I’m very conscious that this ‘riveting’ blog is getting behind, I’m having some challenges with the Internet. Jonathan’s extremist view that I’m addicted to being online is ridiculous, so I’ve ignored that. Anyway, this is from Istanbul, so my first proper meal in Turkey. Posts might be a little shorter than usual in my attempt to catch up.
The bread, spicy ezme sauce and Tzatziki type dip was provided free of charge and they also replaced it when we ate all of it, which was really rather lovely.
I decided to go for a salad side as a healthy diet is obviously important to me. There was more salad than I expected and it was certainly a colourful and well presented arrangement.
The main course was chicken kebab which was really rather lovely, a depth of flavour to the chicken which was tender and moist. There was bread to mop up the juices and some texture from the onion.
There was a free dessert provided by the restaurant, this all felt a little bit like the Lowestoft Tandoori. It was similar to the Indian dessert of gulab jamun as it was sweet and syrupy, but the nuts added extra texture.
I paid around £6.50 for the Pepsi, salad and chicken kebab, with the rest of the elements all free of charge. It was also handy that they accepted card payments as I wasn’t sure what the set-up was in that regard. The service was attentive, polite and welcoming and the environment was clean and comfortable. This was certainly a really rather positive first impression of Turkish food in a casual and informal restaurant.