Bodrum
Relaxed taverna for flavour-packed comfort food.
Bodrum
Mediterranean$$
Off Essendon’s main drag, there’s a lovely old double-fronted shopfront with handsome windows and a cheery blue door.
Bodrum’s blue-accented dining room, with its rough brick walls and pops of blue glass as bright as the Mediterranean, is warm and unpretentious. After a hearty greeting from the ebullient owner, feel yourself unwind as you settle in.
House-made dips – earthy sweet beetroot, tzatziki with cucumber crunch – are almost virtuous alongside wickedly oozy feta cigars. Mains are big on seafood and are largely gluten-free. Tender rockling with roast vegetables comes with a perky salad of rocket and spice-pickled pear, and a rustic chicken and potato stew hits the table in a claypot with warm Turkish bread on the side.
Don’t skip the baklava, with which you’ll be offered sweet Turkish tea “to help you digest”.
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