Ninova Restaurant, East Barnet. Competent Turkish local with bizarre decoration

26th June 2017
After a long break, where most of my reviews have been on TripAdvisor, I bring you something new and local and more fitting to my blog.
I have noticed this newish local Turkish located in central East Barnet where a bakery used to be.
Initially the reviews were a bit unsupportive, but now they are more consistently positive. I went there with my wife and a friend for an informal meal on a Monday night. I had had a look in there on other week nights, and it had not seemed crowded, but even so, we booked.
The web site http://www.ninova-restaurant.co.uk/  gives the menu and seems more orientated to selling takeaway. There is very little info about the actual restaurant. It is easy to find, and there is no problem with on-street parking in the evening. Also plenty of unrestricted side streets.
The first things that strike you are the size: I did not count the place settings, but it looks as if they could probably seat about 100 persons with some tables which could easily take an 8. The interior decor is a bit bizarre with plaster relief scenes which range from Babylonian hunting scenes and Assyrian soldiers like you might see in the British Museum, the statue of Liberty, Mosta Bridge, and most bizarrely a native-American hunting scene. All adds to the ambience.
On a Monday night, a few tables were taken, but I cannot say if it gets full at weekends.
The menu is fairly short and bog-standard stuff. There is little in the way of clever or inventive Turkish food here. The pricing is slightly over the local average.
We shared a cold mixed meze starter which came with humus, tarama, tzatsiki, cold vegetables and stuffed vine leaves. This was served with bread and a mixed salad. Good size portion, big enough for three sharing for £14.50.
My companions had chicken and lamb skewer kebabs for main (which I tasted and were of excellent quality), but I had Lamb Beyti.

Unlike other beytis I have had, the yoghourt was on the bottom, and was flavoured with mint. This was a fair size portion, but it could have been with being a bit hotter, scoring only a 7 on the CHOF scale. If we had not been with company, I might have thought about returning it, but as the fashion in some Turkish restaurants is to serve luke warm food, I made my mind up that when we returned here, which we will, the most expedient solution is to tell them up-front that my expectation is for food to be hot. My party also reported that their kebabs were not so hot, so it wasn't just me. I think that this raises a key point, that if you want hot food, it is fair to warn restaurants at the point of ordering that this is your expectation. An unsolicited plate of sweet water melon was offered to customers.
All in all, despite the temperature, this was a good choice, and we would go there again. The staff wer fairly helpful and the weird decor cannot be beaten.
A meal for three including a shared starter, 3 mains, two beers and a soft drink came to £58 without service. This seemed like fair value.