Pera, North Finchley. Not as bad as some of the reviews suggest

1st December

To Pera Restaurant in North Finchley with my wife's long standing friends and their spouses. We go out together from time to time, so the emphasis is on talk talk.

I have known the site where the Pera is for over 30 years. It used to be a shop-front for the gas board, but when they did away with these, it became an interior decor shop, and after that it has been a succession of restaurants, and the latest incarnation is the Pera, which use to be known as the Medi Lounge. They have not changed it much from the Medi lounge which had good food and indifferent service and atmosphere, but it is now a Turkish Ocakbasi, which means a restaurant with an open flame pit grill. 

They are very popular in North London at the moment, and serve the dual function of restaurants and take-away. Generally cheapish grilled food and kebabs. Pera apparently refers to the eastern side of Istanbul, so I guess for the knowledgeable it it telling them the exact style of food. There are several indifferent reviews on the Internet, and a friend who had tried it recently was not impressed, but we still went. There is a URL which at the time of writing leads to a web site under construction.

The restaurant is quite big and functions on two floors. The last time I went there, they were reserving the upstairs for parties, but it seemed to be functioning on Saturday night. As a result it was not crowded, but there was insufficient waiting staff for two floors, and as reviews have said, the service was slow, but as we were not going anywhere, that was not a problem.

I had a grilled octopus for starter:

This was nicely cooked and really looked like fresh octopus (not a giant), and the thing at the bottom middle was not an eye (I think). There was an plate olives and of freshly baked flatbreads of two different kinds (delicious and soft) to mop up juices, and this needed no seasoning.

For main dish I had a kofte dish in yoghourt sauce with a bread base and side salad. Lost the menu so cannot tell you the proper name.

This was most filling and I could not finish the bread base which was a bit soggy, but I am told that is the way it should be. Tasty, well cooked, and about 8 on the CHOF scale. The green things are chillies, which I did not eat. My companions had a variety of meals including a chicken shish, shank of lamb and other grilled meats. There was general approval. Whilst not the gold standard of Turkish Food (I like the Mangal in Stoke Newington), I could not find anything wrong. 

Strangely enough, the house wine is a Montepulciano d'Abruzzo which was acceptable, and fairly priced. A meal for two with wine came to £42 including service. Would I go there again? Possibly so, but it would not be my first choice, as I think that there are better places in the area. The advantage is one of space, in that this place  is big, and seems not to have caught the imagination of the Saturday night crowd. A few doors up at Meze Meze, you would not be able to get in, for a meal of similar standard (in my opinion), but in Finchley, there is the Izgara, Durum and Divan which probably try harder but can get a bit noisy. The Pera is still a newcomer, and it is difficult to know if it will stand the test of time. The predecessors on the same site apparently did not. Maybe it is the staff, as they are never particularly welcoming, and the service was on the slow side. Time will tell.