Pera Kitchen — Restaurant in England

I’ve now visited Pera three times since it opened on 17th December 2018, so I think I can now write a fair review. Recognising that the restaurant is very new, I've also shared feedback directly with the restaurant following my first two visits. The feedback below is primarily from my 3rd visit.

The decor and upgrade to the building are brilliant. On a cold night try to avoid sitting near the front door as the constant traffic can make it drafty. If you visit as a group of 6, expect to be squeezed onto a table generously suited to 4 but uncomfortably small for a larger group (this has happened to us on 2 occasions). If you're a 2, 4 or 8, you should be fine.

The food is pleasant, and on each occasion, I've visited, I've enjoyed my meal. I have found the food average, but others at my table have described other dishes that they chose as amazing. Last night my mixed kebab was a little burnt. A vegan friend has decided not to return as he was disappointed with his meal after a first visit: we were forced to visit without them and met after they'd eaten elsewhere.

Service is always friendly and polite. It's apparent that some of the front-of-house team have not worked as waiters before and it's common for the service to be slow and at times chaotic. Hopefully, with training and experience, this will improve. It's often hard to get drinks (last night we waited over 30 minutes before we finally succumbed and asked if we could order some drinks and get some bread), and main courses are often brought before plates have been cleared for starters. When we arrived last night, our reservation appeared to have been lost as our name wasn't on the list. After a short wait, we were found a table, but it was cramped. Cutlery came one or two pieces at a time, taking at least 10 minutes to be fully laid. Several of my group found it necessary to clean our knives and forks with our napkins.

No draft beers are available. They do sell bottled beer and drinks are reasonably priced. Sometimes they have Timothy Taylor's Landlord, but as this wasn't available last night, I enjoyed Efes draft instead.

I've only been in the evening where the value for money is moderate. The lunch menu appears to be excellent value. Portion sizes vary by dish: it's not already easy to gauge the portion size, and some are a little small.

While the staff are gaining proficiency, the restaurant would benefit from fewer tables/covers (or a highly attentive floor manager), to ensure diners have a better experience. I hope that these are just teething problems, and I'm looking forward to returning to Pera in a few weeks. Pera has the potential to be an excellent restaurant that is already a benefit to...

Badly organised...

After being seated and removing our coats, we were then TOLD to move to another table. While we were eating, a group of 14 arrived and were told to sit at a table that only seated 12 so they waited half an hour after the time their table was booked for to then be reseated at another table for 12, none of them had even been asked for drinks at this point. They were not happy to say the least.

Staff...

The front of house member of staff seating his customers was incredibly rude. As mentioned before he TOLD us to move to another table, he didn’t ask politely. My girlfriends dads meal didn’t arrive the same time as our food. So when we asked where it was he asked what he ordered and said ‘yes it’s on it’s way, it comes out fresh’. Which we then replied that hopefully it’s all fresh, the chef should be able to manage a tables meals to come out at the same time. And he persisted to argue that its fresh food... When it came to paying, the front of house man snatched the bill from one of our hands. We waited a long time after ordered drinks for them to arrive. However the waiters were very friendly and polite.

Food and drinks...

Our starters were all very nice. We all enjoyed them thoroughly. The bread and dips were very nice also and were topped up when low. However it all ended there... we were all very disappointed by our mains, they lacked everything. I had lamb chops which pretty much was it, lamb chops on a plate with two salad leaves and a strip of red pepper and some plain MICROWAVE cous cous. The lamb chops were not seasoned, they had no spices on them, they were plain lamb chops. And they were over cooked and dry. Everyone else had chicken kebabs which I tried and were incredibly dry and flavourless. And again they only came with a couple of salad leaves and a strip of red pepper and plain MICROWAVE rice. Awful. My local takeaway does far better chicken and lamb kebabs for a quarter of the price and twice the quantity. Drinks wise, they had a nice large selection of wines, and the bottled beer EFES was quite nice.

Prices...

Average prices for an average restaurant. Not over priced for what the food should have been. But over priced for what it turned out to be.

All in all, would...

Non existent service...

We arrived at Pera Kitchen for the time we had booked and were briefly greeted by a waiter rushing past but not stopping. The maître d’ soon appeared and we explained we had booked a table for three people. He looked visibly annoyed that we had shown up. The restaurant was densely packed with patrons. With a furrowed brow he rearranged a couple of tables. As we sat shoulder to shoulder with other diners he handed out the menus. Then he disappeared without another word.

Within a couple of minutes another fast moving waiter deposited some bread and olives on the table. Before anyone could say ‘can we order some drinks please’ he was off again. We hoped he would be back soon. We shouldn’t have.

Our group looked over the menu and enjoyed the bread and olives, only just able to hear each other speak over the blaring music. The three of us tried to catch the attention of one of the waiting staff to order some drinks. No such luck. At every chance they looked the other way. After ten minutes of being seated no one had taken our order, yet countless times waiters fizzed past like determined blue bottles. Only to ignore our grasps for attention.

After twenty minutes and a plate of bread and olives later our table was still without drinks. Further still, not a single member of staff had engaged with us. Yet countless waiters had whizzed past, all intently looking in the other direction. Optimistically our group decided to give the restaurant another ten minutes - surely they could at least take a drinks order within thirty minutes of seating us.

No. Like the scuttling waiting staff, the thirty minute wait came and went without so much as a nod. We gave up. After thirty minutes we were not even able to place an order for drinks, let alone consume them. We left, making our way through a dense queue of optimistic patrons. Maybe they would be more lucky.

Once outside we ventured onto Biggles Lounge. Within five minutes of being seated we all had drinks in our hands as an attentive waiter wrote...