Mem & Laz Brasserie — Restaurant in London

Aug 2023 - A few weeks ago, I spent a raucous early evening dinner with extended family at Mem & Laz, in a private room for my mother's 90th birthday celebration. It was overall a wonderful joyous time of a family gathering, and the food was great. My thanks to Muzo and the owner for their help with the original booking process, which was complicated by external factors, but ultimately resolved. Our party chose between the Set Dinner Menus 1 & 2. Thanks also to the staff on the day who were very busy but still showed patience with many varied and competing requests for their time, with a smile. I can recommend Mem & Laz for large parties of diners, as well as the more intimate dinner with partners or close friends.

UPDATE: Aug 14 2023. The earlier review below was originally written - pre-Covid. - 2018-19.

I visited Mem & Laz Brasserie in Therberton Street, Islington N1, on a very busy late Sunday afternoon in March. I haven't been here for many years - originally they only had one unit, instead of the two next door to each other that they occupy now. So I was pleasantly surprised at how big the business had grown. I had met up with a friend who I hadn't seen in a couple of years, who hadn't as yet eaten lunch, so he decided on the spur of the moment to go to Mem & Laz, to have a set meal.

We visited on a Sunday mid afternoon, and expected it to be very busy, and was not disappointed. After a short wait at the doorway in a narrow area between the tables and door, we were seated upstairs at the back of the restaurant, as requested, at the smaller two seater tables. The ambient noise level was high, and quiet conversation was out of the question. It took a few minutes of hand waving to get served, in the circumstances it was acceptable due to the very busy waiting staff, who hot-footed it back & forth from the meal serving hatch to the tables without any unnecessary delay at all accompanied by loud bellowing at the kitchen staff for keeping a diner waiting a few times.

My friend had a set meal menu selection of a Kleftico lamb shank main complete with mashed potato, veg and gravy, but no starter - and for dessert, he ordered the Turkish Apple & Pomegranate Seed Crumble with Vanilla Ice Cream, and a pint of lager from the drinks menu. I had eaten Sunday lunch prior to meeting my friend, so I only wanted a half-pint glass of Stella Artois and ordered the same Apple Crumble & Ice Cream dessert as my friend. Both meals were very nice, nourishing and filling.

The dining experience wasn't as relaxing as if it were taking place on a midweek afternoon, but the meals were well prepared and served promptly within minutes of being ordered, with no complaints as to the quality or quantity served. The prices were as expected for a central London restaurant, but seemed reasonable compared to many other more expensive local restaurants, especially with regards to the set meals selections.

All in all, I can heartedly recommend Mem & Laz as a Sunday lunch destination, as if they can cope with almost a full house and serve tasty Turkish food in a timely manner to hungry diners without only the odd slight delays at any particular table; I would imagine visiting on a quieter midweek evening would make for an intimate dining experience that would leave you satisfied, and eager to...

Firstly, where do I start. We had pre booked this restaurant for my mum's birthday celebration 2 weeks ago! When arriving we were seated at totally different restaurant 3 doors away, with no explanation on why this was. All owned by the same company, Apparently! When seated at 8 o'clock, we had ordered a round of drinks, whilst waiting nearly 30 mins for these. We then ordered our starters and main together, starters taking another hour and then another hour for our mains. When receiving our mains, we had also received different things from what we ordered. When telling one of the staff that this is unacceptable, her reply was that they are really busy and really short staffed. IF YOU CAN'T PROVIDE A SERVICE OR BIG GROUPS OF BOOKINGS, PLEASE DO NOT ACCEPT, as it's unacceptable that you have wait nearly 3 hours to eat and drink. I am also 6 months pregnant and do not want to be eating at 11:00 at night, cause there are incompetent staff that don't know how to provide customer service, as well as having my elderly nan with us asking for a glass of water up to 3 times and still waited for another 20mins for this. There was not one sorry from anyone, an explanation or any communication to inform of us anything! I wouldn't even give this a 1 star, the lack of the service we had received was disgusting and I don't understand how you run a business! Nearly paying £300 for a bog stand turkish/mediterranean food is outrageous and would have rather stayed in and order a takeaway for less than half the price including drinks, not to mention £15 for a stand vodka and coke (OMG) I WOULDN'T RECOMMEND THIS RESTAURANT TO MY DOG, EVEN IF HE COULD PAY, I WOULD AVOID AT ALL COSTS, TOO EXPENSIVE FOR WHAT YOUR GETTING AND JUST NOT WORTH THE WAIT! THANK YOU FOR RUINING OUR...

Had a birthday here yesterday for our mother's 60th.

Sorely disappointed in the food and service.

The whole two or three different buildings in a row to this restaurant really doesn't work.

We have been here before in smaller groups several times regularly over the years and thought they would be ideal for a party of approximately 25.

We found the service confused, chaotic, and downright rude at times.

There were various different waiters/waitresses dealing with our group. They were fine on drinks orders and the food arrived on time but was mediocre at best of not poor.

Fully appreciating they were busy on a Saturday night, we did find it rude that one waitress thought it was ok to randomly and repeatedly order us to 'pay attention' as the food was coming out. From one end of the table???

In large party with children, people are going to be talking and the music was loud. We immediately started to find out ourselves when had ordered what, and walking up and down and helping as best we could. Our family ages ranged from 3 to almost 80.

We spent £800 and also paid for our cake to be served. The waitress and waiters were harassed and rushed and the place was overly packed with diners and loud due to the music and too many diners, with tables all close together.

We ordered coffees to go with the birthday cake but we're told flatly by the same waitress that our bill had been issued and we had to request her nicely to perhaps create another bill for the coffee of possible??? Which she did.

Though they were polite mostly we felt uncomfortable, and our custom not appreciated.

I must reiterate we were a family group.

I will not be using or recommending them for large groups or going...