If you’re in the mood for something sweet and looking for authentic Turkish ice cream and desserts, all you have to do is head to MADO and have the full experience. MADO is a franchised restaurant from Turkey and has 250 branches all over the world from Dubai, South Korea, Bulgaria, Malaysia, Australia, Germany and Russia to Japan, Azerbaijan, New Zealand, Cyprus and Jeddah.
MADO is located on Prince Sultan Street intersection of Sari Center next to the Saudi British Bank. As soon as you walk in, you will find two counters. The one on your right offers mind-blowing Belgium chocolate made especially for MADO and flown in from Turkey. On your left hand your will find the mouth-watering famous MADO ice-cream station with more than 24 flavors. Their ice cream is known to be special, as they are the only brand in the world that produces ice cream from goat's milk. They also offer "bouza", which is a traditional Turkish ice cream made with goat milk and nuts. Going straight you will find the MADO bakery on your right, which serves a number of Turkish pastries, from Baklava, to cakes to bread. All MADO dairy products and pistachios comes from their own farm in Turkey.
I visited MADO for lunch and the sunlight was a beautiful compliment to the restaurant. The family section is located upstairs and singles dine downstairs where the walls are covered with shelves that display authentic Turkish home accessories in a very delightful presentation for visitors to buy. Upstairs where I sat, there were square wooden tables with velvet chairs in gold and purple. Turkish art and photography were hung on the wall, which gave the restaurant a great spirit of Istanbul’s culture.
The restaurant is open for breakfast and they offer four wonderful styles of breakfast starting with breakfast made of "foul" (brown beans) cooked Jeddawi-style. There is also the European breakfast which offers a basket of freshly baked croissants and a country-style breakfast with different kinds of cheese and eggs. I would highly recommend the traditional Turkish breakfast, which comes with fresh vegetables, Turkish labneh cheese, Turkish baked goods and "sameed" bread along with fresh juice and Turkish tea.
The menu offers a great variety of soups, appetizers, salads, pizza, sandwiches and more. is international but the dessert is purely Turkish. I started my lunch with the fried kebbeh and fattouch. Loved the kebbeh; it had good quantity of meat and walnuts it tastes even better with fresh yogurt and the fattouch was even better with the freshly chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, pomegranate and topped with friend pieces of bread and dashed with pomegranate sauce with lemon.
Then the chicken shawerma pot was served with the cheese colzleme that is special Turkish oven baked cheese pie. The chicken shawerma pot was presented in a round pot covered with a layer of pastry. When you dig in you will find chopped chicken that taste even better than shawerma. I was also served the MADO Turkish ravioli stuffed with Turkish goat cheese in pink sauce.
The best part of the meal came at the end where I got the "traditional naturalness" desert, which is a block of white ice cream made with goat milk and drizzled with strawberry sauce and crushed pistachio. It is the only ice cream that can be eaten with fork and knife and I must say that it was the best ice cream I have ever had.
In short, it felt like I was having a home cooked meal in an amazing beautiful Turkish atmosphere and great ambiance.
Email: rima.almukhtar@arabnews.com
