Amasya Kebab House

A little word association test for you.  Think bread.  Now think Footscray.  I bet you a bag of Olympic's finest you are either thinking of Nhu Lan's crusty French-style bread, or a supple round of injera.  But the bread that gets most overlooked in the 'scray is Turkish bread.  I'm talking big fluffy rectangles with lovely undulating tops, sprinkled with sesame seeds, just begging to be torn apart and swiped through some lovely tzatziki.  One of the best spots to pick some up is Amasya in Nicholson Street.

Amasya is run by Esen who makes all the dips, salad and bread in house.  You can buy a whole freshly-baked, slab-sized loaf for $3.50.  Don't ever let me catch you buying that horrible packaged Turkish bread from Coles - this is well worth the detour.

The fare is Turkish, from a Turkish bread-wrapped kebab to plates loaded with shish kebabs or felafels, dips and salads.

Meal of the day (small), $13

This is the staggeringly excellent meal of the day.  Two hillocks of shaved chicken and lamb from the spit - the meat is really tasty, not too salty or fatty, with loads of delicious crisp bits.  It comes piled up against your choice of two dips (there's yoghurt-based cacik, spinach, eggplant and more) and some lovely fresh salad, plus a basket of fluffy bread - all for a fabulous 13 bucks.  (PS:  You can take leftovers home, and vegos can get a similar spread but with felafels and stuffed vine leaves for $10.)

The other winning tip here is the pides.  Theses are long submarine-like loaves enclosing a filling - maybe cheese and spinach or lovely creamy egg and sucuk, a salami-style sausage.  They are a bargain for $4 or $5 and you can eat them in, too, making them a great pitstop snack.

Cheese pide, $4

I ordered some of these for a function and when ordering said I was happy to have them cold as I'd heat them up later.  "What time are you coming again?" said the fellow there.  "About 10," I replied.  "Oh, they'll be hot then - they will only just have come out of the oven," he replied.  That's fresh!

Amasya Kebab House

134 Nicholson St, Footscray

Phone:  9687 7032