Akarsu Turkish Restaurant & Grill — Restaurant in City of Durham

After reading the glowing reviews, me and my sister decided to give this restaurant a try. First off I’d like to say the food is beautiful. 10/10. I’ve tried a lot of Turkish restaurants and this was by far the best food. What let it down was the service. Upon arriving it took a bit for us to be acknowledged before being shown to our table. It wasn’t busy as it was only 4pm. Not a single smile from any of the staff too. It felt awkward and frosty. The staff looked miserable. Once we’d chosen food and drinks and made it obvious we were ready to order, no one came over. One of the men working there didn’t even look at us despite putting cutlery on the tables next to us. We actually had to say something to get his attention to order. When ordering we asked him a few questions about the food and his replies were unenthusiastic and as if he’d rather be anywhere else. We had to ask twice for water too as we hadn’t received it. Once we finished, we fancied ordering dessert or a coffee, once again, no one came over. We observed service on the other tables and genuinely felt like it was just us being ignored. We waited over half an hour to see if anyone would come and even clean our plates away but this didn’t happen so we got up, paid at the front and just left. We did let an older lady know we were upset with the service and the first thing she said was ‘well it wasn’t me serving’ and took a bit to actually get an apology. All in all because of this experience, despite the food being lovely, we wouldn’t come back and I wouldn’t be...

I recently dined at Akarsu with family, I’m writing to offer some detailed feedback based on my experience.

During my visit, I ordered the falafel and spicy potato as hot mezze, both of which regrettably fell short of my expectations in terms of flavor and quality.

Furthermore, as this was our first time there we asked the waiter what is the top selling item at Akarsu, upon his recommendation, we went with ordering the mega meat feast. However, there was a significant miscommunication regarding the pricing structure. The waiter conveyed that the mega feast would be adequate for two to three persons, without clarifying that the listed price of £26.5 was per person, not for the entire plate. This led to confusion and disappointment when the bill arrived, as the total cost was much higher than anticipated.

Moreover, when I sought an explanation for the discrepancy in pricing, the response from the staff that this menu been there for six years and no one ever had the same issue.

I get it, I admit my fault, I should haven’t relied on what was communicated by the waiter blindly, without reading again on how the item is priced on the menu. Written in bold (Minimum for two Persons).

Anyway, the mega feast has very good quality of meat, chips and rice, while the chicken was over cooked and less then average.

Thank you for considering my feedback, and I hope you get it as a constructive review, as it’s been...

Food was lovely as I’ve been twice before and never had an issue till today. Service was shocking, we first sat down outside and ordered some drinks then after we moved to sit inside to order food the waitress told us to sit at a table even though we wanted to choose as other times we have just chosen so thought that was abit strange. Only two staff were running the place and completely ignored us walking past looking at us and we didn’t even have any menus! It took one member of staff to come off his break to acknowledge us and ask what we wanted to eat! Bare in mind this took almost half an hour just for this to happen. Then barely got our dessert down us straight away after finishing the waiter comes over to ask if we could leave the restaurant and said we have stayed longer than we would usually allow and because he had our table booked for someone else in 20 mins! Which I thought was rude because we didn’t want to be at that table in the beginning now we getting told to leave, on top of that there were two ladies who were sat before us for longer but yet they weren’t asked to leave?? It’s not the cheapest of places so it’s nice to soak up the atmosphere and it’s a type of place to dine and have conversation with who ever you go to eat with not just eat take the money then tell them to leave? Absolutely shocking experience...