Having taken over a defunct credit union’s banking location, Sibel’s dining room offers soaring ceilings that creates an airy comfortable environment. Its large bar and modern décor provides a swanky vibe to the place – it’ll likely become a popular destination for corporate parties, milestone birthdays, and showers buyouts.

The Turkish focused menu offers an array of dips. We started with the fatteh ($10), one that I’ve never had before. The pressed yogurt reminds me of a thinner labneh. Covered with oil, which the menu describes as infused with garlic and shallots, it tasted liked nothing except for the roasted cashews on top. The dip really needs more spices or seasonings to add interest.

Luckily, the starter arrives with complimentary feta, butter, and hummus. Ultimately, with some feta on the fatteh it helps augment the flavours with a bit of saltiness. Maybe Sibel just likes to shy away from salt, as their hummus was also served neutral so tastes like nothing more than blended chickpeas with a bit of oil.

Even the Turkish babaganoush ($9) was also relatively tasteless. There wasn’t the expected smokiness from using grilled eggplant any any onion, garlic, or parsley was muted. If anything, the sweet and tangy pomegranate glaze stood out the most.

The best thing about the dips is having the pita. Freshly prepared in a wood burning oven, it was sizzling hot and delicious. Sprinkled with an everything bagel seasoning, it thankfully adds a bit of zest to the plain dips.

Sibel’s fried kubbeh ($14) was surprisingly fluffy in the centre, the mixture of beef, bulgur, onion, walnuts, and spices crumble onto the plate upon breaking through the crispy coating. Dipped with pistachio it’s beautiful to behold and tasty, just a rather small portion (two per order) for the price.

The mixed kebab platter ($38) is a great way to try several proteins:

• Despite the lamb chop being cut thinly and being overdone, it was still tender and well seasoned.
• In comparison, the cubes of filet were done a perfect medium rare but wasn’t as flavourful. While not necessarily bad, I’d recommend you having these first, so it doesn’t seem as plain.
• The full adana kebab was juicy and mixed with enough spices so it’s flavour without being overwhelming.
• Lastly, the chicken wings were done well, cooked through without becoming dry and having a nice char on the skin.

Overall, for incorporating so many different types of proteins with bones and different cooking times, the platter came together well. Made to feed a sumo wrestler, it’d be a lot of food for one, so is ideal for sharing. Aside from all the proteins, there’s also a bed of deliciously saucy bulgur, fluffy white rice, bread, shredded cabbage, onions, spicy grilled peppers, and half a tomato. It’s not a lot of vegetables, so if you want something to balance out the proteins, pair this with a salad.

On another visit, I stuck with just the adana kebab ($34) and it was equally juicy. It’s just surprising that by itself you don’t get much more of the kebab despite the main being almost equally priced to the mixed kebab platter. In my books, the mixed platter is a much better deal.

At least that had more sides than the shrimp kebab ($35). It was almost comical how noticeably smaller it was than the other two mains, served with only bulgur and a roasted tomato. You'll only want to order this if you're in the mood for a very light meal. At least the shrimp were sizable and cooked well. 

Their pide are a great option for any pizza lovers. A thinnish chewy toasted bread forms the base and the chicken fillet pide ($24) was filled with a healthy portion of mozzarella and chicken. It was enjoyable, but a little plain since there were scant amounts of other ingredients listed on the menu (mushrooms, olives, and tomato). I would have liked more of the vegetables to balance out the dish.

Their display case of desserts will beckon you to take a closer look. Warning: once you get there it’ll be very difficult to say no.

If you don’t mind the sugariness, the triliche ($11.50) is an ideal option for sharing. The moist cake was soaked in the sweetened condensed milk mixture until it had a pudding consistency. Topped with caramel or strawberry, we likely should have gotten strawberry as the caramel’s sweetness mixed with the already sugary cake was a lot. Still, I enjoyed the caramel’s depth of flavour.

Sadly, the baklava ($10) must have been sitting around for too long after being precut and plated. The bottom layers were completely fused together so the honey mixture had a glue-like consistency. It’s a shame, as there were ample amounts of ground pistachios within the pastry that gave it a lovely richness. On a return visit, a fresher version of the dessert was better, but didn’t have as many pistachios. I guess you can’t win with the baklava.

Sibel’s dining room has a lovely modern feel, but the hulking television screen suspended on the ceiling was almost too modern. It kept showcasing a loop of footage from the Maldives. While beautiful, the tropical scenes were out of place – something sultry like whisps of swirling smoke may be more appropriate. I guess the enormous screen will be useful for hosting viewing parties for final sporting events or even broadcasting something during private events. Who wouldn’t want to see their slide show in all its full glory? 

In high school, when I used to frequent Ashridge’s Bay, no one arrived dressed-to-impress to walk along the boardwalk. That’s all seemed to have changed now that Toronto Beach Club has opened. Walk past the bouncer and you’re transported into a well-healed tropical paradise; where the volleyball courts disappear behind foliage and it seems normal, even essential, to pop some bubbly on the beach.

You can’t go wrong with one of their hot mezze that comes with a grilled pita to start. The bread arrives hot and fresh, puffed to perfection so that it’s crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, dusted with spices. They accompany the smoked eggplant ($16), a decent portion of warm soft legume that would have been amazing if the walnut and olive relish weren’t so sour that even the pomegranate molasses’ sweetness couldn’t balance it out. Maybe it’s me, but I prefer my eggplant savoury.

Their jamon iberico ($36) was sliced into respectable sized slices, the prized pig’s cured slightly sweet essence bursting on the tongue. Not quite a melt-in-your-mouth as what you’ll find in Spain, these were nonetheless tasty and worth a nibble if you appreciate a good charcuterie.

Of the three starters the sea bream crudo ($21) was my favourite. Thick meaty slices of white fish topped with citrus caviar (segments of finger lime) and chili sitting in what looks like a fiery olive oil but is rather delicate. The crudo was perfectly seasoned and wonderfully tasty, a lovely summery dish to enjoy while sitting outdoors.

Toronto Beach Club’s lamb chops ($45 for the half order shown) were cooked perfectly. So, it’s such a shame that they were too salty and requires some tableside knife skills. The seasoning needs to be toned down as the outer chops made me reach for water and since the marinated yogurt was also salted, together they were way too much. It’d be nice if the kitchen also considers the table size when finishing the dish: our four chops were only cut in half for a 3-top, which means you need to portion them yourself when they arrive. It likely helps the meat retain its heat and juices better, but it’s also a bit difficult to cut through the chops on a big platter with all the yoghurt and garnishes. The age-old joke of “how many people does it take to…?”, let me just say it is not one.

Thank you to Parv for this picture

Where they really excelled was the grilled seafood. Their fileted black sea bass ($36) had such a lovely, charbroiled exterior and was still delicately done inside. While it comes with a choice of sauce (we chose the harissa butter), it’s fantastic by itself.

Sides need to be ordered separately and are more than sufficient to share amongst three. The French fries ($12) are a safe choice – nice and crisp, dusted with oregano and salt and comes with truffle aioli for dipping. Yet, what really caught our attention was the grilled broccolini ($19): cooked until crisp and covered with pecorino-ramano, pangrattato, and calabrain chili creating such a lovely almost creamy sauce with a hit of heat to end. Do get yourself some greens.

Just make sure to save room for dessert as their baklava ($12-$15) is a must. I love that it wasn’t soaked in syrup, rather the perfect amount to add sweetness but still leave the puff pastry crispy and not oily feeling. The two pieces are sandwiched between a frozen cream layer. If this isn’t the ultimate ice cream sandwich, I don’t know what is. The strawberry crostata ($12-$15) paired nicely with it – the pastry a cross between a shortbread and cake and topped with ample sweet strawberries and a cold scoop of vanilla ice cream.

We all agreed that dinner at Toronto Beach Club is probably the most ideal time to visit. The temperature is not overly warm and it’s such a lovely experience to transition from evening into night. There was even a live Spanish band performing during our Wednesday visit, the women’s lovely vocals the perfect addition to the meal.

Thank you to Parv for this image

While the after-meal service can get a little backed up, the entertainment and atmosphere kept us happy while we waited for the verbal dessert menu to be presented. Wait aside, even with the pandemic you won’t feel rushed at the restaurant, the two-and-a-half hour seating times is sufficiently long enough to leisurely enjoy the meal. I certainly won’t be visiting Greece or the equator anytime soon. Until then, Toronto Beach Club will give me the tropical fix I need to transport myself out of Toronto.