Efe's BBQ — Restaurant in Crawley

We're fortunate to live about 5 minutes walk away, and have been coming to Efes since the day we found our first house, so just over 6 years now.

During lockdown the owners and staff, Mario especially, went over and above to accommodate our requests to use the garden space and have a bouncy castle for our daughter's first birthday with over 30 guests, the day was perfect and so memorable we'll forever be thankful to them!

Since then, we have become regulars. Visiting sometimes multiple times a week. They feel like part of the family, watching our daughter grow up. Always welcoming her with big hugs and smiles, asking her about her day.

The owners are absolutely lovely people, always willing to stop and have a chat no matter how busy they are. Their staff all embrace this welcoming attitude, it's honestly so wholesome, we love visiting, it feels like a home away from home!

Now on to the food. We are big foodies, and have tried many, many Turkish restaurants from Antalya, Istanbul, Manchester, Bolton, every corner of London, Eastbourne, Horsham, Brighton. The food here at Efes is hands down the nicest Turkish food we have ever tasted, which is why we've probably visited close to 250 times over the last 6 years, probably more!

From their lamb chops which melt in your mouth and fall off the bone, to their adana kofte and chicken shish, chicken wings and lamb ribs that burst with flavour in every mouthful and are so moist and juicy. Accompanied by either their perfectly cooked rice, or fluffy in the middle, crispy on the outside chips. But it doesn't stop there, as you also get a complimentary basket of fresh warm bread, delicious salad with pomegranate molasses dressing, as well as mixed olives, salsa and their garlic sauce which is to die for! (One day I'll get that recipe!!). We can thoroughly recommend their sharing platter, you certainly won't go hungry! It'll easily do 2-4 people.

They have a wonderful selection of starters, of which we've tried them all, as well as many different mains including sea bass and salmon all cooked on their charcoal grill.

For those with a sweet tooth they also have a delicious selection of desserts which I can also recommend.

They have a bar and many cocktail options, including non-alcoholic ones.

Their portion sizes are very generous, to the point that we often take stuff home in a box for the day after.

The pièce de resistance is their prices are incredibly reasonable! Especially compared to other local restaurants. And yes, just like all restaurants they have their busy nights when some staff are on holidays so service is a little slower, but the food more than makes up for it.

This place is honestly a hidden gem, and we hope it sticks around for many more years to come! A big thank you to all of the staff who make us feel welcome and like family every time we visit, see...

I've been to about 20 different Turkish restaurants in my time as I'm a huge foodie and this has to be by far the worst place.

Service - Really bad. First time I went I waited 25 mins or so to get drinks, the staff would rather stand around and faff about. Having looked at me a few times, no one came over! Bizarre. When someone walks in, greet them, seat them.. wait 5 minutes and ask what we want for drinks? It's pretty simple. They know nothing about waitressing at all, so I'm going to spell it out. Maybe learn something.

(First time I visited on a Monday, super quiet.. no need to be so slow with service. 2nd time it was a Tuesday, again.. no need for the service to be so slow. Can't imagine what it's like on a Friday night)

Greet Wait 5 minutes - Drinks Bring drinks and ask if we want starters Wait 5 minutes and then come back for mains Bring starters Bring mains If you see empty glasses, ask if we'd like another drink EMPTY PLATES ONCE DONE! (I saw another table and they had they're empty plates Infront of them for well over 40 minutes once done. Who wants to sit next to dirty plates? Desserts?

I'm not telling you what to do but please, if you're going to have staff serving custom.. train them!

I'm not telling you how to do your job guys but you are working in the hospitality industry. There's 0 training and staff are CLUELESS.

Food - Really nice and tasty. However I got food poisoning on the 2nd visit. I ordered the hummus, cacik, fries, bread and garlic mushrooms. I'm pretty sure that it was the garlic mushrooms. Not nice. It really should mention it comes with a tomato based sauce though otherwise I wouldn't have ordered them.

Guys, sort out the service and make sure food is served so that it won't make people sick. I am 36 weeks pregnant so I really don't need food poisoning right now.

I won't be...

Visited recently with my husband and 5 year old , 8 month old and a friend who was visiting from abroad. We sat outside and from ordering food to receiving it and afterwards the customer service was appalling. The girl who served us appeared not to give a dam and despite the fact that we had two little children my husband had to get up three times to ask for things. There useless waiters just stood there not even willing to call in and check even once if we were ok or needed anything. Now I could have ignored that all of the rest of experience was ok. Just having started our meal my husband discovered a SNAIL yes a live snail in his salad . My son was absolutely terrified and started to cry and couldn’t eat anything. My husband and the guest we had had only taken a few mouthful of their meals and felt absolutely disgusted. We called the wonderful waitress mentioned above and her response was that this was because we were sat outside?????? Seriously . I said to her snails don’t have wings to land in the salad . Then she went inside and we waited that someone would show up and at least apologise for this - again my husband had to go in himself and speak to the “ manager -the fat guy”. It was appalling that he had the audacity to not apologise about this hideous experience and ask for the bill instead. My husband said he will only pay for drink as we had not earned even 1/3rd of our food but he insisted we paid half of the bill. I would never ever attend again and would advise my friends and family to stay away. I don’t know what they do in turkey if they find a snail in there food in a restaurant but here in UK that’s not acceptable. I intend to report them to food...