Salash Kitchen - South Woodford — Restaurant in London

My stars are for decor and furniture and live plants on the floor of Salash kitchen. The waiting time, the waiters and the food are all below average for the pretence. I have witnessed the first Turkish restaurant opening in south Woodford about 12-13 years ago and followed the rise and fall of many Turkish restaurants in the area (woodford-wanstead). My remarks after my meal in June 2023: Ali nazik is one of my favourite dishes supposedly with a smokey aubergine flavour yoghurt sauce and with aubergines themselves in it, was just a blunt heavy yoghurt with few little bits of aubergine. The lamb with it was cooked "well done". Low flavour dish that was. Mixed fish shish was overcooked with prawns so dry that the shell was not coming off. Consisting of 2 small pieces of salmon (one broken into pieces), two very small medallions of monkfish and 2 prawns. No octopus, no squid as it is offered in other restaurants in the area. Plus a very simple salad and some rocket leaves on the plate with grilled onion and pepper to fill the space. Fish very dry. 27.50 for this fish shish. Taboulleh salad is very roughly chopped, not restaurant quality. Whole parsley leaves there. Waiter brought the main course and pushed the starter plate away with it to the side of the table. Table was not prepared to serve mains, despite us waiting for one course meal for over 30 minutes. Staff not trained, moving very slowly.

Overpriced for the quality and service. Disappointing experience.

P.S. the owners reply mentioned that we were CCTV filmed which showed that we have eaten our meals in full. This is not true. We didn't eat the chips as we didn't order those and we don't eat chips anyway. Also we have paid for the meal to eat it and because we didn't want to cook that evening and we live down the road. The owner mentioned in their reply that we should have mentioned our concerns to the waiters. Well, if the owner actually read our review, they would see that one of the main concerns was the slow service, and we wanted to eat and go as it was late. If he checks CCTV again, he will see, not only how the waiter was pushing the starter plate with the main meal to the edge of the table, but also, that we started to eat 40 minutes later after arriving to the restaurant, which meant that if we were to raise concerns about food, we would stay there another hour on top, as it would take minimum 40 minutes for chef to cook and waiters to do their slow rounds. The fish and meat was fresh, just murdered by the chef. Yes the shish is described on the menu, but the size of what is offered and quality of cooking did not reflect the price. Also reviewing the CCTV please note how hard a job was peeling the bone dry prawns and that I had to pepper and salt my meat to add flavour. Also, reviewing the footage, please note that the waiter did not come back to ask us if we liked the meal. In conclusion of my post scriptum I have to say that I have not given permission to film me eating and I have not seen the signs, warning me about the CCTV recording. If I knew, I would not put my credit card on the table, the way I did. The CCTV will show both sides of the card with all the security numbers, so if it is compromised in the future, I would suggest to the police that the CCTV footage from the restaurant...

Please trust me this is the worst restaurant I’ve even eaten in me and a good friend went in I ordered chicken wings with rice my friend the lamb shank when the food came over and hand on heart and I’m not the kind of person to complain the food came the chicken wings looked like a starter portion they had been cut in half the amount of rice was just a joke about 2 spoon fulls my friends mean wasn’t any better he will also be leaveing a review as we both feel first of all like we been mugged the bill came to £44,85 for them meals I think we was charged 5:95 for a small bottle of coke trust me please don’t use this place it seems to me all they want is your money they don’t. Care about the customer guys hand on heart this is the WORST PLACE IVE EVEN EATEN IN IN THE 55 years I’ve been on this earth Terrible food terrible service and a completely rip off maybe you all be well xalso seems To me He’s getting friends and family to give 5 star reviews to hide the bad reviews there been 8/9 good reviews in the last day or so just doesn’t seem Genuine to me it’s up to you guys but if you do visit remember I did tell You it’s the WORST yes I new the prices and that wasn’t my issue I don’t mined paying I didn’t look at the price for a can of coke which you charge £5:95 ??? Please explane this ?? And HOW DARE YOU ACCUSEING ME OF WANTING TO RUN AWAY WOTHOUT PAYING HOW DARE YOU I DIDNT WANT TO EXPLANE MYSLEF IN THE RESTAURANT AS I COULD TELL THAT THERE WOUID HAVE BEEN MORE PROBLEMS AND TRUST ME YOIR BUSINESS WONT BE THERE FOR MUCH LONGER OF YOU TREAT YOUR CUSTOMERS LIKE THIS DONT WORRY I WILL NEVER RETURN TO YOUR RESTAURANT NEVER YOIR NOT WORTHY OF MY BUSINESS AND I WILL COMPLAIN TO THE FAIR TRADE THERE MUST BE A LAW AGAINST YOU CHARHEING CUSTOMER £5:95 for a small bottle of coke whicj I can buy for £1,25 and yes I eat all the food as it was a kids portion like a starter portion and your waiter did ask if we was happy and I told them that I would...

Good food but terrible customer service every time I’ve been here, not sure why the reviews are saying otherwise.

First instance the waitress (obviously accidentally) bashed a hot metal serving platter onto the side of my friends head quite significantly. Instead of showing concern, waitress literally rolled her eyes before hesitantly saying sorry and moving onto other tables, not returning to provide ice (or anything) despite the fact that it had created a noticeable cut on my friends forehead.

Second instance not so bad just very very slow having to ask for water about 5 times, not delivering the bill, etc.

Third instance again a waitress accidentally knocking our chilli sauce over after it nudged against a baby’s head who was in a high chair and it smashed onto the floor. Luckily the baby wasn’t hurt but once again the waitress looked p’ed off more than she did concerned, saying “the baby shouldn’t be placed here.” On a less serious note we also had to ask twice for a new chilli sauce as the old bowl of it wasn’t replaced and no apologies to either table for the inconvenience.

Towards the end of the night they failed to alert us that they were closing the card reader, instead telling us it’s too late and we’d have to take out cash from our machine. I explained that as I was carrying a credit card it would cost us an extra £3.50 just to extract the cash, to which our waitress shrugged her shoulders. We then followed up with a few of the other waiters and they agreed to give us £3.50 in coins for the additional charge, but at the last moment the waitress short changed us (gave us £1.50 and consciously didn’t pick up the £2 coin before ushering us out the door).

It’s a shame because the food is very nice and that had kept me coming back but this is too many incidents in a row to be a coincidence, there seems to be an issue every time I come here. I never write reviews but thought I should share and make people aware of...