A Turkish Lunch in East London

Last week was my friend Armando’s birthday, so we spend the day in east London. We ended having lunch in one of the Turkish places in Dalston, there are so many of them, and he has tried a couple ones, but this one was a new one as his first option was closed. The place 19 Numara Bos Cirrik, serving Anatolian cuisine in an open charcoal grill or Ocakbasi, the offer simple, tasty mezzes, fresh baked breads, and chargrilled marinated meats, fish, and vegetables.

The Place

Menu

Ocakbasi

For starters we got the Karisik Meze (mixed meze), Falafel, and Kalamar Tava (sauteed calamari). It was perfect, the flavours were there, the food was perfectly cooked, the aromas, spot on.

Falafel 

Meze

Calamari

For main I got the Tavuk Sis Yogurtlu which is chicken shish with garlic yogurt sauce. Again amazing, the yogurt was special giving a good balance for the garlic chicken.

 Pickle Onion

Chicken Shish

The only down note of the whole meal was the service, it was dreadful, is like we were begging to be served, our waiter was slow, with a really bad attitude, just the kind of guy you won’t have in front of the house, he even didn’t let us splitting the bill in different cards so made my friends to look for money in the ATM machine, it was just absurd. However, the food was so good that I really don’t care, just ignore him and enjoy the food which is perfect. This Turkey place gave me hope that not only fancy restaurants are serving amazing food, it is refreshing to discover humble places doing a great job.

After leaving the place my friend told us to try the best baklava in town, the place was literally beside Tugra Baklava, I’m not a sweet tooth person, but after Armando’s continuous persistence I decided to tried it, again OMG... it was superb, the best one I have had period.

Turkish Sweets 

Tugra

Turkey reminds me the Seinfeld episode “The Secret Code” when George doesn’t want to share his ATM code.

Jerry: Alright, you're locked up in a prison in Turkey, I have your wallet. The only way I can bribe the guards to get you out is for you to give me your ATM code.

George: Call the Embassy.

Jerry: They're closed.

George: Why?

Jerry: Bomb threat.

George: We're in Turkey?

Jerry: Midnight Express, my friend.

George: My card won't work there; they're not on the Plus system.


19 Numara Bos Cirrik
T: 020 7249 0400
Cuisine: Turkish
Borough: Hackney
Area: Dalston

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