ELAF - Middle East & Turkish Cuisine — Restaurant in England

"My trip to Elaf restaurant was not what I expected. Right from the start, the service wasn't great. The staff seemed uninterested and made ordering a bit of a hassle. This set the tone for a disappointing experience.

The first big problem came when they brought the food. I had ordered a simple salad, but what they brought was something entirely different, and they insisted it was the salad. This mix-up was frustrating and set the tone for the rest of the meal, which turned out to be a letdown.

The main dishes, lamb chops, and chicken tikka, were surprisingly plain. They didn't have the delicious flavors you'd expect from a restaurant specializing in these dishes. The chicken tikka was even undercooked, which made me worry about food safety. This was disappointing for a place that prides itself on its food.

During our meal, the restaurant's smoke alarm went off unexpectedly. To make it worse, the staff didn't tell us what was happening. We were left confused and stressed. Every restaurant should prioritize the safety and comfort of its customers, but this incident showed a lack of attention to that.

I was also unhappy with the drinks. We ordered Ayran, a yogurt-based drink, but it was served differently than expected, with added lemon without asking. It might seem minor, but it showed a lack of attention to detail and customer preferences.

Furthermore, the overall cost of our meal was approximately £200, which made our disappointing experience even more frustrating.

Lastly, when we finally got the salad, it was incredibly salty, so salty that it was impossible to eat. I was hoping for a light and refreshing salad to go with the main dishes, but it was a bitter disappointment.

Throughout the experience, the staff didn't seem interested in helping us. It was disappointing to learn that the restaurant's performance depended on whether the boss was present. When the boss was there in my previous visits, things were good. But this time, without the boss, the experience was far from satisfying.

Minor issues, such as not providing free tap water, failing to clean the table after a spillage, and not topping up a spilled jug, further disappointed us and highlighted a lack of attention to customer service.

In conclusion, my visit to Elaf was disappointing. From unhelpful staff to order mix-ups, bland food, and the chaotic alarm incident, it's not an experience I'd like to remember. The inconsistency in service and the decline in quality when the boss wasn't around raise concerns about how the restaurant is managed. I hope Elaf takes this feedback to heart and makes the necessary changes to regain the trust of...

I wish I didn’t have to write this as the staff were quite likeable, including the chef who brought the platter out. The waitresses were also polite although undertrained perhaps?

Now the not so good stuff: I had to ask for glasses to go with the soft drink cans. Was only brought one. Eating mains in tiny side plates is extremely challenging so I’d suggesting bringing out larger dinner plates? I could have asked, but couldn’t get anyone’s attention so gave up. The platter itself was completely bland and lacked any sort of taste whatsoever. Not sure what the marination process involves but can’t be much. The best thing about the food was that it was edible, the flavour was non existent. So to summarise, it will fill you up but it won’t taste very good.

Just a tip for the owner that seemingly thinks it’s okay replying sarcastically to customers’ feedback. Please don’t. Treat it as a way of improving your business! I genuinely wanted for it to be better and hopefully you take some of the constructive criticism on-board.

EDIT: Having seen the owner’s ridiculous response, I’m a bit speechless. You had an opportunity to take feedback on board and I’d have been happy to have tried this place again and added a better review if deserved. Not only will I not do that, I’ll also be actively encouraging people to NOT go to this establishment owned by who seems to be a 12 year old petulant child that spends longer replying nonsense than improving his business. You mentioned opening a restaurant in London, as someone from the South let me just say if you open something as shambolic as this restaurant you’ll be laughed all the way back up the M6….muppet!

EDIT 2: Genuine advice - stop embarrassing yourself. I left you a 3 star review initially, and genuinely wanted for you to pick up on some of the constructive criticism as nothing gives me more satisfaction than to see a local business take it on board and improve. I do feel sorry for you, as in your “18 years experience”, not only have you not learnt much about the art of cooking and making your dishes more flavourful (not spicy, I never mentioned spice, so not sure where your silly point about Indian food came from) but you’ve also not learnt how to talk to your customers. Perhaps this is why 18 years later you’re still just as poor as when you first started…solution: talk less, listen more and don’t take things so personally. Your mentality is reflected within your business and that’s an...

This was much hyped on here, and with the decor we came here especially hoping for good food and a warm cosy evening: We unfortunately for us found nothing of the sort.

When we came in there was a male and a female waiter, we came in and weren't acknowledged and we asked where we could sit to be polite as only 3 tables were in use.

No ambient music, inside was cold and we instantly didn't feel relaxed, the menu we were given with no acknowledgement nor if we wanted anything, the female was always trying to be on her phone without being caught, the male waiter seemed more interested in speaking to the female waitress at the counter all evening, both had their backs to the guests all the time we were there.

The menu showed us the prices were ridiculous, but we thought we're here and should try some things, we had to physically get up and get the attention of the staff for anything we wanted.

Now I asked for a cold jug of water (which is a legal requirement to be available for free) waiter said no with a scowl and said bottle water, I explained some of us don't drink bottled water, anyway the service wasn't welcoming.

The food was a great disappointment : the hummus was bitter, how they made that we don't know, the fallafel were greasy, stodgy, dense and near burnt, served on a salad which was a few shreds of Lettuce, lamb chops were bland and dry, they should have atleast kept some fat on, kobeda was greasy and bland but left an after taste of something in the mouth, bread seemed nice, rice was blah, olives were old tinned and their idea of salad to accompany is a few shredz of Lettuce, with one slice of pickled carrot and one piece of pickled something else.

The mock tail was disgusting, meant to be a lime mojito - which is ridiculous because a mojito is lime and mint, it tasted like soda water but was near luminescent green, the only good part to this evening was the mint sauce and chilli sauce .

Whom ever cooks this food doesn't know what Turkish food tastes like.

I couldn't justify this place, a great let down, not sure how they got the...