Shish Meze — Restaurant in London

Its a real mixed review that I am writing. I would have given a 5 based on food but the service was so poor. I don't tend to write long reviews however on this occasion it really bugged me. Firstly the cocktails and foods were divine however the service let it down big time. It was a Friday evening so it was busy however the ratio of waiters to people was high so it shouldn't have been this slow or bad. It took 15 minutes from when I arrived to get a drinks menu. When we ordered drinks it took 30 mins to bring them. They are actually some of the best cocktails we have tasted in a long time. So we ordered the second round straight away. The initial bread and sauce that is usually given on arrival was given 45mins in. There were 6 pieces of bread between 3 of us. We asked for more but it never arrived. My friend asked for some more chilli sauce 3 times once during starters and twice during mains, it never turned up . When we asked the waiter later why he didn't bring it he replied I was waiting for you to ask for it when your ready which is silly because we asked for it 3 times. We ordered creamy mushrooms, sigara borek, houmous and helloumi for starters. The waiter made us order mains as well because the kitchen is busy so we said thats fine but we don't want our mains and starters together which was also fine. They were rushing us before we even started eating. The starters arrived, there was no spoon for the mushrooms or houmous. No extra bread arrived . How much houmous can you eat without bread? Not much so that was left uneaten which is a shame as the starters were so nice. The second round of drinks arrived one of the cocktails was wrong. My friend asked them to change it as she doesn't drink lychee or vodka it's not what she ordered. She was told are you sure, she said the other was different and it had Cucumber slice the waiter responding that maybe they had run out of Cucumber garnish and its the same drink. My other friend tried it and confirmed it was lychee and not what she ordered. We then had to ask them again to change the drink, they didn't believe it was the wrong drink so they went to ask the barmen who then confirmed it was the wrong drink. They got management to come speak to us and then change it. It was such a small thing that got turned into a big thing. They bought the wrong drink therefore they should have just changed it . The waiter then came and said are you happy now as if she was in the wrong and embarrassed my friend. Really really unprofessional and rude. In this industry it is normal to get things wrong you don't blame your customer for your mistake then make them feel stupid for it. Mains came they were delicious which is really frustrating as the service continued to be absolute shambles. Very disorganised . At the end of the night the Bill came and we were charged for the wrong drink and some random drink. We complained and management took it off finally, but it took the fun out of the evening. We were left drained dealing with what should have been a fun and easy evening celebrating two birthdays. We were offered no dessert its like they wanted us in and out its not like it was a cantine, we came to enjoy a nice evening out without being rushed. We would have ordered more drinks and dessert but it just wasn't happening it was too much effort. We won't be going back anytime soon. It is a real shame as the food and drink was really good but the service is so draining and just not worth it especially for...

I had booked this a month in advance for a triple birthday celebration. I haven't been Shish for a few years, but every time I came before, I was happy with service and food. This occasion was very disappointing. Firstly, the doorman met me with a physical barrier and a sarcastic "You have to have a reservation! Do you have one?". I replied, "Yes!" And he then stepped to the side and allowed myself and 4 others to enter. The other 3 members of my party were already in there. They hadn't been shown to the table, despite arriving on time. So they made their way to the small bar area. We joined them and greeted each other, and ordered drinks. There was no interaction with any form of front of house staff. Which I found odd. After using the facilities and having been there 10 minutes, I found the "front of house" sat with her phone. Looking incredibly bored and uninterested in doing anything, I asked if my table was ready. She pointed to a table of 8 that had been ready since the first of my party arrived. I gathered the rest of my party and we sat. We waited around 10 minutes for a member of staff to give us any attention. It was a female, and she was happy to take the order. Until that is, another staff member jumped in like she was stepping on his territory and demanded this was his table to serve. I didn't much like his approach towards the other staff member. But I let it slide. This waited did not introduce himself. He didn't give a smile. He wasn't, in fact, in any way polite or friendly. He rushed through one-half of the tables' orders as if we were an inconvenience to him. By the time he got to me and my partner, he really gave off rushed and unenthusiastic vibes. My partner is very experienced in hospitality, and she began to order from the menu. He interrupted her and was very patronising and condescending when she asked for the starters and sides to come at the same time. We found this very inappropriate and rude. He didn't bring us one of our sides, so we asked the nice waitress from before to get our order, and then they tried to bill us twice for one dish served. As a direct result of my whole parties lack of customer service whilst dining here, we decided to eat our mains and leave. We did not order dessert. My sister asked another staff member if they could do anything for the birthdays, and he said, "Because you haven't ordered dessert, we won't do anything,". Despite spending a few hundred pounds, they weren't prepared to do anything to make our night special. By this point, it was too little too late to win us over.

The food was as always amazing. And the kitchen staff were working really hard. But the customer service of your waiters is seriously lacking. I feel you only care about the high flyers who park Bentleys on your drive whilst dining. Whilst other customers get £120 parking fine for parking on the street where you're situated, and you do nothing...

Been going here for over a year now and thought it was time to leave a review during lockdown. Such a great restaurant. Food and service 10 out of 10. Normally get the Lamb Ribs but a few times I have gotten King Prawns and the Mixed Fish Kebab. Lamb ribs so tasty and the prawns/fish so juicy and cooked to perfection. You also get a finger bowl too which is handy. Seriously this is up there as one of the best Turkish restaurants in the Essex area. I know this is my opinion but there are so many Turkish restaurants in the Essex area that look good on the outside but they are very pretentious, the service/especially the food is just so meh and soooo basic but still the Essex lot eat it up.

Now the only negative thing I can say about Shish Meze is that during lockdown and the 10pm curfew service has been a bit of a let down. Instead of leaving a few tables free they over book and fill everyone in before 10pm. The few times we have been we noticed the difference compared to pre lockdown. They took a very long time to take our order, forgotten drinks/drinks taken a long time to be served and even forgot to bring out the tasty bread before the mains. Just everything hasn’t been the same. It’s not been a big deal but once you experience 10 out of 10 you will always notice the little things.

As high as I am on Shish Meze I have also ordered take away and it wasn’t the greatest. You don’t get the same experience. I can never justify paying full restaurant prices just to sit at home missing out on starters, free olives, warm bread and the atmosphere... but that would be the same with any Turkish restaurant takeaway.

Despite this it’s still one of my favourite restaurants and I highly recommend booking a table once...