Mavi Ruya, a huge new Turkish grill and restaurant is now open on Abbeydale Road, taking over the unit which formerly housed the My Local supermarket.
The impressive venue, which takes its name inspiration from the managing director’s daughter and means Blue Dream, is totally unrecognisable from its previous incarnation, complete with a whole new second floor, an upstairs bar, conference and meeting rooms and space for well over 100 covers throughout the site – as well 65 outside, next to the river.
We spoke with managing director Ismail Aslan, who has over 20 years in hospitality, including opening Istanbul on West Street, to find out more about his massive new venture.
“Sheffield needs a good Turkish restaurant,” says Ismail, “we did our best to create a good restaurant for Sheffield – something unusual. There are a few Turkish restaurant in Sheffield, but this is something totally different with the décor, and the amount of space for families and big gatherings.
“Turkey is a great place to eat and you get different types of cuisines in every region. You cannot find the same food if you go to the East, compared to the South, for example, and that’s because it is large and has had many different ruling empires, from the Roman’s to the Ottomans, so there’s a little bit of everything in our food.
“We’re trying to keep it simple, but with this restaurant we are covering all of Turkey. You can find good starters from the south, or you can find starters from the west. With the charcoals we have plain kebabs, and then we have marinades as well, with a bit of yoghurt and bit of sauce. We’re even doing Turkish-style pizzas, which are called Lahmacun, and are totally different from the Italian! We’ve also got vegan, vegetarian options and all kinds of casseroles.
As well as the amazing sounding food, they also offer an extensive drinks menu, brimming with cocktails and wines, as well as specialised Turkish spirits, again trying to incorporate everything that is great about Turkish cuisine.
The venue itself has been in the works since just before the beginning of the pandemic and Ismail and his team are extremely pleased to have finally negotiated a challenging road to finally get the restaurant open to the public.
“For ten months we were working extra hours every day, seven days a week just trying to get going, “ explains Ismail, “we put a lot of efforts in but when you have a passion, doing something new and something different, it gives you more energy and more strength.
“I mean, we are very excited about the place. Every day we get about people just walking past trying to get in, thinking it’s open. Everybody who comes here and sees the place give us more energy because they say ‘it’s beautiful.’ And, ‘You’ve done a great job.’ That’s really important to us.
“We are very excited to welcome our guests here and enjoy the restaurant atmosphere with people inside. That’s a very good feeling. We want people to feel like they’ve walked into an authentic Turkish restaurant.”
For more info, head over to Mavi Rua’s socials here.
