A La Turka Canterbury — Restaurant in Canterbury

I've been going to A La Turk Westgate for a few years now and have always loved it there, but I was incredibly disappointed today with the service.

The waitress, Tara, spoke to me and my friends in the foulest manner. She was so horrible to us. I've never been spoken to like that in my life. My friend wanted to order the lamb shank, to which Tara basically shouted, "IF YOU CANT FIND IT, THEN ITS NOT ON THE MENU, IS IT??" I was genuinely shocked that she spoke to my friend like this. Normally, if customers are trying to find an item on the menu but don’t remember the exact name of the dish, one would assume the waitress would help and guide the customer. But no – instead, Tara was getting frustrated that we were taking our time to order. In the end, we realised the lamb shank is called Kleftico on the menu, which honestly I think the average person would call a lamb shank. (I’ll post a photo and you be the judge). Like sorry we didn’t know the exact terminology - English isn’t our first language, but we shouldn’t be spoken to like that regardless.

On numerous occasions, Tara spoke to us like we were a burden. We felt like we were a bother and became scared to even ask for anything because of how aggressively she spoke to us. Maybe she was having a bad day, but at your job you have a duty to be professional with your customers. I actually lost my appetite entirely because of how we were spoken to. It ruined my evening completely. I didn’t end up eating my meal, that’s how much her behaviour impacted all of our night. It was so painful to watch the waitress Tara speak to my friend like this – there was absolutely no reason to belittle someone like this. I’m not even exaggerating at all.

I asked Tara if we had offended her or done something wrong, as I was trying to understand why she was treating us so badly. She responded, "No, you didn’t offend me, I’m just very hot, it’s been a hot day." Tara didn’t apologise at all.

Tara then came back, and we thought maybe she would come to apologise. But no – she just explained that her role is essentially to ask if we want anything extra, food or drink, and that is the process, and whatever is on the menu is on the menu. I saw her treating the new waitress so badly, it’s only an observation but I’m genuinely concerned she may be bullying her. The new waitress was so sweet to us and was the only reason we didn’t walk out. The new waitress was kind, smiley, and professional - she has fabulous customer service.

It was honestly the worst experience I have ever had in a restaurant. I have to be honest, though, the food is still amazing; the quality of the food is great. The kitchen is definitely doing something right, but I’ll have to boycott this place as they clearly do not value customer service as highly...

My partner had been here before many times and really liked it. We ordered Halloumi, Kisir, a salad and Pita breads for starters.

All the starters were to our liking. The Halloumi was charred to perfection and tasted like from the grill. My favourite was the Kisir - a paste of sorts, made from walnuts, tomatoes, olive oil, etc.

We ordered two half pints of Efes Beer, but we got two (whole) pints instead - these were also charged, but I am willing to believe that this was a simple misunderstang and not intentional. That was the first setback, but we still had high hopes for the main, since the entrees were impeccable.

I ordered the Veggie Sarma Beyti and my partner ordered the Veggie Nazik. As it turned out, they both were pretty much the exact same thing with one slight difference. While the Nazik consisted of loosely assembled fried bell peppers, mushrooms and aubergine, the Sarma Beyti had the same fried veggies, but wrapped in flat bread. The greater part of both meals, however, consisted of half a large tub of yogurt and a little less tomato sauce. In addition, each of us got a side of Bulgur.

The ingredients seemed quite good quality but the meals were super heavy and the yogurt overshadowed everything. Because of the excessive portion sizes, we had to pack the rest to take home (we left the yogurt). I left the restaurant quite unhappy, as we paid 15 quid each for what were essentially two plates of full fat yogurt with a little veggies.

To be fair, I have heard and read quite positive opinions about their meat and fish options, which I cannot comment on. For vegetarians there are plenty of places nearby that serve better food at this price and perhaps cheaper....

Visited here a couple of nights ago. Called to check what time last orders were - 10.30 but we had to leave by 11.30. This was fab as it was only 9.30! Greeted by a rather abrupt waitress at the door.. told to sit down! We requested to sit at the back in the “garden room” - she agreed but then 2 of her colleagues began to argue against this in front of us in a foreign language! We sat down and had the most attentive warm and friendly waitress who looked after us UNTIL at 11pm her colleague came to the table and literally tried to usher us out by trying to take our unfinished dinner away. We said we were not finished! 5 minutes later another waitress did the same to which we said we were not finished and reiterated we had until 11.30 to leave. She argued and left the table disgruntled! Our lovely waitress was hugely apologetic and apologised. Then another waitress shouted we had to leave - the time was 11.20! Again our waitress apologised asking us to please finish our meal. We did finish and we left by 11.25…. As we walked out the 4 waitresses mentioned were sitting on an outside table eating and drinking bitching at us as we left! In a nutshell, our waitress was faultless but the rest of the rude, unprofessional, abrasive, surly staff should be asked to find a new career because front of house really isn’t their bag! The food was pretty good but I can’t see past the shocking service. I have been going here since the day they opened - the more successful they have become the less quality in both hospitality and service they deliver. I won’t...