Sukanya, Station Road, Denham: I wish it was nearer home

8th July.
I had a business group meeting in Harefield, and this place was suggested for a post-meeting get together. On a wet Tuesday night in July, we were in a pretty empty place. There are quite a few restaurants in Denham, which may get lunchtime business from the business parks nearby. There are actually two Thai restaurants in the immediate area (forgot to say it is Thai) and I don't know why this one was suggested in favour of the other, but I am glad it was.
It is not an inspiring place,and was so dimly lit, that it might have been closed. There were only a couple of other tables occupied, one of which was the staff. There is little to learn about the place from the internet, and the best information comes from TripAdvisor, and seem accurate enough http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g616258-d4093645-Reviews-Sukanya_Thai_Restaurant-Denham_Buckinghamshire_England.html  .There is nothing unusual about the menu and it is pretty standard stuff.
I was with a colleague who did not have any particular needs, and so to keep things simple we went for the set menu A, at just under £20 each (very fair price I thought). You can either have soup or a plate of hot starter, which is what we went for:

Again, pretty standard stuff with the prawns in batter, spring roll, prawn toast, but also some ribs that cannot be seen and some chicken thighs. Hot  and tasty with suitable sauces.

The main selection was also fairly standard stuff with a green chicken curry, beef, vegetables, prawn and fragrant rice. This was also big quantity, tasty, and all the dishes were hot scoring about 8.8 on the CHOF scale. Service was a little slow, but that did not matter. The staff were very pleasant, and were it not for the fact that this is an inconvenient location for north London, I would definitely go there again. Recommended. The set meal for two, including coffee was about £20 which was extremely reasonable, and a bit less than average.

Durum, Finchley Central. Consistently pleases

5th July 2014
One of the problems with this sort of blog is that there are some places I tend to go to repeatedly, and if there is nothing new to say, then I don't say anything. That is why there has been fewer entries recently. However, one point I have made is the fear of disappointment returning to really good places. A routine Saturday night meal out took us back to Durum in Finchley, which I have mentioned before. The web site has changed: it used to have a somewhat persistent music track. Now on http://durumrestaurant.co.uk/ . The web site is less informative and tells us nothing about the food, but there is now a branch in Golders Green. The pictures on the web site pretty much tell the story except the queues for takeaway kebab on Saturday nights.
Nothing much changes here except the prices. It is very busy early on Saturday night, but I booked the same day. If you go after 8.30 pm, you would probably get in without booking.
On this occasion I had the beyti kebab which is kofte in a spicy sauce on a bed of flatbread.

This was just sooooo good. It was very hot: a 10/10 on the CHOF scale, and very tasty,being in a piquant tomato sauce. It was a big helping, and I probably should not have ordered the portion of chips (also a 10 on the scale) which I shared with my wife but I did not know about the bread base. We had shared a cold mixed meze starter, which was also probably too much, and we left feeling very full. Prices have crept up a little here, and this cost £10.50 I think. 

Definitely going back again.

Meze Mangal, Lewisham, The Turkish Restaurant of South East London: upper crust Turkish

8th June
A premature Fathers' day outing with my family to this location because it suited the majority, and this was definitely not North London. This Turkish Restaurant, very popular with the locals, describes itself as comparable to many places in Green Lanes (if you live in N London, or Cyprus, you know what that means). The ratings are very high, and my daughter has eaten there before, and so it seemed a pretty reasonable sort of choice. There is lots of information on http://www.mezemangal.co.uk/ . I think it would be difficult to get to by public transport without a significant walk, but there is parking at the frontage of the restaurant and in the sides streets out of business hours.
The menu is fairly conventional and it is a large place used to parties/families en masse. The place seemed a bit vacuous just after opening time on a Sunday, but I guess it is very popular and fills up. I would not want to go there without booking. They also do take-away.

For Starter, as we were a family group, with one vegetarian, we had a plate of mixed cold meze starters. This photo was taken a bit late, and shows it part consumed.

Suffice it to say that there were good quantities of the usual tasty stuff. For main course I chose the Adana Kofte:

This was hot and scored a 8.8 on the CHOF scale, and was pretty big portion. I would say that the kofte meat was a little on the underseasoned side (which of course is better than the other way) and some kofte I have had elsewhere is more pungent. This reminded me more of the sort of kofte that you might get in a Cypriot Restaurant. However, there was no fault, and it was tasty and fresh with a salad accompaniment.

The web site shows the menu and I am guessing that we will go there again. I may choose the Beyti next time.

Service was friendly and flexible and our family was made most welcome. The pricing is possibly a bit higher that the North London counterparts. A main course costs £12.50, and I guess this is a couple of pounds more than a typical counterpart in North London. However, this is quality food. I would definitely go there again.