Diyarbakir Restaurant — Restaurant in London

Turkish £10 per head Halal Soft Drinks Only

This is my best find for a very long time. If you like meat this is the place to come. This Turkish restaurant has leapt to number one in my recommendation for Turkish food in London and finds a place at my top ten restaurants ever.

Even more amazing are the prices. At the time of writing a mixed platter cost £25 and feeds two people with a lot left over (enough for lunch the next day.) The £35 platter easily fed 4 hungry men meaning that our meal came to £10 a head. As this is a Turkish restaurant attracting the local Turkish community there is no alcohol and all the food is halal. This makes it a fantastic place for large parties with mixed food requirements eager to keep the bill to a minimum. although it is possible to stick to non meat dishes, your vegertarian friends may not thank you for the invite due to the mountains of meat being cooked and served.

The platter includes lamb ribs (which are the most flavoursome ribs I've tasted, seconded only by Tayyabs (authentic Punjabi in Whitechapel and my top recommendation for Indian food in London.) The Turkish bread is moist and smoky with a butter glaze. It is probably worth a visit for the bread alone. The bread is accompanied with four generous meze portions. Along with the meze arrives a light salad tossed in sweet juice. It goes well with the meat, but rarely last long enough to make it to the main course.Finally all customers are served with tea, usually taken at the end of the meal. This is not rushed and you are welcome to have as much as you like. I thought that this was a nice touch as I didn't feel hurried to leave.

The staff are busy, but remain efficient and friendly. This restaurant is very popular and do not take bookings, but operate on a first come first served basis. During busy time the staff's default suggested waiting period is 20 minutes, I have never waited longer than ten. The busy period is 8 -10pm with 8 - 9pm being exceptionally lively. This is true for every day of the week.

Based in the Haringey part of Green Lanes, close to Turnpike Lane this restaurant welcomes everyone, but caters for its locals. There is a lot of competition in the area for the bustling local trade and standards need to remain high. There is little wonder local Turkish families fill this restaurant...

We came out for Eid celebrations. Our usual place - Diyabakar Kitchen - had queues that were too long. So we decided to try elsewhere and stumbled across this place. Usually I wouldn't leave a bad review but I have to warn people about this place for the following reasons:

1. Service was terrible. We were told instantly it would be a 40 minute wait for the food. It wasn't busy at all. Usually, Turkish restaurants along Green Lanes bring ample salad, bread, dips etc. They eventually gave us some limp looking salad and a few pieces of dry bread to share between 4 people. I could get over this usually and wouldn't complain but with a long wait, this was frustrating. Anyway, issues with service don't end here. There was one clear 'boss' who was running around the place stressed and shouting. Shouting at workers, not dealing with customers properly. Rushing around. It created a negative and stressful atmosphere which wasn't nice on an evening meant for celebration. The mood was ruined.

2. I saw a table eventually being brought their food. A massive platter of meat which looked incredibly dry. They were clearly annoyed and all got up and left without eating or paying. I was ready to ignore this. But it happened again. And then a third time. And then a couple were arguing about incorrect charges on the bill. And finally as we left a man was arguing with the stressful boss as he had asked multiple times to just pay for what has been brought out and just wants to leave and doesn't want anything else.

3. The most important bit. The food. I could ignore all the above if the food was delicious. Far from it. Dry unseasoned and burnt lamb ribs. Tastless chicken breast. A bit of dry cold rice. Hardly anything on the plate. A sad looking tomatoe. I have never been so frustrated. What a waste of £70.

Avoid this place at all costs. Go to Diyabakar or Hala down the road. Or there is a...

Over the years I have been to many many Turkish restaurants and never have had bad experience until I had dinner at this restaurant.

Knew something was off when we walked in and saw no one eating in the restaurant. Was a bit annoyed with the waiter, was standing next to the table as soon as we sat down- probably heard me saying to my friends that we should go to another place- felt as if he was pressuring us to order.

Bread for the Houmous arrived about 10 minutes after putting on table- by that time we had finished the Houmous. Lamachun was Not fresh, very soggy with hardly any meat on top, looks like they made it a few days before and warmed in a microwave. We ordered a mix grill for 4, and I have to say it was one of the worst mix grill I have ever had- been to so many Turkish restaurants and have never left over food, I would say there was more than half remaining on the platter, didn’t even pack it up to take home as the food was horrible.

The meat was very dry in particular the Chicken shish. The food was really salty and most of us had a bit of a headache driving home. The doner meat was hard and bland and seemed to have a lot of Fat rather than the meat. The only positive was the Chips- well they got 1 out of 2 portions cooked well as the other was over cooked.

Have eaten at so many Turkish restaurants such as Gokyuzu, Capitals, Kervan, Devran etc and this experience was one of the worst ever. Can say I will never go to this place again. Paid over £100 for this experience- trust me, spend your money at other places.

Please note, a lot of the reviews here might be for Diyarbakir Kitchen down the road as they have same name, as some of the picture here are from that shop- wish I had gone there as I walked in...