Contender or Pretender?

Festival season is rapidly approaching, the man dem need to wear our t-shirts in the manor, Kano not t-shirt in the sea (think about it, got it?). As the summer days gradually descend upon us, well we pray, it’s time to get them gains and locate those abs. We started the Bank Holiday Monday with a serious session in the gym. (How do you think we eat all of this food to give you reviews and stay lean?) Crosstrainer, 5krun, squats mountain climbers, burpies, proper high intensity stuff.

Man Dem needed to refuel and what better than grilled meat and salad (no cheese burgers to some of the Man Dem’s displeasure). We headed down to Efes,  a Turkish restaurant which is beginning to make a name for it self in the East End of London.

FOOD:

As with most, if not all Turkish restaurants we were presented with a fresh complimentary salad and bread dish alongside a salsa and yogurt dip. We didn’t order a starter, we went straight into the main which was of course the chef special mixed grill. The Portion size of the mixed grill exceeded expectations.

All meats were filled with flavour, the couscous and rice was delicious, and the juices from the meat soaked into both which gave extra flavour. The only slight criticism is that some cuts of meat were more fatty than others and a little tough, but this was a minimal amount of meat.

We noticed they had some delightful desserts on offer so it would have been rude not to have a taste. We opted for the chocolate chip cheesecake and the banoffee pie. They were
absolutely incredible! We could go back and eat the desserts on their own. The chocolate chip cheesecake had a perfect combination of biscuit base, cream cheese filling with surprise chocolate chips and a healthy topping of a hard chocolate top and the banoffee pie was smooth, sweet and left you wanting more.

SERVICE:

As soon as we walked into the restaurant we were greeted and offered a table. We would recommend booking ahead as the restaurant is small and we were lucky because it was their last available table. Once we had decided what we wanted to order our drinks came within seconds as you would expect and the meal came in roughly 10 minutes. We were quite impressed. The waiter who served us was so confident we would like the desserts he said if we don’t like it he will pay for it. That made us laugh and just added to the general experience.

OVERALL:

The food was good quality and have no major faults about the taste. The service was perfectly fine and was delivered with a smile. The price of the food was more than reasonable so for a another Turkish restaurant to choose from you won’t go wrong here.

SCORE:

4 out of 6 man dems. The reason why it’s not getting anymore is simply because Efes was missing the wow factor. The food was good (especially the desserts) but not great, and the service was acceptable but that was it.

At first we thought Efes was a new contender for best Turkish restaurant in London (Look out for Man Dem V Food *Turkish Tuesday’s blogs), but it turns out Efes was a pretender and add to the ‘just another Turkish restaurant’ list with hundreds of others.

*Turkish Tuesday

The Man Dem are on the hunt for the best Turkish restaurant in London. So far we have narrowed the list down to three restaurants, we will be revealing the shortlist very soon!