For a post-theatre snack after a matinee performance of Fiddler on the Roof at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, a friend and I both googled and both found Istanbul Cafe and Bistro: a 15-minute walk away on Great Portland Street.
It was a small restaurant, and on arrival for our 5.30pm reservation, it was pleasantly busy with people finishing what looked to be late lunches. Having enjoyed both pre-theatre and interval snacks, we chose from the extensive selection of starters/mezze (priced at around £9), rather than individual dishes from the pasta, grills, fish and burger sections.
We opted for three dishes to start with, to see how we got along. Tarama (sic) is always a firm favourite of ours, and the portion size was very generous, and Humus Kavurma or hummus ‘pimped’ with pieces of juicy lamb on top. Our third dish, Sucuk, was four thin delicious slices of grilled beef spicy Turkish sausage. With a complimentary basket of pitta, refilled without question or charge, it was just right, and we decided to quit before we were stuffed.
Interestingly for a Turkish restaurant the house white was an Italian Pinot Grigio, so we ordered a bottle of more authentic Cankaya Kavaklidere from Anatoli, priced at £29.
Too full for anything else, our bill came to £63 which included a 10% service charge.
Whilst the restaurant is relatively small, as was our table, they were more than happy for us to commandeer the adjacent one as well, to cope with our plethora of dishes which all came together, glasses and bottles of water and wine. There was also the most amazing display of fresh fruit and vegetables, which looked rather like a market stall and a few outdoor tables.
The place is open throughout the day with various breakfast and lunch options and it’s somewhere we both said we would return to.
