Kilikya’s Gastro, Cocktails, Lounge — Restaurant in London

My wife and I tried Kilikya for the first time this weekend and we both loved it so much - we had a really nice evening. The food, place, location and view of the docks was really lovely; and, to be honest, we enjoyed the food a lot more than we expected. We are both children of Turkish parents and are quite fussy about Turkish food. We're not easy to please, but hand on heart I can say the food here was absolutely top quality. We started with cacik (tzatziki) and garlic prawns - both were so delightful, even cacik which is a very simple meze was clearly made with a lot of attention to detail you just don't find in 99% of places. For example, the crispiness of the cucumber, the texture of the yogurt, perhaps there was olive oil to smooth it further, plus some other tastes where maybe the main vegetable wasn't just cucumber - whatever it was, was really tasty. So even the most basic of dishes was made in a unique way which made us fall in love with the dish all over again. Then onto the mains. I had the lamb iskender, and my wife had the mixed grill. Both were top quality. I loved the iskender so much that I want to go back again soon to have it again. The kofte meat within the iskender was not overly salty like in most other places and it was not overly rubbed in with herbs, allowing you to enjoy the purity of the meat which was clearly sourced from a good quality farm. A quality kebab is one where the meat and other ingredients should compliment each other, but sadly it's often the other ingredients being used to cover up average or poor quality meat. Finally, for dessert we had the fresh baklava made on site, it was a fitting end to a perfect evening. Loved going here a lot and will be returning again soon. Finally, thank you to Carolin, Alara, Mustafa, and Ali Eren - all of them are so very charming, warm people and excellent hosts who you can tell make everyone feel...

First impressions were good until I walked in and asked the staff I had a table reserved for two. He decided to point me towards the group of four with the a small table for two squeezed right next to it. I could clearly see our table was the one opposite to the one we sat and that table had a bit more space. I questioned the staff if the one with the reserve was my table, but was made left uncomfortable around people as he decided to not listen nor check his tablet but kept pointing back to the original table he first offered. Embarressingly, I could see people looking at me, so in order to not create a scene, I sat down where he asked me to.

We sat and ordered our drinks but they came flat; this kind of set the mood for us for the rest of the evening.

The starter was good but the portion was too small. We paid £5.75 for two pieces of Filo Pastry and a further £5.75 for 3 pieces of Hallumi. The main course was not just substandard, but lacked authenticity, and everything was so over priced, it was not what you would certainly call value for money.

I find it a Turkish tradition to walk into a Turkish restaurant, with Turkish music in the background and get given portions so large, I have to end up having to take the left overs home. With Kilikya however, this was not the case so it acked the authentic culture too.

To summarise, I have been to many Turkish restaurants, which were cheaper, more premium and certainly better tasting. Ignore the reviews on Trip Advisor as more than half of the people who went there, probably don't have an idea of what good Turkish food is.

If you want really good Turkish food, go to Göküyüzü, Kervan and Efes. Or if you would like something with a bit of a twist, try Adana's. If you want authentic Turkish cuisine, go to any Asian side of Turkey, you will not go wrong there. Otherwise, stay away from food places...

Our group was suddenly told at the end of our meal that their credit card machines don’t work for tourist, that they had an “issue” last year with tourists seeing their charges go through but they never received the money, that the machines in tourist areas wouldn’t run over 100 pounds (we spent far more than this at many other locations in this immediate area), also that they also wouldn’t work breaking the amounts down and that we had to go to an ATM at Tesco. I suspect they had the internet turned off because the transaction “failed”. The card was not declined. One server actually ran after us to make sure we “found the atm” which makes us suspicious that they really wanted us to use a specific machine far from the restaurant. We immediately alerted our bank and shut off our card in case of a skimmer on the machine. We didn’t realize that we should check the amounts charged but it was more than expected so I’m guessing we got scammed that way too. Food was average. Good but nothing special and overpriced, even compared to other restaurants we went to within walking distance. We ended up at this place due to our first two choices (also on the dock) being fully booked and this place being empty. Makes sense now. Best case, they are trying to avoid recording their sales with cash transactions. Worst case, they get a kickback on atm transactions at Tesco by the Tower Bridge or this is a scam. We were with a tour bus of over 100 people and made sure no one else goes here. The added service charge is an extra annoyance being that we had to walk to an atm after hearing every excuse in the book about why they can’t take cards but don’t have that publicized until it’s time to pay. We spent around 30 pounds a person for 2 adults...