These famous Middle Eastern meatballs make the cutest mini-burgers, served on toasted buns with a brown butter tomato sauce and pickles. Nothing captures Sarma better than this mountain of colorful, glistening-with-olive-oil mezze salads, atop a hummus so creamy you’ll forget butter existed. Even if we’re in Boston for now, we’re pretty lucky to have Sortun and Piuma, homegrown chefs talented enough to seep up those flavors and make them their own. The point of Sarma is not to transport you anywhere in particular but instead to remind you how big the world is, how many flavors there are to discover.
There’s even a shout-out to Chinatown: During the meal, specials are circulated by servers and offered dim-sum style (we love the fried chicken, but it’s a matter of luck which plates will make it to your table). Geography is inspiration rather than limitation, evinced by the judicious inclusion of wines from France, beers from New England, and veggies from Sudbury, Massachusetts, grown by none other than Sortun’s husband. Instead, each plate’s multiple layers of textures and flavors is like a saunter across the entire Silk Road (with a tapas stopover in Spain on the way home-these are small plates meant to be shared). The menu reflects Sortun and chef Cassie Piuma’s embrace of the exotic, with a glossary of words from Turkish to French included to help you decipher dish descriptions, spice blends you’d be hard-pressed to pronounce, and wine choices from far-flung regions like the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon (try the Chateau Musar, a powerful and velvety red blend with robust red fruit aromas).Īlthough Med-to-Maghreb is a definite theme, no dish is the cuisine of a single county or even region. Like any of Sortun’s restaurants, the food here-with its heavy focus on spice blends and infusions of colors and herbs-makes you feel like you’re traveling again. Those of us who’ve wandered the maze of Istanbul’s most famous market will immediately spot familiar mosaic lamps and painted plates adorning Sarma’s wall, with a requisite feeling of nostalgia for the new tastes we once encountered in Bosporus-side cobblestone lanes. Ana Sortun’s latest venture strays from the Ottoman palace ambiance of Oleana and the casual teahouse setting of Sofra in lieu of something in between: Let’s call it the bazaar vibes of Sarma.