Sofra Restaurant on Broadway, Matamata brings the food of a Turkish kitchen to the Waikato. It belongs to the Sofra Turkish Cafe family, born in New Zealand in 2021 with a vision to share the authentic flavours of Turkish cuisine — serving up classic Mediterranean, Turkish and Middle Eastern favourites like kebabs and pitas with all the trimmings. The journey has been carried from the start by determination and the warm embrace of the local community.
The kitchen's approach is grounded in centuries-old Turkish home cooking, recreated with a careful selection of Turkish spices. Sauces and gravies are made in-house from natural spices and ingredients, and the team produces its own natural yogurt and cottage cheese. Nothing on the menu contains artificial food colouring or MSG, and all the lamb is sourced locally.
The menu runs from charcoal-adjacent grills like Lamb Adana and Chicken Shish to small and large kebabs with a choice of nine sauces, generous iskender plates finished with home-made warm tomato sauce, meze platters, Turkish-inspired burgers, salads and desserts such as baklava and revani. Deliveries run in the evenings, starting at 5.00 pm with last orders at 8.45 pm.
Sofra Restaurant sits at 99 Broadway, bringing the food of a Turkish kitchen to the heart of Matamata. It belongs to the Sofra Turkish Cafe family, a New Zealand venture born in 2021 with a clear vision: to share the authentic flavours of Turkish cuisine — the kebabs, the pitas with all the trimmings, and the classic favourites of the Mediterranean and the Middle East — with the communities it serves. From the start, the journey has been carried by determination and what the team describes as the warm embrace of the local community.
The kitchen's promise is simple: cook everything fresh, keep it honest, and stay close to the centuries-old traditions that define Turkish home cooking. Sofra's sauces and gravies are made in-house from natural spices and ingredients. The team makes its own natural yogurt and cottage cheese, builds curry bases from scratch, uses no artificial food colouring and no MSG, and sources all of its lamb locally. That from-scratch care shows up across the menu, right down to the home-made warm tomato sauce that finishes every iskender plate.
The grills are the heart of the menu. Chicken Shish is cubes of marinated chicken; Lamb Adana is the traditionally spicy marinated lamb; Lamb Shish and the Turkish URFA cover the lamb-lovers, while the Mixed Grill combines lamb and chicken for anyone who wants both. Every plate of grilled meat comes the same generous way — with rice, tabbouleh, salad greens, jajik and humus dip.
Alongside the grills sits the kebab list, offered in small and large sizes for meat-eaters and vegetarians alike: Lamb, Chicken and Mixed Meat Kebabs, plus Falafel and Mixed Veg Kebabs. Nine sauces are on hand — garlic yoghurt, humus, tomato, hot chilli, sweet chilli, barbecue, mayonnaise, satay and mint — so no two kebabs need ever taste the same.
Beyond the grill, the menu runs deep. The iskender meals — Lamb, Chicken, Mixed, Vege Falafel and Veg Combo — arrive with rice, tabbouleh, salad greens, jajik, humus dip and that home-made warm tomato sauce. For grazing, there is Sigara Borek, filo pastry filled with feta cheese and parsley, a Spinach Borek, and the Sofra Vegetarian Meze Platter loaded with falafel, borek, feta cheese, olives, tabbouleh and a selection of dips.
Lighter appetites are looked after with a salad range — Chicken, Lamb, Mixed Meat, Haloumi and a Vegetarian Falafel Salad — each served with humus, jajik, tabbouleh, salad greens and a light olive oil dressing. Burgers get the Turkish treatment too: a home-made grilled lamb pattie in the Lamb Kofte Burger, marinated and grilled chicken breast in the Chicken Burger, and a Falafel Burger, all served in a toasted bun with salad, tomato and mayo plus a side of fries. Garlic or plain pita bread and fries fill out the extras, and the Other Meals section offers Chicken on Chips and Lamb or Mixed on Chips with rice in kids' and adults' sizes.
Dessert is worth saving room for. Baklava comes as layers of filo pastry with nuts and syrup, Revani is a traditional Turkish semolina syrup cake, and there is tiramisu, cheesecake, chocolate cake and Turkish Delight for anyone still deciding. Teas and coffee are listed as launching soon.
For those eating at home, deliveries start at 5.00 pm and the last order time is 8.45 pm. Whether you settle in for a grill plate with all the trimmings or order a mixed kebab with hot chilli sauce to go, the idea behind Sofra is the one it started with in 2021: honest Turkish cooking, made from scratch, served with the warmth that has welcomed it to New Zealand.