Chanak Restaurant - Bourne End — Restaurant in England

Great food, good value and OK service.

My wife and I visited Chanak’s for dinner on Valentines night. They had a small set menu on offer rather than the full a la carte (which we had not be told when we booked) however, it had a reasonable choice and, to be honest, I hate being confronted by huge menus that take half an hour to read.

We had the mixed meze starter which consisted of numerous small dishes, sausage, rolled filled breads, falafel and so on served on a platter with a selection of dips and a basket of flatbread. By the time we had worked our way through that I was already certain that my wife would not be able to finish the main course. The flavours on the platter were wonderful and all complimented one another beautifully. I was impressed.

For mains we both chose the “mixed grill”, which consisted of a chicken kebab, a lamb kebab and a lamb adana served with rice and a salad. This was almost too much to eat (and I have quite an appetite). The meats were cooked to perfection and the delicately flavoured rice proved to be a perfect foil to the other tastes. The other main courses I saw served included a salmon kebab (which looked wonderful) and a poussin which looked huge. Judging by the looks on other people’s faces, all were good. The baklava desert was excellent and served with a small scoop of ice cream, which proved to be just enough to stop it sticking to my teeth. The baklava lived up to the quality of the starters and mains. Excellent.

The restaurant was busy with no empty tables so there was a general hubbub of conversation but, thanks to the wall hung rugs the sound did not echo or become unbearable, unlike a few other places locally. The visual ambience was a little sterile and in some ways reminded me of a school dining room, however this was only really noticeable when I made a point of looking around instead of concentrating my attention on the company or the food.

The service was freindly and fairly attentive, although a couple of times we did have to wait a few moments to catch a waiter’s eye. Service was slightly disappointing, for example my wife went in while I went to park the car, when I came in a few minutes later, she was seated but no one had asked if she would like a drink. We were also not asked if we’d like our coats taken, so I spent the evening with a long, rain soaked, coat over the back of my chair, potentially a trip hazard to others and not particularly pleasant to lean against.

Our bill eventually came to a little less than £80, including a bottle of wine and a couple of glasses of prosecco. Very reasonable for the quality and quantity of the food. We will certainly be going back as well as recommending Chanaks to friends.

I would have given five stars, however the slightly rough around the edges service (I’m sure that will get better as the business settles in, it is still very new) and the ambience slightly let them down. I am looking forward to revising this when...

EDIT: Lowered the score to a single star, because I find the restaurant's response pathetic and they are just trying to (partially) invalidate my actual experience there.

When we were asked about the extra bread, we were very clearly told we would be charged for it. We specifically checked, because the manner in which we were offered more bread sounded very much like an upsell. They can charge whatever they like, but having their bread/dip proportions so off and then pushing extras on you, or else you can't really finish your meal, is SLY, it is NOT Turkish hospitality. I was pretty chill about everything at the time, but my partner (who's travelled extensively in Turkey) was not. So much so, he (a man I have never heard complain in a restaurant) told the waiter, when he came back to check if we were happy with our mains, that he finds his experience there very poor and it's no reflection of true Turkish hospitality.

Bourne End is in a wealthy area, they'll have plenty of customers who won't care or pay any attention to their sly upselling techniques, so clearly neither will they. (Why be sly tho, there is no need!!)

After my partner spoke his mind, we were offered more bread without charge, but it was a little too late then, we had nearly finished our mains by then, so we declined. We had pointed out how the bread/dips amounts were totally off/disproportionate earlier, when they could have fixed it, but at that point they cared more about an upsell worth a few quid, than us enjoying our meal there.

ORIGINAL:

The food tasted nice, but the portions were small and we (2 ppl) left hungry having spent over £70 at the restaurant.

Their meze platter was lush, but it came with a measly amount of bread that was not enough for all the dips; you were expected to order (and pay for) additional bread and it felt like the proportion of bread/dips was purposefully designed to be off to increase side orders. We'd barely started eating when the waiter came to ask if we'd like some more bread!

Sure, soon after we had no bread left, with nearly half the dips still to eat. We didn't get any more bread, out of principle, as the menu stated the platter included 'warm bread', so surely it wasn't too much to expect the amount of bread matched the amount of dips.

The portion of rice that came with the main was also offensively small, like an eggcup and you could pretty much count the number of grains on your plate.

Bottom line: food nice enough, but don't go there if...

We visited a couple of times in the past years. And both occasions we couldn’t fault this restaurant. To give Chanak their due the food is still good. More pricey to what it was previously, I would say almost on the verge of central London prices now. Perhaps this change since Covid and perhaps for their extension of the restaurant. There were some new faces serving us which we didn’t see before. And unfortunately this really let down the service. They were not rude but clearly shows one young waiter didn’t want to engage much. There was a mature gentleman and lady which were better I think part of the owners. But overall the service was not as good as before. It seems that more attention was given to regular local customers, and when we left some of the staff were near the main exit door not one said thank you hope to see you again, nothing. It doesn’t take much for being a bit more attentive to everyone rather to a select few. We recently returned from the Mediterranean and everyone was so pleased happy and willing to serve. Which made us return to some of the same restaurants again. This is what really let this down considering we paid over £100. Also as Chanak from what I gather is an independent restaurant when my daughter wanted to ask for less than what was on the desert menu we were told they can only give what’s stated on the menu. Many other local restaurants in the area have always been accommodated and taken less of a charge for this situation. That’s a real shame especially if they are a family run restaurant they could not accommodate this considering we were happy to pay overall bill.

Perhaps the break they take from 5th to 21st August might help some re generate their customer service. Unfortunately we will give some thoughts about returning now...