Istanbul Grill Prestwich — Restaurant in Bury

2 starts is only for the okay customer service, some staff were nice, friendly and some were just placing the (horrible) food on the table without a smile or without saying anything. I mean it's not really a big deal but you know since it's the best awarded Turkish restaurant you would expect some better service. The atmosphere was... okay.

So here is how our visit went... we were looking for a nice place to eat out for a birthday meal, and we found this apparently, best Turkish place so we without a doubt just drove there. The place looked decent and inside was quite nice until we noticed a bit of dirt here and there on the seats but thats not a massive deal.

We got to order drinks and as usual when we go to Turkish restaurants we order the traditional Ayran (salty yoghurt) drink. For those who are familiar with the Ayran drink know that it has a salty taste to it and the consistency is quite watery right. So when the Ayran drinks came, I had quite big sip obviously thinking it was nice but I nearly spat it out as it was too thick and not one pinch of salt has been added. It tasted like mould, there is no other way to describe the taste of it. At first i thought maybe it was because of the paper straws that made the taste funny but i tried it without the straw and it was the same mould taste. We gave it back and kindly stated that we did not like it and that it was not Ayran. The member of staff took it and said that they make it by themselves with yoghurt. Okay now we hoped that the food was going to be nice.

We ordered a meat platter for 4 people and it cost £73. This was a bit more than we actually pay in a much more nicer and tastier Turkish restaurant in London. So the food came and they gave us small portion of rice, quite a bit of salad, some sauce in a tiny dish and a spoon of some kind of salsa i think. This was on everyones plate. The meat platter came and it looked appetising and the presentation of the food was nice. Okay so we all dug in and to be honest the meat especially the doner kebab was awful, the taste of it was like pure lamb fat. It was disgusting. The meat and the chicken were nice at first but you could tell by the taste the meat wasn't fresh and so wasn't the rice or the salad. It was as if they gave us yesterdays leftovers and microwaved them.

We usually as a family eat quite a lot of the meal platter but this time we didn't even eat half of it as it was awful and the kids had started to feel sick and getting stomach aches. Well, the birthday meal was going great (note the sarcasm)! We didn't last long in the restaurant and went and took the food as takeaway to try again at home.

Eating the meat and chicken today again, I started to feel sick straight after a couple of minutes. I'm really concerned about the freshness of the meat and probably everything else that we had to eat and drink.

Forgot to mention that we went at 5-6 pm to the supposedly best Turkish restaurant in the country. It wasn't quite busy but we thought that maybe when it starts getting busier that they only cook fresh food. But, ladies and gents, since this is the best Turkish restaurant in the country then they should meet their standards of food quality right? Who would want old food or left overs for a birthday meal.

In a nutshell, the birthday meal wasn't what we expected and the restaurant didn't meet the standard of their award. The food was not fresh neither was the Ayran (it was disgusting). Meat tasted bland. So if after reading my review i think you can tell that i would not recommend this restaurant as it doesn't meet the expectations and for the level of quality the food is expensive - it's more expensive than a Turkish restaurant in London, yet the food is appalling.

I will never come back here and just wanted to tell you of my experience of this restaurant. Half of the reviews are probably PR or family and friends leaving positive comments.

Not...

So me and my Wife post alot of reviews online and we always review everything from pubs to bars to restaurants to beaches to beauty treatments to beach clubs to Airbnbs to Football stadiums etc.

So we visited Istanbul Grill in Prestwich village the other day after we arrived back on a few day break in Nantes in France, We arrived at 4:30pm and the restaurant was quiet so we were greeted by a waitress who seated us at a table in the window.

To drink i ordered a pint of Efes(Turkish larger) and my Wife ordered a glass of Cabernet Sauvigion. Drinks were well presented and went down a treat on a hot summers day.

To eat we ordered off the set menu to start i ordered a lentil soup and my Wife ordered Garlic mushrooms and we also ordered a Garlic bread with cheese, My soup was very flavoursome and tasted delicious it was served with hot pitta bread, My Wife really enjoyed her Garlic mushrooms and the Cheesy Garlic bread was amazing and by far the best I had ever eaten.

For mains my Wife ordered Lamb kofta which came with Rice and salad and I ordered Chicken Shawarma with chips and we ordered an extra portion of chips, My Wife really enjoyed her lamb which was hot, very tasty and succulent and went really well with the rice and chips, My Chicken Swarma was fresh, extremely tasty and the chips were delicious, we both cleaned our plates and decided to order another beer and glass of red wine 🍷.

Restaurant was spotlessly clean, super friendly and attentive staff, Beautiful decor inside, Fantastic service, exceptional value, toilets were spotlessly clean and we really enjoyed the whole experience and we highly recommend Istanbul grill in Prestwich and you can pay cash or card.

5☆ 5☆ 5☆ 5☆ 5☆

I post alot of reviews on Google and I always give my honest opinion on everything from food, cleanliness, drink, Service, value for money, setting, ambience etc and I have over 32,000,000+ views on Google alone.

I have reviewed everything from Restaurants to bars to beaches to beach clubs to taxis to airports to flights to beauty treatments to Barbers to hotels to Churches to Basilica to shooting ranges to hair dressers etc.

From Manchester to Split(Croatia), Hvar(Croatia), Supetar(Brac, Croatia),Rome(Italy), Vatican(Italy), Bezier Cap d'Agde(South of France), Montpellier(South of France), Podgorica(Montenegro), Budva(Montenegro), Tirana(Albania), Sarande(Albania), Ksamil(Albania), Krakow(Poland), Zakopane(Poland) and...

Absolutely lovely meal, sunday evening hunting for somewhere to eat at 8.30pm, everywhere turned us away due to 10pm curfew??? Still an hour and half, but worked in our favour, as we ended up here, only us in the restaurant and we were welcomed in like family. We sat and eat, worried we may be served old food as the night comes to an end, but definitely not. Food was fresh, delicious and very flavourism. Staff were spot on, very friendlie and going above and beyond, even serving us some complimentary dips and naan.

We enjoyed a loved soup, full of flavour!!! And lamb chops, rice and salad! Now wow, what a meal, lamb was a tender as you could dream, rice was full of flavour. I am a person who sees salad as something to only make the plate look pretty, but I cleared my whole salad, as I had to ask what dressing was on their salad. We was told a chefs speical pomegranate, which was amazing!

Overall, very impressed, lots of flavour, which is so important and extremely amazing staff!

Will be back...