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.