Maedah Grill — Restaurant in London

It was Ramadan, 28 April 2022 to be precise. I visited Maedah Grill (will now be known as ‘MG’), during the fasting season with a group of my closest friends. Our intention was to go to MG as it was the closest venue to the East London Mosque as we wanted to break our fast at sunset and immediately go and offer our prayer.

Unfortunately, this where everything went third class let alone second class. We were seated in a cramped area despite booking a table for 7. We told the (I guess from the 80s style waistcoat he was wearing) manager that there were plenty of other seats and can we be moved there, he replied that all seating was reserved ‘hello!’ We also reserved a table, after some to and fro we were moved to a better table eventually. Despite this MG is very poorly ventilated, with smoke from the nearby chargrill centre lingering in the air, heavily it seems.

I think the staff need education in both customer care and English because the next bit didn’t demonstrate either in any way. As we were about to order we were told that we are not able order from the menu and that we need (essentially forced) to order from an iftar set menu (MG clearly didn’t respect any potential allergen, dietary or health risks association here), this was despite us turning up an hour before the breaking of fast. The manager couldn’t explain properly what the reasoning behind this set menu was and retrospectively told us that we could have ordered from the menu post iftar if we wanted to, but the set menu was essentially forced on the customers here.

Please note that this event occurred during Ramadan, a time when Muslims don’t eat or drink during sunlight hours. We were expecting some tap water to be produced for all the fasting patrons, however MG stated that they are not going to provide tap water as the management had ordered them not to, instead we can purchase a bottle mineral water. We found this utterly shocking, that a business claiming to be halal is not able to show some compassion during Muslims holy month but rather think of profits! Granted that they did provide a ‘drink’ with the set menu, it would have been nice to be offered tap water.

The food being under par is an understatement, it consisted of; Adana kebab, Lamb and Chicken Kofte, Lamb Shwarma, spiced chick peas, Kisuri (savoury porridge) and salad. There was a potion of lahmacun as well. You also get a rice pudding dessert and a soft drink.

MG don’t care for their customers as they are churning out these set menus with any duty of care, they never once checked if anyone has allergies, they never once checked if anyone had dietary requirements (I’m a vegetarian), however when I was presented with the food, my colleagues intervened and asked for a vegetarian option, the manager half heartily said he can provide more chick peas but didn’t bother to even take my plate and remove the meat because it was “busy”.

I cannot comment on the standards of the meat dishes as I mentioned I’m vegetarian, however the spiced chick peas were passable. The kisuri (savoury porridge) on the other hand was an abomination. It was mashed so much that it didn’t resemble anything that I’ve eaten before, it was also tasteless. The rice pudding which was given to us was also very poor. It was possibly out of date as it tasted ‘off’. There was a funky spiciness to it, I sensed cardamom (which I find is ok) but there was another ingredient which was off putting. Suffice to say none of friends attempted to try more than one spoon.

All in all the food cost us £17 per head. To summarise, I will not be going back to MG, it’s shadow of its former self. The ownership should take a long hard look at themselves and provide customer care over profits, they are living on MG’s former glories rather than having to evolve into being a successful restaurant. There are plenty of other places nearby if you want proper food, proper customer care and value for money. Avoid...

WORST TURKISH AND SERVICE IN LONDON AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!

I came here in a large group with my family (around 15 people or so including kids) Service here was TERRIBLE! We probably waited over an hour and a half for all the food to come in total. We came during the eat out to help out scheme so each person ordered a separate meal. They barely had any meat left on the menu which is The first red flag, we came at 7pm so not even that late.

We had to ask so many times for some bread and water during the hour and a half wait, it’s like the staff were zombies. They were really unorganised.. especially the manager who paid no attention when we asked. The staff were sooo rude- and in front of my whole family. We asked several times for more ice for our water and at one point when we thought we would get more ice the waitress came to just take our tong to hold the ice. When I said we need it as we are getting more ice she said she needs it to get the ice. I then asked if this is the only tong in the restaurant she was silent. I then asked if I will get the tong back and her answer was ‘obviously’. I don’t know how these people are open for business. We got 1 starter and 1 of the meals around 50 mins into our wait. We couldn’t eat it as we wanted to wait for everyone to have their food. This ended up being another 30-45 mins wait, by which time the food had gone cold.

When the rest of the food did come most of it was wrong, and when I told them it’s wrong they argued with me. There were some meals (around 3) that we specifically wanted with chips but were given rice, and we also ordered 2 extra chips. When we said that we want chips they said that the amount in the 2 bowls of chips would compensate as it is more than they usually give for each portion. They refused to give us more chips until we made a big fuss about it in the restaurant. Also I ordered a beyti- which came wrong. If you have ordered this from any Turkish restaurant you would know that it is essentially an Adana kebab wrapped in a bread and sliced into a few pieces, and also comes with yoghurt. They just gave me a plain Adana kebab. When I said this is not what I ordered they said this is what I ordered. I looked at the menu again and the item which was called ‘beyti’ was not actually a beyti. I said I wanted something else and they said I can do that but it will take another 20 mins. Seen as though I was with my family and the kids were getting restless and tired I decided to just have the wrong food- which was the worst kebab I’ve eaten in a Turkish place.

Ps I have been to many Turkish places in London and this was clearly poor choice of Turkish. The service was so bad here I didnt even get into how poor the food was. Also I had never been here before so I wanted to try it. After leaving the place several of my friends said this place has been rubbish for a long time.

Moral of the story- never eat here. Just...

ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING EXPERIENCE I went there for Iftar and to pray at the mosque afterwards with my family it was also my sisters birthday , However on the 14th of April when we went there we were utterly shocked. When we went inside the place was full to the brim it was weird as why would you take on so many guests when the space isn’t that big anyways right as we seated the light above started flickering for probably 20min and we informed the waiter however we were ignored therefore we just turned it off next we ordered a ramadan meal i forgot the name but we waited for about 40min and it came but were disappointed when it came cold. We of course told the waiter and the manager shah yet we were ignored until he came back 10min with the most disgusting attitude as after we explained why we couldnt eat it he proceeded to treat me and my family members like dogs and say ‘if you dont want it leave it ‘ and ‘ITS NOT COLD’ as well as ‘your gonna still eat it’ he said the last comment because we had just finished or was trying to finish/break our fast after not eating for 13hours which shocked me because the waiter was presumably muslim , I also thought this might racially motivated discrimination as all the other customers which were asian were given fair and proper treatment however my somali/black family were given disgusting attitude service and food.After sharing our points with the manager he ignored us yet again and came back 10min later with a whole other attitude denying everything that happened which of course enraged me and my family members especially my sister who had just turned 15, he then left to microwave the food which was untouched (6 plates) and came back with it still cold yet steaming? which made me question the authenticity of the food and the place it was ‘sanitarily’ made at.Not wanting to disappoint my sister we were preparing to leave and were discussing payment with the manager shah however he suddenly started to spout nonsense to my cousin and mother saying ‘you came here on purpose’ repeatedly and things such as that which further angered my whole family and sister.We finally left after paying for 3 plates only which were again untouched i will 100% never come to this place again and steer away from anyone who enjoys this place.

honestly this doesn't even deserver one star never come...