ISTANBUL RESTAURANT NORMANTON ROAD — Restaurant in England

It has been a disappointing night tonight at this restaurant that we used to love. Tonight, we waited almost TWO HOURS long for our food, if we did not chase our order, we wouldn’t have been served any food at all. The manager reassured us that our food is now being prepared and coming in “4 minutes” but it appears that there is no sign of it being made at all until we called their attention again (with so much effort, waving my arms as high as I can to grab their attention). The manager told us that he will chase this but we waited further 20 minutes after he “chased” this after being told that it will be there in 4 minutes. We were so hungry and getting fed up at this point. We were also ignored by waiters and we weren’t given anything other than the sauces and our drinks while we wait. It was a busy night but we weren’t prepared to wait almost 2 hours for our food. I’m not exaggerating, we arrived at 20:00 for our reservation, ordered food straight away and our food arrived 21:28 to be exact. Our drinks are finished at this point and we weren’t offered any drinks when they can obviously see our glasses empty. They were also rushing after dumping our order on our table. Did not even ask us if everything’s okay or is there anything else we’d like. Other nearby tables are also getting fed up and inpatient due to waiting so long for their order. Some waiters/waitress not being attentive and some are chatting and laughing behind the bar. When we were about to pay, to be fair with the manager he offered for us to have some complementary tea and apologised for a bad night but we just want to go home at that point as it was late. He was the only one rushing on his feet and the rest of his staff are letting him down. We got presented 2 receipt and the cashier was sounding rude when she asked “so which of those did you actually order?!” She keeps reading out the food we did not order and got my brother to recall all our orders only to find out she has a record of it in her till anyway. The food tasted nice but definitely looked rushed and looks like a chaos on a plate. I probably won’t eat here for a while and most probably not on a weekend. I don’t know that the situation is behind the restaurant but it was not a pleasant experience for us from a restaurant that we used to really enjoy. I feel that the staff/manager could've atleast warned that we will be waiting for a while due to being too busy then atleast it gave us a chance to decide or maybe offered some drinks...

My twin sister & I visited here to celebrate our birthday with our hubbies & my sister's son! WoW what a first time experience!!!! From the moment we arrived we received a warm welcome from the staff who led us to our table which was booked on line which was straightforward. As we were led to our table there was a warm party atmosphere from other tables, yet we were still able to hold conversations easily without being disturbed.

We were spoilt for choice on what to choose from the menu as everything looked mouth-watering & delicious! We all decided on the Sharing Platter for Two for me & hubby, with additional lamb chops because they looked amazing on the menu! My sister's hubby chose Chicken Shish with Chips & my sister & her son chose Mixed Kebabs, one with rice & one with couscous, all served with mixed salads & a mixture of cold meze's.

We didn't have to wait long for our drinks order & the food followed shortly...

Oh boy!! What a mixture of tantalising, mouth-watering heavenly flavours flavours!!!! TOP MARKS to the chef & it all arrived well presented & hot!!!!

Everything about this restaurant was excellent!! The service was impeccable which was led by an amazing manager who ensured everything went like military precision with the added personal touch of care for his team of workers & his friendly approach to all the guests from the youngest to the oldest as he led each celebration that was taking place in different parts of the restaurant with birthday & anniversary greetings & best wishes! My sister & I received a lovely birthday surprise dessert that was served by all the staff & the manager who all sung Happy Birthday to us which brought back childhood memories when it came to blowing out the candle & making a wish!!!

What lifelong memories my sister & I made for our birthday's in this amazing restaurant!!! A huge THANK YOU to all the staff for making our birthday one of the best we've had!!! We will definitely be recommending this restaurant to our family...

We went as a family of 10 for an 18th birthday was recommended by a friend of mine & honestly from start to finish I was impressed especially by the manager Noah of how entertaining & enthusiastic he was. He catered for our table especially as on the phone I told him one of us had allergies. He told me he would be taking care of our table especially. He made us laugh from start to finish & recommended the mix platter which says is for 3/4 ppl but honestly it was huge £70 worth the money. Half of us had the platter after starters which was bread hummus salad afew sauces & raita yoghurt. The other half had their own choice of meal. Manager said he hates to waste food so his recommendation of the platter was great they also have mix platter for 2 ppl which is still huge & also a bigger size to our 3/4 ppl mix grill. Nobody was disappointed with their food or portions. He then got everyone in the restaurant involved with the birthday cake entrance which we all loved. Place is big enough the balcony is a bonus. Some of us had the fruit mocktail 😋 loved it. We was given complementary tea at the end. Food was freshly served can tell it's good on their hygiene. Toilets were clean. Best first experience ever we have another birthday in a couple of weeks can't wait to go back. Only thing I'd niggle about is at the start when food came out we waited another nearly 10mins for one persons food to come. Would of like d food to come out altogether in one go. Then just reminding staff about a couple of drinks missing. Overall other than that it was a great night & the bill wasn't overpriced can't wait to go back & probably make it a regular place...