Turkish restaurant’s secret to a traditional taste - charcoal
Thursday, 4 June 2026
When Murat Akyol cooks over his kitchen’s grill, he uses a hairdryer to keep the embers away from his face.
Smouldering cinders flying through the air can happen when you cook on a charcoal grill ‒ but Akyol wouldn’t have it any other way.
His Lower Hutt restaurant, El Turko, cooks its shish kebabs entirely on charcoal.
Akyol says the authenticity his charcoal grill brings to his restaurant is unmistakable. While most Kiwis have tried a lamb doner kebab, few would have tried how it was traditionally prepared in Turkey ‒ cooked low and slow over embers.
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This allows the meat to retain its juices, and gives it a smoky taste from fat dripping onto the coals.
El Turko sells charcoal-grilled lamb, beef, and chicken shish kebabs, as well as home-baked flatbreads and seven different in-house created dips.
Inside El Turko, bags of charcoal line the wall. Akyol said the restaurant goes through 150kg of charcoal a week.
While cooking with charcoal was more expensive and time consuming, it was the only way to get the traditional Turkish taste, Akyol said, as being grilled over charcoal brings a smoky sweetness to meat.
The owner is Kurdish, and came to New Zealand with wife Turkana from Şanlıurfa in southeast Turkey ‒ the cuisine capital of the country.
The restaurant offers the classic Turkish foods: iskender, falafel, lamb, chicken, adana and kofta shish kebab, as well as traditional salads and flatbreads.
Individual meals can be ordered, but the restaurant’s most popular dish is its Special Family plate, which feeds at least four and comes with lamb cutlets, chicken shish, adana (gound meat kebab), mucver and falafel.
Platters can be shared, as is traditional, and customers are welcome to try an apple tea or a traditional raki drink ‒ an alcoholic beverage sweetened with aniseed.
Akyol is descended from four generations of chefs: his great-grandfather, grandfather, father and uncles had all been cooks, Akyol said, adding he had learned to cook on the job from them.
The owner trained as a pastry chef ‒ particularly in making traditional baklava ‒ before moving to New Zealand in 2014.
The restaurant has been open for eight months, and it is already quite busy, the husband and wife team said.
Lower Hutt has a tight-knit Kurdish community, so word quickly travelled regarding the authentic cuisine, Akyol said.
The restaurant is also active on social media, so had attracted a sizeable amount of customers through that.
Akyol and his wife work seven days a week, and have hired a number of staff to help with the day-to-day.
Akyol said he purchased all his meat fresh from local provider Preston's Master Butchers, and fresh vegetables from Lower Hutt’s City Green grocers.
While it was a noticeably difficult time for hospitality, Akyol said if you cooked good food, people would come.
“We are professionals.”