Efes Turkish Restaurant — Restaurant in Dartford

I've been an Efes veteran since around 2003 when they only had 2 outlets around Gt Titchfield Street off Oxford Street, W1. I've also been to the Whitechapel branch and so I am used to the quality of their food, prices and service.

We went to the Dartford branch on a Tuesday at 7pm without a reservation and got a table for four easily. The service was great and the waitress was very attentive, especially to our 2 children (aged 10 and 7).

The interior decor was not as cool as the Whitechapel branch but it was nice if a tad dated (reminiscent of the old Efes 1 and 2 in the West End). It's very spacious and airy and is one of the prettiest restaurants in town from the outside.

We received our food very quickly (probably too quickly in hindsight, which I will go into later).

We ordered the lamb chops which tasted fresh, well seasoned and fell off the bone, very nice! My daughter loved it and she can be a fussy eater.

The chicken doner was also good, well seasoned, tasty and not too greasy. My son loved this but filled himself up on the complimentary pita bread a bit too much to finish it all but was very happy to take it away to eat later.

My wife and I both ordered the Iskendar, something we have always ordered when we frequent Efes as its normally so good. In this instance it was a big disappointment. The meat was greasy and not very fresh. There was a lot of gristle and it was quite chewy. The cuts were not the usual cubes, it felt like we had a mish mash of small offcuts and leftovers. I wondered if it had been an old batch that had been microwaved and brought out to us as it had a soggy, oily, rubbery texture. Hence my suspicion about our food coming out so quickly. Not what we were used to at all (especially having eaten at Hazev in Canary Wharf the week before). Thus we left more than half of our plates (we did tell the waitress and the manager but nevertheless were still not offered any discount or a replacement portion - quite disappointing) and asked for the bill.

Not sure if we will go back until we try the other Turkish restaurant called Sedir in Dartford town centre to make a comparison with.

Overall, quite disappointing given our prior experience with this chain and the other google reviews of this branch.

In reply to the manager's comments, we were aware that it is a yoghurt sauce as we have ordered this dish many times before at your other branches as I mentioned in my review. Hence our disappointment compared with our previous experiences.

Thanks for the offer of the replacement meal, which we may take up if I can find my receipt, however it would have been better to have been offered this at the time of...

I’ve been here a few times and the food is amazing! Very good portion sizes are given so I’ve left feeling extremely full afterwards.

I like that bread is provided when you get sat down so you can nibble whilst waiting to order.

It’s a nice big restaurant and doesn’t seem to over crowded which is good, means you can dine without being on top of other people.

Service is okay, it’s not the worse but it’s not top tier either, which leads me to why I rated this 3 stars, mostly due to my recent visit.

Our original waitress didn’t know how to order from the Christmas set menu, which I find very strange considering it’s Christmas. Part of my order didn’t come (chips) but this was rectified. Someone I was with should have had salad with their food, no salad was given until asked. A glass of wine was included with the Christmas set menus, yet these were added to the end bill. Again this was rectified. Someone ordered a drink which never arrived. So all minor issues really and all were dealt with which is great… it was then the whopping 24% service charge that was added to the bill that took us all back. I’m not a fan of service charges, if I want to tip I will, I don’t like being dictated to what I should tip, but to add pretty much quarter of the bill is crazy, especially as service could have been better. Yes there was 8 of us, none of us were tricky orders, I just don’t get how so much can be added to the bill? I mean most places average 10-15% but 24%? We did ask for this to be removed and it was and we all tipped what we wanted to tip, but it’s an absolute p* take to add so much!

That being said I would go back again but that service charge...

£100 for a meal for 4 people, and 3 of us left hungry - we’re just home now cooking ourselves dinner.

The chicken shish was served under cooked, then reheated (we think in a convention oven ) - it tasted terrible and got left. The owner denies this below, but suffice to say that my wife left it and didn’t tell me, as I was out with our baby at the time. However, the waiter took the plate full of food that hadn’t been eaten and still charged us. I didn’t find out the food had been left until we left, as my wife was embarrassed.

While we’re here I’ll add some more feedback about the specifics of the food:

The cheese stuffed filo pastry was very dry and had hardly any filling - we ate one and left the other.

The halloumi was cooked badly - charring only on one side, the other side was hardly cooked.

The chips are out of a packet from a factory, and are poor quality, were also under cooked.

The £6.95 sausage starter is smaller than my thumb.

I went straight to Marks & Spencer and bought myself a rump steak which I went and cooked at home straight after leaving this poor establishment.

I’m not a keyboard warrior, I’m a person who eats out a lot, and this restaurant is terrible - even for England.

It’s also worth noting that the owner cannot deny that we all left hungry, or that the food as generally just of very poor quality. Quite pathetic - a restaurant owner should take the feedback, accept it, apologise for it, and act on it.

Do not recommend - save yourself £100 on a poor meal for 3.

Seems to me that this large would be dead and buried...