Date of visit; Sunday 6th August, 8 pm
Whenever I come across a new Turkish restaurant I tend to roll my eyes… I usually find restaurants that serve up Turkish all have the same menu and type of food. You know, lamb shish, chicken shish the same cold and warm mezes and your giant platter of bland cheap cuts of meat cooked over a charcoal grill.
I’m not saying that I don’t go to these places, because I do, but they just tend to be the same.
So when I came across a new Turkish restaurant I naturally thought: “here we go, same old food time”. But boy… Was I wrong.
The first thing that you’ll notice about Lokkrum, a new high-end Turkish restaurant in Woodford, is the quality of the decor and atmosphere. The moment I drove into the car park {16 cars max) I felt like I was in Dubai. Loads of nice looking cars, the exterior of the restaurant was lovely and really upmarket.
Once we entered I was greeted by the warm and friendly hostesses. The first thing you see is the area where they dry aged steaks in full view, followed by the clear high-end decor that this new restaurant had been kitted out in. The hostess gave us a quick tour and seated us in the main dining area. There’s a more casual and relaxed seating area at the front of the restaurant but since this was date night I wanted the nicer area.
The main restaurant area has a massive viewing window that looks into the kitchen.
I started the evening with a Strawberry Mocktail. I’ll tell you, it was a very good mocktail. Perfect balance of sweetness and good use of fresh strawberries. I find that if there’s a proper bar man who knows his stuff, then the drinks usually taste good. Definitely the case here.
Food
Complimentary bread served, warm and freshly made.
I didn’t order too much in the way of starters just kept it simple with an order of Borek on the menu they are down as “Filo pastry” – cheese and baby spinach and mixed peppers, which was delicious, just how I like it. Not too flaky and the filling tasted really nice with balanced flavours.
8/10
MAINS
For the main, well I had to get me one of those steaks. On the menu, there’s a 24oz steak! I went for the 14oz which is a pretty big piece of cow. I requested medium, normally I get medium rare.
As you can see it looks beautiful and comes with a side of chips, mushroom and choice of sauce, at £24.
It was cooked medium, some parts were pinker in the middle, where the meat was thicker. The steak was juicy and tender but lacked that beefy taste I was expecting. However, once I added the sauce it really improved the experience and enhanced the taste.
7.5/10
The mixed grill was just brilliant. There is such a massive difference between the quality of meat here compared to say ‘Gokyuzu’ or ‘Kervan’. From the size to the taste. Everything is better. Like the lamb chop, the lamb shish was just on another level. It may seem smaller in terms of the amount of pieces of chicken and lamb, but just look at the size of the items of what you get. All items were cooked perfectly and were infused with that classic charcoal flavour from the grill.
9/10
Also on the menu, there is a lamb cage. I didn’t order this but I saw another table that did. Take my word on this, it looked amazing and I am definitely going to get this when I go again. It’s basically a cage of lamb grilled and then carved at the table. I then spoke with one of the partners who explained their ethos behind the restaurant, it was good to see another example of new Halal restaurants are pushing for something different.
The meal was rounded off with some complimentary desserts. (thank you lokkrum)
At first, I thought that the chocolate fondant was just a 90 second mug cake, but the inside was super gooey so I don’t think it was one. Chocolate was rich and sweet and not bitter, a good fondant.
7.5/10
We also got another chocolate dessert. I only had a little bit, I think the fondant was better.
7/10Overall, I really had a nice experience here. From the service, decor and food, everything was on point. The price was also a lot less than I expected.
I definitely recommend this place for date night or when you go “out out”. I really did feel like I was in Dubai or in another country when I entered, it visited on a lovely late Sunday evening, all dressed up for date night, so that could’ve been why.
Be the first to leave a review.
