PROFILE BY BEST RESTAURANTS
Pop on some stretchy pants and work out how to pronounce pide, friends, because Ahmet’s is dishing up some serious Turkish delights! If you’re after an exotic night out, or even a boozey mid-week lunch in a foreign paradise, this South Bank restaurant should be your destination of choice.
For starters, the menu is so long you’ll need to hire a second family and some new friends to try it all out, or at least set aside a few hours with an intimate someone to attempt to scoff the lot (we do love a challenge!). Start your night off with a selection of Turkish breads and dips, and revel in the joys of playing guess and check with your pronunciation (G&G tip: the more Turkish Apple cocktails you down, the easier this gets), then, depending on your hanger levels, order a handful of meze (entrée) to share. It’s particularly hard to practice restraint at this point, faced with dishes like flash-fried mussels with cauliflower and saffron aioli, crisp calamari or charcoal lamb cutlets with chermoula and tomato couscous (because-cause it’s all delicious).
Be completely transported by the selection of mains, featuring favourites like charcoal grilled meat skewers served with Turkish style rice and lavash, an array of meaty Turkish pizzas and traditional main meals like yoghurt-braised chicken, slow cooked lamb shanks or lamb kofte.
Do you even need dessert after all this? Probably not, but don’t let that stop you. Instead, get your gob around a Turkish sweet tasting plate with an assortment of baklava, Turkish delight and revani. We were sold at the classic Turkish doughnut with honey syrup and cinnamon.
As if you’d need another reason to get your butt there for a night out, Ahmet’s turns into entertainment central on regular occasions, like when they host Istanbul Night on the first Sunday of every month. Enjoy food and drink specials, tuck into a full Turkish banquet, have your coffee read and wiggle to the beat of the belly dancing beauties. With a Grand Bazaar market and the ever atmospheric Turkish decorations adorning your surroundings, it’ll feel like the bestest overseas holiday you’ve ever had, minus the jetlag. Check out their events page for more info.
Delish and Turkish sort of sound the same, right? So put on your little finger cymbals (or zills, for the belly dancing enthusiasts) and shimmy that food baby like you didn’t just eat four courses of deliciousness and a Turkish apple tea.
Lucille Burkitt