The Brand New ‘Istanbul’ - Westcliff

March 9, 2016 by Rich - Foodie Reviewer

The Brand New ‘Istanbul’ - Westcliff

I’m pretty impatient; I just can't stand waiting for anything. A prime example, last year I ordered a new car. Nothing flash, just a VW Golf, I added a few extras but nothing out of the ordinary. I had to wait 6 months for the bloody thing. Surely an organisation the size of VW would be able to throw these out of the factory at speed? But hey, obviously not! That was the longest 6 months of my life! Don't get me started on the annual anticipated wait for the new iPhone! Excitement builds for months prior to its official launch. Twitter and other blogs are rife with leaked pictures and suggested launch dates. Even when a date is finally announced there's still a couple more weeks to go. What’s worse, when the launch day is finally upon us, techno geeks queue for days prior to be the first proud owner, not giving us normal folk a chance! I just wanna get my hands on that lovely new shiny device! Yep, I’m certainly an impatient bugger. Well, a very similar scenario happened recently. This time not a new fancy gadget or car, but a restaurant. When I hear a new restaurant is on the way I'm filled with excitement; but it's that damn waiting game again!

You may recall last year I had a very nice time at a Turkish restaurant in Southend, Istanbul on York road. Quite simply, I loved it. Open charcoal grills and very busy. The whole place was filled with the buzz of people just having a jolly good time, eating traditional Turkish cuisine and swilling Efes beer like it was going out of fashion. It was clear, these guys were doing well. So well, they decided to expand their empire and open an outpost in Westcliff. On London road, near the top Hamlet Court Road, you may remember a curry restaurant called Kebabish? It wasn’t too bad, serving up quite acceptable curries, Pakistani kebabs, all cooked on an open grill. Bring your own booze too! I do love a bit of BYOB. They also had a Sheesha lounge at the rear of the restaurant. This was pretty cool, but if I had to be honest, it was let down by groups of youngsters who would turn up just to sit in the Sheesha lounge, smoke and hijack the soundtrack! Hark at me, I sound like a right grumpy old git! But I’m sure you’d agree, 2 step Garage is not what I want to listen too whilst enjoying a chuff on a fruity sheesha; understand my point? But anyway, that’s all history now, and thankfully Istanbul have taken up residence. I was keen to see if Istanbul ‘Part Deux’ was as good my visit to the original restaurant last year.

Lou and I decided to give them a try during their first week of opening. Risky strategy! I always like to give a new venture a few weeks, if not months to ‘bed in’ and iron out any teething problems. But, I just couldn’t wait. I was long overdue some genuine Turkish kebab action! So off we wandered for dinner, with Lou’s sister and husband in tow. We arrived, and straight away received a very warm welcome. First impressions were good, I noticed the same open grill as you’ll find at the mother ship in Southend, with delicious looking kebabs sizzling away over hot charcoal. Oh and the smell! Jeez, the whole restaurant was filled with the glorious aroma of BBQ’d meat. Also installed in the corner is a small bar, it looked very smart, as did the whole restaurant, almost fine dining style, all the way down to the brilliant white cotton napkins!

Shown to our table for four, our jolly waiter (who I recognised from the Southend Restaurant) handed out the menus, and took our drinks order. Efes beers all round! The menu is pretty much the same as in Southend. Cold and hot meze starters, followed by an array of tasty sounding kebabs, none of which you’ll find in your typical kebab shop. Yes, you know the one, packed out with revellers on a Friday night, normally on the other side of a few too many pints, Jaeger bombs and shots. Nope, Istanbul is a proper Turkish restaurant, not kebab shop!

Whilst surveying the menu, our waiter bought over some complimentary Turkish dips and pitta bread, just for us to try and give our opinion. A plate with three yoghurt based dips and two veggie based. Nice touch!

To start we ordered a few plates of Meze for the table. Taramasalata and Saksuka from the cold section. Saksuka is fried aubergine, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and garlic in a tomato sauce. Both where wonderful with warm pitta. From the hot Meze; Sucuck Hellim; this is Cypriot cheese and Turkish sausage. One word ‘superb!’ If you’re a fan of chorizo this is the dish for you! Falafel with hummus together with Borek (think feta with herbs in a pancake roll, and that’s essentially Borek) completed this feast of starter.

Mains? As I said earlier, an array of unusual, but authentic kebabs can be had here. Anything cooked on a skewer can pass as a kebab! So these guys grill up everything from classic cubes of chicken or lamb in a shish kebab, all the way to lamb steaks, chicken wings and lamb ribs! Or how about unusual kebabs such as Yogurtlu Tavuk Sis or Halep kebab! These are basically grilled meats cooked in clay ovens with pitta bread, special tomato sauce and topped with yoghurt and herbs. Well, the whole table, apart from me, went for the Yogurtlu Yayla. This came to the table in a rustic terracotta dish, piping hot, comprising of lamb shish, chicken shish and kofte. All grilled over charcoal, and finished in the oven with sliced pitta, topped off with their special tomato sauce and yoghurt. Damn tasty! This was proper Turkish comfort food! Of course I had to be different! I went for the relatively healthy option of the lamb and chicken shish combination. Simply, cubes of lamb and chicken cooked on their wonderful charcoal grill and served with salad, pitta and spicy rice. With a generous spoon of the optional chilli sauce it made for a tasty kebab. I think we were all happy eaters!

To finish, the very enthusiastic and friendly waiter offered us some Turkish tea and coffee. I like strong coffee, and that’s exactly what this was, I could’ve stood my spoon up in this! The tea was lovely, fresh, aromatic and almost spicy! Complimentary Turkish ‘petit fours’ accompanied the tea and coffee; well I say ‘petit fours’ it was four bite size pieces of a kinda baklava. A nice touch, and perfect with the coffee. Well that was that! My Istanbul ‘2’ experience was at an end; the cost? Just over £25 a head with a few bevvies too. Ok, some may argue that’s a bit pricey for a kebab, but that’s exactly what it isn’t. Istanbul in Westcliff is a smart traditional Turkish restaurant. So, lets try that again, £25 a head for two generous courses, drinks, coffee and Turkish petit fours; that’s good value in my book.

Yet another superb restaurant has been added to our ever growing food scene, which is going from strength to strength. Istanbul have taken over what was a pretty run of the mill curry house, sprinkled it with a little Turkish delight, as only they know how, and opened up another restaurant offering some of the best and most authentic Turkish cuisine in the area. Not a mystery meat ‘elephants leg’ doner kebab in sight!

Read all of @foodierich's previous reviews right here https://www.leigh-on-sea.com/tag/listing/blog/restaurant-review