Ada Mediterranean Cuisine opens in Middle Island

It’s nice to know that after nearly 28 years writing about food on Long Island, I can still be surprised. I’d been following Ada Mediterranean Cuisine since the Turkish restaurant opened in Middle Island earlier this month and I thought I knew what to expect: A modest storefront in a nondescript strip mall with a display counter for dips, side dishes and grill-ready kebabs, a vertical rotisserie for doner kebab — all of this in full view of a handful of tables.

I was wrong on all counts.

Ada took over the low-slung freestanding building that, for decades previously, had been Lombardi’s Italian restaurant. All dips, kebabs and rotisseries are kept in the kitchen and there are two white-tableclothed dining rooms (one of which, for now, still has a wall mural depicting Venice). A liquor license is forthcoming; for now, you can bring your own wine or beer.

The name says "Mediterranean," but this is a Turkish restaurant through and through and the menu features most of that cuisine’s greatest hits: Starters ($7.99 to $13.99) include lentil soup, stuffed grape leaves, eggplant salad with peppers and tomato sauce, cheese "cigars," pan-fried beef liver and zucchini pancakes. Mains ($20.99 to $33.99) include both standards — doner, shish, Adana and Iskender kebabs, lamb chops and chicken chops (boned-out thighs) — but also some deeper cuts such as manti (tiny ravioli), imam bayildi (literally "the priest fainted," consisting of stuffed baby eggplant) and hunkar begendi (cubes of lamb atop a smoked-eggplant puree). Plus kebab and gyro sandwiches and wraps and pide (Turkish pizza).

My Turkish-restaurant test drive is Iskender kebab, slices of lamb doner (gyro) that is piled onto cubes of drippings-soaked bread (homemade) and covered with tomato sauce and served with yogurt. Ada’s was a winner and so was the baklava that I was almost too full to order for dessert.

"Ada," I learned from manager Yasar Diricanli, means "island" in Turkish. He’s a lifelong restaurateur who has worked in his native Istanbul and on his adopted Long Island. Owner Mustafa Ziba has not only operated Turkish restaurants but also a bagel shop and a Mr. Softee truck — all the while running a wood flooring business.

Ada Mediterranean Cuisine, 175 Middle Island Rd., Middle Island, 631-345-3973, adamediterranean.com. Open every day 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.