Sultan Kebab (Maxwell Food Centre)

Maxwell Food Centre seems to be seeing quite a number of new stalls opening up ever since the opening of Maxwell MRT Station along the Thomson-East Coast Line; some notable new additions to the food centre in recent times include Danlao 蛋佬 and Hock Lai Seng Teochew Fishball Bak Chor Mee 福来成; both of which having been extensively covered online. There has been a subsequent wave of new stalls that have opened at Maxwell Food Centre after the initial few — Sultan Kebabs being one of the latest additions, taking over the former premises of the now-defunct Xiang Nong Lao Huo Tang 香浓老火汤 that takes up a prominent location within the food centre beside Sisaket Thai Food facing Maxwell Road. Upon reading up more about Sultan Kebab, there seems to be a similarly-named eatery previously located at Ang Mo Kio Avenue 6 within a coffeeshop that has since closed down, though we are not sure if this Sultan Kebab would be the same one. As with most Turkish eateries, Sultan Kebab’s offerings revolve around their chicken and beef kebabs — patrons can opt for either meat or mix of both meats to be had in various forms of wraps, or with fries / pasta salad / bakes rice, as a Tombik etc.; there are plenty of choices to choose from. Patrons looking for something to share can opt for the Hummus with Pita Bread and Pide, while they do offer Baklava and Kunefe for sweets as well.

Having only looked through one side of the menu before making our order, we went for the Pesto Pasta — the item also comes with an option to go for either Beef or Chicken, or one could order the Mixed that would come with both Beef and Chicken; we found ourselves going for the Mixed option. There is some waiting time involved in the preparation of the dish here — the guy behind the counter either issues the patron with an electronic buzzer that would ring when the food is ready for collection, though he might also inform the patron of an estimated time to return if the patron is seated too far away that is out of reach for the buzzer to work. Collecting our order, the first impression of the dish was its particularly big portion sizes — definitely something which could feed two pax with smaller appetites. The beef comes piled atop the chicken, while the pesto pasta is hidden beneath all the meat; the dish also coming with a white sauce and a red sauce that is diagonally placed across different ends of the plate, and comes accompanied with a garden salad that came with leafy greens, tomatoes and olives.

Digging into the pile of meat here, we found both meats to be initially flavourful — our preferences leaned towards the chicken which was more tender and juicy whilst also featuring a bit of a chargrilled note around the sides. On the contrary, we would reckon that some may find the beef a wee bit leaning towards the drier side; it also carries a prominent gamey note that some may not necessarily prefer, though does work out well considering how this is Turkish cuisine after all. That being said, the beef felt like it was more on the saltier side of things, and easily felt overwhelming as one clears off the plate. Both the red and white sauces helps to alleviate the jelak-ness of the meats however; between the two, we liked the white sauce especially which carried a hint of mint in its undertone that was particularly refreshing. The red sauce in retrospect felt more like a spicy tomato relish; not so much zingy but came with a light heat that would tingle the tastebuds of those whom are less tolerable to spiciness in general. The pesto pasta itself was decent; no doubt the penne pasta was done al-dente, but there is an evident hint of butter that came through with a very subtle note of basil to end it off — the pesto element being not quite as strong as we imagined it to be though it also came with some broccoli that helped to add a crunch factor. The garden salad did provide a wholesome feel to the entire dish though — a refreshing respite from all that meat and carbs that occupied the entire plate.

Sultan Kebab is definitely not your average stall situated in the hawker centre — it being situated within Maxwell Food Centre does bring it a bit of benefit considering the prices of the dishes served at Sultan Kebab would be a little out of touch for those who dine at a hawker centre in the heartlands; the mains with the meats being priced from $8 all the way to $18, which is on the higher side even at a spot like Maxwell Food Centre. On hindsight however, the portion sizes of the food at Sultan Kebab are actually pretty huge — one could easily share a meal with one other here, therefore cutting the price of the item into half which does make them a slightly more palatable option. Whilst the meats served at Sultan Kebab are pretty flavourful and delicious, we do hope that they could achieve some sort of balance with the saltiness especially for the beef; the heavy flavours does make it a little bit difficult to finish especially given how the portion sizes go here. That being said, we would be happy to opt for their chicken instead any time — perhaps going for the Kebab Wrap or the Fries Platter next time round that is more of our usual order. Still, Sultan Kebab does make for a pretty interesting dining option within Maxwell Food Centre — definitely one of the rare spots that serve up Turkish cuisine in the Maxwell / Chinatown neighbourhood that would easily fix those cravings for Mediterranean/ Turkish food considering its pretty decent quality of food here.