Even though the new Eastern Mediterranean restaurant called Bay Leaves sits right next to a donut shop, there’s no mistaking the aromas as you step out of your car. Even honey-dipped baked goods can’t compete with the smell of a wood grill and fresh thyme and oregano. Offering foods from Turkey, Greece, Israel, Armenia, and Egypt, Bay Leaves sets a Middle Eastern/Mediterranean tone with its white stucco exterior, wooden beams extending arbor-like over the front entrance, and pots of fresh flowers lining the walkway.

Inside, it has a similar feel, with stucco-like walls, arched doorways, Turkish plates hung on the walls, and two glass-fronted built-in cabinets near the door that display other Turkish artifacts. Veysel and Kamer Kosereisoglu are the Turkish-American owners of the establishment, and they have created an elegant yet very comfortable space, complete with a hearth oven and a granite-topped L-shaped bar. Tassled valences at the windows, ivory tablecloths, terrazzo-tiled floors, and caned chairs complete the light, airy feel of Bay Leaves.

And then there’s the menu, so nicely fulfilling the promise of the restaurant’s name, with its emphasis on fresh herbs and veggies. Among the hot and cold appetizers, salads and soups, unusual treatments of familiar vegetables abound: artichoke hearts filled with a fava bean puree; stuffed eggplant, with tomatoes and onions, served cold; lentil soup with bulgur and "mint butter"; a Romaine salad with red lentil kibbe (kibbe is ground meat, usually lamb, mixed with bulgur).

The wood-burning hearth oven lives up to its reputation with football-shaped pides, a kind of Turkish pizza, with topping options of ground lamb (lahmacun); diced steak, with tomatoes and peppers; pastirma, a kind of cured, dried beef; spinach with black olives and feta; and soujouk, a Turkish version of linguiça.

For a cold appetizer, we chose the eggplant described above ($6), and for a hot one, we picked shrimp baked in a clay pot ($8.50). Both were absolutely delicious. The eggplant was surrounded by swirls of a very fruity olive oil. The oil combined with some fresh-squeezed lemon juice and the smokiness of the oven-baked eggplant to make an exceptionally tasty dish. And so was the shrimp, baked with tomatoes, olives, onions, peppers, and feta.

For his entree, Bill considered one of the lamb dishes (grilled or kebabed), but settled on the soujouk with penne ($13). I looked at the seafood possibilities — swordfish skewers (with namesake "bay leaves"); grilled salmon; or sole fillets in grape leaves. Instead, I chose a dish called "chicken with lemon and olives" ($16). We were so sated from our appetizers and from the generous complementary pita squares with hummus that we didn’t think we’d have room for more than a few bites of our entrees, but both were so enticing, it was hard to set them aside.

Bill’s penne dish had mushrooms, tomatoes, olives, and goat cheese, not to mention many slices of the purple-red Turkish sausage, which he loved. And very pleasing to him, and well-noted by me, was the al dente texture of his penne pasta.

My chicken breast had been marinated with lemon and fresh thyme and oregano, and they gave a distinctive spark to each morsel. The bulgur pilaf, flavored with tomatoes and olives and the expertly grilled zucchini, red pepper, and red onion that accompanied the chicken, made this entree a real winner.

Since we thought, upon first glance, that the menu was predominantly Greek, we ordered a glass each of a red and white Greek wine. Had we paid closer attention, we could have tried the two Turkish wines. The rest of the wine list at Bay Leaves is more familiar, drawing on California and Australian wines, with a nod toward Slovenia.

Desserts at Bay Leaves include the expected baklava and its unexpected chocolate-covered cousin, warm chocolate cake, rice pudding with figs and apricots, berries in wafer cups and kunefe, billed as a "cheese pastry" ($5.50). Our waitress explained that shredded phyllo dough covered mozzarella and another cheese and that the whole is baked and then sprinkled with chopped pistachio nuts. It was also drizzled with a not-too-sweet syrup. Its ooey-gooeyness came from the melted cheese, and it was a wonderful end to our meal.

We could have also topped it off with traditional Turkish coffee, brewed and poured from a copper jezve. It’s one part sugar to two parts coffee before the water is added, and it is served in espresso-sized portions that are quite tasty. But we weren’t up for the intense caffeine jolt and sugar shock at that time of day.

So many things still await us at Bay Leaves — grilled baby octopus; blackened tuna with kisir, a bulgur salad with pomegranate dressing; shredded phyllo-wrapped shrimp; their interpretations of spinach pie and falafel; a plate of cheeses (feta, string, and tulumi), and marinated olives. By offering Rhode Islanders a kind of Eastern Mediterranean smorgasbord, the Kosereisoglus are opening eyes and minds, as well as palates, to different cultures.