Pinarbasi Restaurant

No Stars. The lack of choice on the menu was ridiculous. Group of 12 people on a Saturday night and there was ONLY ONE $ 40 set menu available! The staff were rude with only one waitress taking the time to speak to us. While one of the waiters dismissed us and said he doesn’t have to disclose price when making a reservation. We were regulars we won’t be back!! r

I’m going to be honest and tell you that I haven’t sampled many of Melbourne’s Turkish restaurants. But I don’t think I need to when I have a regular as delicious and reliable as Pinarbasi.
Before Pinarbasi, I never knew that Turkish food basically revolved around breads and dips. How I lasted 24 years before discovering this I will never know.
Every time I go to Pinarbasi we have a banquet, which includes bread, dips, meats, baklava for desert and coffee. It’s awesome every time.
A review of Pinarbasi would not be complete without mention of its resident bellydancer, who does her thang on Friday and Saturday nights. It’s… interesting, to say the least. Not to mention entertaining, as there is always some middle-​aged, overweight man aching to get up there are gyrate against her, which, lo and behold, she is more than accommodating of.
Great for groups and super cheap– one of my fave «off the beaten track» cheap eats.

A group of friends from work decided to have a banquet here on a Friday night. There was plenty of bread, dips, grilled meat and eggplant. The Turkish bread is great and baked fresh. It is BYO wine and we had several bottles of red open, so I’m not sure of all the details.
The restaurant is a bit of a barn, a huge space filled with tables and no décor to speak of but when it is full of people this doesn’t matter. It has such a lively, friendly family atmosphere.
On another table that night there was a large Turkish family celebrating the birthday of the family matriarch. The children are playing around the dance floor waiting for the arrival of the belly dancer. When the belly-​dancer does start the Turkish grandmother from the other table was eager to be invited to dance with the belly-​dancer. Belly-​dancing is a traditional part of Middle Eastern celebration, although one of the guys from work was embarrassed by it; but that’s his problem and not the belly dancer’s. After the belly dancer, there was more entertainment: a Turkish singer in an amazing red gown and a man playing Turkish dance music on a keyboard as people got up to dance.
It was an amazing evening, a banquet and a complete floor-​show at a very good price. I never expected so much.