Adana Grill Turkish eatery opens in Bohemia

Sometimes, the restaurant gods smile down on me.

Driving down Sunrise Highway, I missed the turnoff for my regular Giunta’s Meat Farms — then remembered that the one in Bohemia was less than 10 minutes down the road. As I pulled into the parking lot I took in one of my favorite sights: a new Turkish restaurant.

I’ve opined before that there is no cuisine on Long Island that is practiced on a higher level than Turkish. We’ve got a number of great ones, and none that are worse than good. I liked that Adana Grill let its Turkish flag fly, name-checking the city in Southern Turkey where Kuby Coskuntuncel was born. Coskuntuncel, who owns the restaurant with his wife, Elvan, was, until a few years ago, a partner at Turkuaz Grill in Riverhead.

There’s one dish you have to order when you’re at a place called Adana Grill, and that’s the Adana kebab, made of minced lamb and seasonings that include hot chili peppers and sweet bell peppers. This specimen, savory and succulent and not terribly spicy, came with a fresh salad liberally sprinkled with tart sumac. Usually, you choose between white rice and bulgur tinted red by pepper and / or tomato paste but, at Adana Grill, both are standard sides for the grilled kebabs ($21 to $25) that also include chicken Adana, lamb and beef shish kebab, kofte (meatballs) and Beyti kebab (ground meat wrapped in flatbread and finished with tomato sauce).

Another notable sight was the presence of two slowly revolving vertical spits, one for traditional lamb doner kebab, the other for chicken. (Adana Grill uses the Greek name, "gyro," for doner kebab.) As the columns of stacked, sliced meat bubbled and browned, a big, sharp knife was used to shave them off.

All the meats are featured in dozens of formats and combinations — wraps ($16 to $19), combination platters ($24 to $27) and even contemporary bowls ($17 to $18). You’ll find traditional Turkish starters ($10 to $15) such as eggplant salad, feta-filled fried phyllo "cigars" and cubes of fried liver along with pan-Mediterranean items like hummus, tabbouleh and falafel.

The cheerful, counter-serve eatery takes over Go Greek, which opened in 2020 and closed earlier this year. Coskuntuncel said that he and his wife had been looking for "the right location" for almost two years. "We liked Bohemia and this shopping center," he said. "There are pizza places all over, but not a lot of places like this."

Adana Grill, 4611 Sunrise Hwy. North Service Rd., Bohemia, 631-270-0027, eatadana.com. Open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.