KEFIL FOOD UYGHUR CUISINE 维吾尔餐厅 — Restaurant in London

This place had me confused.

Iv been to every uigher restaraunt in London and although they have their own unique twist on things they are all high quality. However at Kefil i didn't feel that.

I am saying this honest review to hope that you can learn from it and I will be happy to change my review if things improve.

Handmade noodles was very thin. Usually they are thick so you can really taste the freshness of the noodle. With it being so thin, it was underwhelming and tasteless

Flavour on the stir fried leghman was lacking severely. It tasted very similar to the ready made sauces and stir frys i make at home. Usually uigher food has some spice to it and the red dry chillis are usually the base of the flavour. This one did not have that at all.

Lamb kebabs is usually the winner at uigher restaraunts. The meat quality was good but the flavour was very plain.

The bread - you served pita bread with salad and with my lamb kebabs but it is just cheap supermarket pitta bread and was cold. Pita bread must be heated for the texture to be tasty. Most uigher places make fresh bread

Usually when a menu is small it is a good thing but I have never seen a uigher restaraunt not serve dumplings/mantu. Thst was very dissapointing.

The waiter had very good service and was a nice guy but i think you should really train him to understand the dishes better as he wasn't sure about anything when we asked him about the dishes.

In summary:

There is a handful of Uigher restaraunts in London, i would really advise you to visit them and see how much better the flavours and noodles are. I know you have high reviews at the moment, but once customers go to other uigher places they may not return. It is clear from reviews that most customers have not gone elsewhere.

I am saying this with kindness as i want you to improve. As you are actually the closest Uigher restaraunt to...

TLDR: I am not sure these guys know how to run a restaurant, but someone here knows how to cook. If you'd like to support a local business and/or eat something tasty and different, and you don't need perfect service to enjoy a meal, I encourage you to check out Kroran.

DISCLAIMER: I never got to visit Karamay before it relocated, and I never ate at another Xianjiang restaurant. I do love Sichuan food though.

So. These guys are definitely on the uphill climb towards running a successful eating place. We went on a Saturday night and the ten-ish tables were consistently half full. There was one waiter, who was mostly helping in the kitchen.

A lot was technically wrong with the service because there weren't a lot of staff. The food was slow, most of the menu was unavailable, the kitchen looked untidy, and the signature dish was a plate of liquid stew but there were no spoons and no rice. There is a bar, but there are mostly no glasses or drinks or bartender behind it.

BUT. We had medium chicken stew and special fired(sic) noodles between two and they were delicious and we were full. I loved the balanced sichuan pepper and chilli heat. We enjoyed some french wine from home, with no corkage fee, and the final food bill was under £40.

Everyone was friendly and helpful throughout.

I would definitely go back if I could try things like the mapo tofu, green beans, and deep fired chilli chicken.

I recommend getting the big chicken stew though, because it's like the popcorn at the cinema - except here they give you a medium portion in a big container so you see what you're missing.

PS The toilets are mildly below average, and there are...

Was so excited to try this place as I just moved in down the road. The food was very good and the owner was really lovely. He walked me through his favourite Uyghur dishes on the menu and I could feel his respect for food and the cuisine as he explained to me the way certain dishes are prepared.

The noodles here are hand pulled the traditional way. They were awesome and had a great mouthfeel. Plus it’s nice to eat somewhere where there’s a conscious decision to make food the old way/ even if it’s inconvenient or at odds with commercial imperatives.

I ordered the Uyghur beef noodle soup, a cold dish of ribboned vegetables and the lamb kebabs. The cold dish / salad was top notch- seasoning was perfect and there were some dried spices in there (maybe caraway or fennel seeds) which were a great compliment. The beef noodle soup was great. Touch more seasoning wouldn’t go astray but overall very delicious. And the kebabs were really tasty . Tender but with enough bite in them and seasoned with a healthy powdering of cumin.

I’ll be back soon for sure as there are so many other dishes on the menu I am...