Pamukkale Turkish restaurant — Restaurant in Great Britain

We found the staff to be perfectly polite and friendly. But there were almost inaudible when coming with the food. We arrived at around 17:30 and the place filled up pretty quickly after that. It was very busy. I didn’t order a starter. If you go there with a group, either all order a starter or all don’t. I’d been there over an hour before my main arrived and was feeling really hungry. There is a decorative drizzle around a very large plate. My Vegetarian Moussaka was in the centre and salad was in a separate bowl. I spent most of the time worrying about the sleeve of my jumper getting in the drizzle. The salad was nice enough (although I don’t know why restaurants have to drench salads in so much oil). My moussaka was nice, but could’ve been warmer. I finished it in about 6 mouthfuls. So would’ve been good if it were twice the size. It was almost £20. I know everything is super expensive in 2023 but that’s a lot when I was still really hungry. Between the starter and the main they actually removed one of the baskets with bread still in it. They shouldn’t just take food that we’ve paid for. I could’ve had that since I was still hungry. Afterwards I would have liked dessert. I am very much a dessert person and would’ve liked to try something different. We were never offered the dessert menu. It may be that one of the people at my table asked for the bill. We’d come straight from work and by 8pm we were all starting to get really tired. When the bill came, the service charge was already included (that’s pretty standard for restaurants to add 10%) when we said we didn’t want to leave that much of a tip, the manager gave us a new bill without it on. I think he should have asked us about why we weren’t happy, but maybe he knows from previous customers. I had been there before, around 6 years ago and I liked it. So I am not sure why our experience this time was so lacklustre. Another person in our group had been there before and enjoyed it but on this occasion found the food tasteless. Of the 9 of us who were there together, we were all of the agreement that we won’t bother again. I’ve given three stars because it wasn’t awful but it wasn’t...

What a let-down – won’t be returning

We visited Pamukkale Turkish Restaurant in Northampton around 10 years ago and remembered it fondly – the food was excellent, the atmosphere warm, and the service attentive. So, when we were passing through Northampton on a road trip to Skegness, we decided to stop in and revisit a place we once thought was a hidden gem. Sadly, it was a complete disappointment.

We called to book a table and were told they’d just about fit us in at 7:30. We later phoned back to ask if we could push it to 8:00 as we were running late. The lady on the phone made it sound like they were fully booked, but after checking, she agreed to the time. When we arrived, however, there were only three tables taken. So much for being busy.

We ordered the mixed meze starter with bread. The meze itself was generally nice, though one of the aubergine dishes tasted fizzy – not fresh at all. The bread was very limited, and we had to ask for more. To our surprise, we were charged an extra £2.50 for it, which we’ve never experienced before at any Turkish restaurant.

We looked at the wine list but didn’t order any, as we were shocked to see a small glass priced at £8.00 – far too expensive.

The mixed grill main was very underwhelming. The chicken shish was dry, the kofta had no flavour whatsoever, the chicken wings were tiny, the lamb shish consisted of a few small cubes, and the ribs were fatty and poorly cooked. It was a far cry from the generous, well-seasoned platter we remembered from our last visit.

To make matters worse, the waiter brought the bill over smelling strongly of cigarette smoke – completely unprofessional and off-putting.

What was once a great little restaurant is now overpriced, poor quality, and lacking in care or pride. Sadly, it’s gone downhill, and we...

We have been here a few times and have always enjoyed it. We went tonight and was disappointed, however, the manager did attempt to rectify.

We originally ordered a bottle of Chablis which is our favourite wine, the be told they were out of stock. Although dissappointing, we ordered a bottle of Chardonnay, which if a good bottle is just as good.... The menu stating £25.95 The server arrived with our bottle and as this was being poured, I recognised the label, its the wine we usually drink at home, a good wine, but only £8 in most supermarkets and not what was listed as the chardonnay on offer by the restaurant.

My partner raised it with our server, and then spoke to the manager who explained it was a problem with thier supplier, which I fully understand, however, we did not receive the bottle we ordered, and at no point was this pointed out.

After speaking to the manager, she apologised, and offered to take the wine off the bill, which we agreed and asked for another bottle provided free of charge due to the misleading and false information on the menu. We ended up with another bottle of the Chardonnay, plus another bottle of Turkish wine on the house. Although we appreciate this gesture of goodwill and the restaurants attempt to rectify this, the situation could have been avoided if at the time of ordering, we were told about the wine situation. Had we not noticed and raised the issue, we believe the restaurant would have charged us full price for the incorrect wine which was not listed on the menu, and a wine of...