New Christchurch Turkish restaurant opens its doors

Meram Kitchen, located at 17 High Street, opened its doors to customers on Monday December 5, promising fresh Turkish food, prepared daily and cooked authentically.

The restaurant has been launched by a father, Erhan Kircal, and his two sons, Eren and Veli.

Erhan said the restaurant is a continuation of the family business that has been going since the 1990s but is now returning after a break away from the catering and hospitality industry, following the 2008 recession.

“We started in 1995, it was my dad who got us into the business,” he said.

“We decided to come back into the catering business. The reason is the passion we have for food, it’s in our genes now, we can’t get away from it.”

The opening of the new restaurant has been a long time coming, as the family have been searching for an opportunity to launch into.

“We’ve been looking for a suitable place in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole area, and after a long search, we decided on Christchurch.

“We decided we were not going to give up because we were really passionate. We want to bring this food; we want to bring this atmosphere to Christchurch,” Erhan said.

The food will be traditional Turkish barbecue and will be prepared fresh daily.

“Our focus is barbecue based, grill-based food,” Erhan said.

“But this is not a gas grill, its real barbecue, charcoal grill, freshly made every day in the premises, marinated freshly every day, served with hot and cold meze.”

The restaurant has already proved popular, even before opening its doors.

“We, as a family, decided to open before Christmas,” Erhan said.

“We were rushed to open because we’ve had so much demand from the public. We’ve been getting messages on Instagram, Facebook, we’ve had phone calls for bookings.”

The restaurant will be open daily and promises top quality food, in an inviting atmosphere.

Erhan said: “We are so excited to share that passion, and give that warm feeling to everyone.”