Turki Diner

A Turkish-inspired diner with a focus on Eastern sweets made in-house.

"Türki Diner" is a new concept for Moscow, a 1960s-style diner with a Central Asian twist, blending the "American straightforwardness" with the cuisine of Turkic peoples: Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan. The project combines a coffee shop with Eastern pastries, a restaurant with traditional dishes, and a bar in a relaxed diner atmosphere. It's a great place to enjoy coffee with baklava during the day, and to spend evenings with friends and family. Like other Folk Team restaurants, "Türki" is a family-friendly establishment, with a separate children's area and weekend workshops.

The open kitchen features a cauldron, grill, and tandoor oven – a zone for chefs to experiment. Here, meat is slow-cooked, airy flatbreads and juicy samsa are baked, vegetables and rice are prepared in a "smoky" pilaf style, sauces are fermented, and mezze are made. The main dishes include chuchvara, bozbash with lamb, dried plums, and apples; lyulya and Adana kebabs; manty and kutaby; tandoor chicken; and, of course, Uzbek skewers on short skewers.

For dessert or a sweet start to the day, try Turkish baklava, made according to all the rules with 20 layers of the thinnest phyllo dough. The phyllo dough at "Türki" is rolled both by a machine imported from Turkey and by hand – entirely made in-house and a work of art. In addition to Turkish baklava, try the Baku version with walnuts and cashews; and signature desserts such as saffron trifle, thyme honey cake, and halva and quince mousse. There's also specialty coffee and traditional Turkish tea, and for those who prefer cold drinks, there's berry sherbet, lemonades, and sparkling ayran with herbs.

The bar menu features classic cocktails with a "Turkish twist": a sour made with rose, saffron, and lavender; a gimlet with Uzbek lemons and thyme; and an espresso martini made with strong Turkish tea and a spicy pomegranate syrup.

The design of the project is a tactile, flavorful, and visual journey into a multi-layered environment, where Western lightness meets Central Asian warmth and blends into a harmonious whole. The walls are a warm apricot color, like the setting sun, with tiles covering the floors and framing wooden panels. Bright accents include handcrafted furniture, expressive textures, custom stained glass with star-shaped geometric patterns, "Easter eggs" referencing Central Asia, and Tiffany-style lamps. There are also local "art objects," such as a colorful stained-glass "lightbox" at the intersection of the open kitchen and the bar, and a wine cabinet, a modern interpretation of a traditional Eastern carved mashrabiya balcony.