill operates from a stall at the northwest corner of the building. One side of the stand is given over to a colorful display of Baklava and Turkish Delights, gummy treats flavored with rose water, pistachio and pomegranate. Two vertical rotisseries — one freighted with lamb, the other, chicken — spin slowly in the back. There is ample seating nearby, including a large second-floor dining area with tables and counter seats that look down on the food court. When the weather cools, the sprawling patio out back becomes an appealing option.
I visited just after noon on a weekday. Major construction was going on at Bellamah Avenue, the main access road into Sawmill, forcing drivers on Rio Grande Boulevard to detour to Mountain Road and approach Sawmill from the side streets. Despite the obstacles, the market was buzzing. Mehmet Kokangul worked the Meso Grill counter, deftly handling the steady procession of customers who showed up throughout the lunch hour.
Like most places at Sawmill, Meso Grill has a concise menu. Familiar names like hummus and baba ghanoush populate the list of appetizers that range in cost from $8.95 to $12.95.
The Mixed Appetizer plate ($22.95) offers a chance to sample several of the items. The assortment was served on one of the shallow metal trays that are ubiquitous around Sawmill. Plastic tubs of hummus and baba ghanoush, their surfaces shimmering with olive oil, flanked a paper boat holding a salad topped with three oval-shaped pieces of falafel. Stiff triangles of grilled pita and a mix of pickled vegetables filled out the tray. The silky hummus, nutty with tahini and chickpeas, contrasted with the smoke and heat of the baba ghanoush, while the falafel, with its crunchy dark brown shell around a grassy green core, echoed the flavor of the hummus. It’s a terrific sampler with enough food for several people to share.
The Greek Salad ($12.95) presents another generously apportioned choice from the appetizer menu. It was served in a round foil container with pita bread and pickled vegetables. The greens, diced tomatoes and onions were fresh, and the vinaigrette dressing carried a tart punch of sumac, the spice made from the dried berries of the sumac shrub.
The three sandwiches on the menu — Falafel ($15.95), Lamb Gyro ($17.95) and Chicken Doner ($16.95) — are served on pita bread with a side of fries. I got the chicken doner wrapped in foil in a plastic to-go container. The word “doner” is derived from the Turkish word for “to turn,” a reference to the rotisserie that the meat is cut from. The pita enveloped a mix of dark and white meat chicken with some crisp edges from the grill. The meat was moist and well-seasoned, and the runny tzatziki sauce that accompanied it was cooling and a little tangy. A dusting of sumac seasoning gave the thick-cut fries a lemony charge.
The falafel, lamb gyro and chicken doner are also available as Plates with rice, pita, salad and vegetables. A fourth option — and one not often seen in these parts — is Iskender ($20.95), a dish that traces its roots back to the Ottoman Empire. It’s named for the man who invented it (Iskender is the Turkish form of the name Alexander). The dish is comprised of thinly sliced lamb from the rotisserie served over sliced pita bread and topped with tomato sauce, melted butter and yogurt. Traditionally, the butter and tomato sauce are poured over the lamb at the tableside, an act not feasible at Sawmill. Instead, Meso Grill’s version came in a round foil bowl with four scoops of plain yogurt arranged around its perimeter. The yogurt and tomato sauce blended into a creamy, tangy dressing for the generous pile of lamb sliced from the rotisserie, with the topping of melted butter adding richness. The pita underneath soaked up the sauce and softened to the consistency of al dente pasta. It all combined for a tasty mix, like a good meatball sub, even if the temperature of the individual components didn’t quite match. The pickled vegetables, including cauliflower, carrot slices and red peppers, that accompanied this and the other dishes were quite good, still crunchy and with a bit of heat.
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For dessert, Meso Grill offers a selection of Baklava, the layered filo pastry that’s thought to have originated in Turkey. Meso offers four-piece servings ranging from $8 for Walnut to $13 for Chocolate Banana Pistachio. Customers can even add a scoop of ice cream by taking the baklava (and their receipt) over to the nearby Neko Neko ice cream stand. Mehmet Kokangul gave me a complimentary sample of the walnut baklava with my order. It was an exemplary bite, the flaky top layers acting as a prelude to the dense, honey-sweet layer at the bottom.
For an alternative finish to the meal, Meso’s Turkish coffee ($5.75) comes with a sampling of Turkish Delights made by Umut Kokangul. The coffee, served black in a small paper cup, was very hot and very strong. Turkish coffee is not filtered; instead, it’s served with the grounds settled at the bottom of the cup. It’s pretty bitter, and this is where the Turkish Delight comes in. Following Mehmet Kokangul’s advice, I ate one of the pastel-colored blocks before taking a sip of the coffee. The bites carried a mild sweetness and faintly floral flavor that took the edge off the strong coffee. A one-pound variety pack is available for $21.95.
As with other places at Sawmill, Meso Grill provides a pager after you order that lights up and beeps when the food is ready. My order was ready in somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes. Everything on the menu is gluten-free except the baklava. Even the pita bread is available in a gluten-free version.
Meso Grill is clearly a labor of love for the Kokangul brothers. With its thoughtfully curated menu and faithful interpretations of Turkish cuisine, it fills an important niche at Sawmill Market.
