Efes — Restaurant in London

Firstly it gives me no pleasure to write a negative review of a restaurant I have been frequenting for years, although almost exclusively as a take away customer.

I regularly order the same combination of chicken doner wrap and specifically ask for the picked cabbage to be excluded as my other half cannot even abide the smell of it.

The chefs and waiters mostly know me on sight, although there has been some staffing changes recently.

On 29th August I ordered my usual fare selection, in this case 3 Chicken Doner wraps without the picked cabbage. It was a new chef so I made sure to repeat the order twice and asked him to repeat it back to me to make sure he got it right. While the order was being prepared I used the toilet downstairs after paying.

On returning, I took my order and left. However when I got home (a twenty minute drive) we found that the order had not been done properly, instead the cabbage had been added requiring me to throw the whole order away (as I explained previously my other half cannot even abide the smell so there was no other option).

I phoned the store and spoke to an individual who remembered me and said next time I was in he would make sure it was taken care of.

I then attended the store again on Wednesday as I didn't want too long to pass and people forget.

However, when I explained the situation the 'head waiter' told me he was only willing to give me a free salad to make up for the error, even after I explained I had been told differently when I called he didn't care and was only willing to give a free salad.

Now, I realise that Covid has caused great strain in the hospitality business, but I also know that when a regular customer is treated unfairly they take real offence at it.

I had had to throw away over £20 worth of food because of the chefs error, to offer a salad as recompense was frankly offensive and didn't in any way acknowledge the error that had been made.

Also, I have to say the head waiter was quite brusque and offhand, for all I know he was having a bad day, but that's not my problem when the restaurant made the error and I had been told it would be corrected.

So, I won't be going back, there's plenty of other high quality kebab restaurants in East London. While I always prefer to build up a relationship with a restaurant where I'm looked after, because they recognise I'm a regular, I'm also willing to move on when I've been treated quite badly, which I feel was the case here.

Of course YMMV and you may always get what you ordered, but remember the real measure of good service is not when things go right, but how it's handled when things go wrong and in this instance the head waiter was almost to the point of being rude to me about...

Weirdly enough, I read two reviews that were literally my exact experience at the place. I had to check the usernames of the people who left the review to see if it was one of my own staff members. It isn't. So if you're reading this, and think I've simply copy and pasted someone elses review, think again. I went to Efes on Mile End Road for a Christmas dinner with my staff. There was a total of 9 people at my table, myself included. We ordered food and drinks and service in the empty restaurant was a little rubbish. Two members of staff were great, and I would have loved to had left them a tip at the end to say thanks for THEIR service but another member of staff was either hard of hearing or would just ignore our requests unless we asked over and over again. Anyway, it was an otherwise decent meal, and I had a good time until I asked for the bill. I left £300 in cash in the wallet that they give you, and the waiter returned and said 'You haven't paid enough". I responded yes I have, its just the service charge I haven't paid (I wanted to tip the two waiters separately). Suddenly the fat penguin looking guy waltzed over to our table, having a fit. "The free tea we gave you? You must pay for that!" "You HAVE to pay service charge for large bookings" - Where does it say that? When I booked the table, there was no mention of it, and I didn't want to pay a discretionary service charge on rubbish service! They embarrassed me in front of all my staff, and it was unnecessary and uncalled for. It ruined an otherwise good night, and I didn't even tip the two waiters that deserved a tip because of it. I just left, deflated and embarrassed at his actions. I will...

This has been my first experience of Efes and it wasnt good!

I bought food via 'To good to go' app. The idea of the app is to reduce food waste by purchasing surplus food that the restaurants/takeaways/or supermarket have at a reduced price.

I choose Efes as I had eaten Turkish food before and although when I paid the fee (£3.00) as opposed to £8.50 as advertised on the site, I knew that I had not choice in what I would be given; given the picture on the advert and the type of food it was, I expected nice food and to get at least: A decent portion. Maybe kebab/ shish kebab Bread Salad and maybe some rice.

What I got was...a not very polite greeting on my arrival and a waiter telling me that they could not honour my order as the confirmation tick needed to be static (mine was spinning).

When I explained and show him the payment he simply repeated what he originally said and walked off.

As I remained in the shop, eventually one of the cooks plonked a small bag of food on the counter and told me in an dismissive manner "I give you this time, but next time your internet needs to be working."

I was left feeling like a 'second class' citizern, humiliated and very disappointed.

To add insult to injury, when I looked in the bag I was given 2 very bedraggled looking chicken legs, a small portion of rice and some bread. WAS THIS £8.50 WORTH OF FOOD????

Because of my overall experience: customer service/ food given, I decided to throw the whole thing away.

What a waste of time, money and food. For that reason.... I WOULD NOT...