Before opening a small Turkish restaurant in Pennsylvania, its founder reportedly spent his working days driving a taxi. Today, the family business serves traditional dishes and handmade desserts in the middle of a busy downtown.
The contrast makes the story memorable. Instead of navigating city streets, the kitchen now prepares lamb and beef döner, Turkish kebabs, freshly baked bread, and delicate layers of baklava filled with nuts and sweet syrup.
I love the idea of a career change that brings familiar recipes into a completely different community. The menu goes far beyond a quick sandwich, offering dishes such as iskender kebab, pide, lahmacun, and traditional Turkish coffee.
For visitors, it’s a chance to discover flavors that have traveled across continents. For the family behind the counter, the restaurant represents a new chapter built around food, hospitality, and the traditions they brought with them.
From Taxi Meters To Baklava Trays, This Career Change Paid Off
Long shifts behind the wheel came first. Before Sultan Döner Kebab & Baklava ever opened its doors, the man behind it drove taxis across Pennsylvania.
That kind of job teaches patience, directions, and how to read people in about five seconds. It also leaves plenty of time to dream about doing something completely different.
For Sinan Camozu, a Turkish immigrant who settled in Pittsburgh in 2009, that something turned out to be food from home. After years of driving taxis, he opened Sultan Döner with his wife Fatma in 2021, eventually bringing a specialized phyllo-making machine from Türkiye to produce traditional baklava from scratch.
I love that the story isn’t flashy. Rather than a celebrity chef launch or a big investment campaign, the restaurant grew from a family’s determination to share the recipes they knew by heart.
The restaurant runs as a family business today, and the owners are often right there cooking. Some days they even step out from the kitchen to chat with the people eating their food.
That personal touch matters in a city full of chain lunch options. You can taste the difference when the person who built the place is still the one making it.
Driving a cab and running a restaurant share one thing in common. Both mean taking care of strangers and getting them where they want to go.
Here, the destination just happens to be a plate of warm döner. Not a bad final stop, if you ask me.
Baklava Gets Made Fresh Every Single Morning Here
Sugar, nuts, and paper-thin dough are the stars of the show. At Sultan Döner, the family makes its baklava from scratch, using phyllo prepared in-house with a specialized machine imported from Türkiye.
That’s a big deal for a dessert this fussy. Real baklava means stacking layer after layer of phyllo, adding nuts, baking it golden, and finishing it with syrup.
Shortcuts are easy to find in the dessert world. Plenty of places buy trays from a supplier and call it a day.
Not here. The name of the restaurant literally includes the word baklava, so skipping the homemade route would feel a little silly.
Pistachio baklava is one of the most talked-about options on the menu. Those bright green nuts make every piece look like it belongs in a bakery window.
Fun fact for your next trivia night. Baklava has deep roots in the kitchens of the old Ottoman Empire, and Turkey still takes the dessert very seriously.
My advice is simple. Order a piece or two even if you think you’re too full from lunch.
Better yet, grab a few extra pieces to take home. Future you, staring into an empty fridge at 9 p.m., will be grateful for the planning.
Watch That Spinning Döner And Try Not To Drool
A tall cone of meat slowly turning near the counter is hard to ignore. At Sultan Döner Kebab & Baklava, that spit holds döner made from lamb and beef.
The meat gets shaved right off the rotisserie as orders come in. Then it lands in fresh, warm bread for wraps and sandwiches.
Döner is a Turkish classic, and the word roughly means turning. It’s the ancestor of many sandwiches you probably already know, including the gyro.
Speaking of gyros, the menu has those too. Chicken options are available for anyone who prefers poultry over red meat.
The döner sandwich and the lamb döner wrap get plenty of love. Fries make a handy sidekick if you want something crispy on the plate.
Bowls are another smart choice for building your own lunch. You can pair meat with rice, garlic sauce, pickles, red cabbage, coban salad, and hummus.
That garlic sauce deserves its own fan club. It adds a creamy kick that ties everything together without stealing the show.
For a heartier sit-down meal, a döner platter is an option. Either way, the spinning spit is the reason many people stop in, and honestly, good luck walking past it.
Iskender, Beyti, And Adana Will Stretch Your Turkish Vocabulary
Ready for a quick language lesson? The plate section of the menu reads like a tour of Turkish kebab country.
Iskender is one of the big names here. It traditionally features sliced döner served over bread with tomato sauce and yogurt, and it comes from the city of Bursa.
Beyti is another favorite worth ordering. This dish usually wraps seasoned ground meat in thin bread, then slices it into neat little rounds.
Adana kebab brings a minced meat skewer named after a city in southern Turkey. It’s known back home for its bold, spicy personality.
Kebab plates with rice are also on offer. A chicken kabob plate is a friendly starting point if you’re new to Turkish food.
Since the restaurant is fully halal, it doesn’t serve pork. The owner has made a point of clearing that up for anyone confused by the menu.
I think this part of the menu is where curious eaters should spend their time. Gyros are great, but these plates show off the deeper side of Turkish cooking.
Bring a friend and split two dishes. That way you learn twice the vocabulary and taste twice the food.
Pide And Lahmacun Are Basically Turkey’s Answer To Pizza
Long, boat-shaped bread loaded with toppings sounds like something any kid would order. Pide is exactly that, and it’s one of Turkey’s most beloved comfort foods.
Sultan Döner makes pide in several styles. A spinach version is on the menu for anyone who wants something meat-free.
Sucuk pide is another option for meat lovers. Sucuk is a garlicky Turkish beef sausage, and it bakes up beautifully on warm dough.
Then there’s lahmacun, a thin flatbread topped with seasoned minced meat. In Turkey, people often roll it up with greens and a squeeze of lemon.
Calling these Turkish pizza is common, though fans in Turkey might gently correct you. They have their own history, shapes, and flavors that came long before the pizza shop down the street.
These dishes make a great choice if you want something shareable. Cut a pide into strips and pass it around the table.
Lahmacun works well as a lighter lunch, too. It’s thin enough to leave room for dessert, which matters a lot at a restaurant famous for baklava.
My tip is to try one of each across two visits. Pennsylvania winters are long, so you’ll have plenty of excuses to come back.
Finish Strong With Turkish Coffee, Tea, And Rice Pudding
Dessert at a place named for baklava could easily stop there. Yet the drinks and puddings deserve a moment of your attention too.
Turkish coffee is on the menu, and it pairs beautifully with a slice of baklava. The family has shared photos of that exact combo with plenty of pride.
This coffee is brewed thick and strong, usually in a small pot called a cezve. Sip it slowly, because the grounds settle at the bottom of the cup.
Turkish tea is another classic choice. In Turkey, it’s often served in small tulip-shaped glasses all day long.
Rice pudding shows up for anyone wanting something creamy and gentle. It’s a cozy finish after a plate of spicy kebab.
Turkish mineral water has also made an appearance on the drink list. It’s a bubbly, refreshing way to cut through rich food.
I can’t imagine leaving without at least one sweet treat. The whole point of the story is a family that bakes from scratch every morning.
So order the coffee, grab a dessert, and linger a few extra minutes. Downtown Pittsburgh will still be busy when you step back outside.
Order At The Counter And Let The Food Come To You
Here’s a heads-up for first-timers. Sultan Döner runs on café-style service, so you order at the counter and the staff brings food out to your table.
That setup keeps things quick, which is handy during a busy workday. It also works nicely if you’re grabbing lunch to go.
The dining room keeps things relaxed and homey rather than fancy. Patterned woven tablecloths add a splash of color to each table.
Don’t expect white tablecloths or a formal host stand. The feel is closer to eating at a friend’s house where someone happens to cook really well.
The family-run vibe shows up in the service too. Owners and staff often chat with guests and share bits of history behind the dishes.
That makes it a friendly spot for people new to Turkish food. Questions are welcome, so ask what iskender means or how the baklava gets made.
Bigger groups can fit, which is great news for family dinners. A party of seven once squeezed in and ordered something different for every person.
Kids are welcome here as well. Between the fries, rice pudding, and baklava, picky eaters have some easy wins.
Plan Your Downtown Visit Around These Hours
Finding the restaurant is the easy part. Sultan Döner Kebab & Baklava sits at 133 6th St, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, right in the heart of downtown.
That location makes it a natural stop for office workers, theater fans, and anyone exploring the city on foot. It’s an easy detour when hunger strikes mid-stroll.
Timing matters, so here’s the schedule. The restaurant opens Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Sunday hours run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays are closed, so don’t plan your Turkish feast for the start of the week.
Planning a weekend trip to Pittsburgh from elsewhere in Pennsylvania? A Saturday lunch here followed by a walk downtown makes for a tasty little outing.
Takeout is a great option for busy days. If you’re ordering to go, give the bag a quick check before heading out, just like you would anywhere.
And yes, grab baklava for the road. It travels well and makes a pretty sweet souvenir from a former taxi driver’s dream.
From city cabs to a downtown counter, this family built something worth the stop. All that’s left is deciding between pistachio or classic, or wisely choosing both.
