Today I was over the other side of Leicester on an errand and found myself in the vibrant and cosmopolitan area known as West End.
Running either side of the A46 Narborough Road, the main route from the motorway to the city centre, West End is chock full of ethnic food shops and restaurants.
I walked the length of it, up to Braunstone Gate, where I came across Efes Mangal offering a three course lunch for £9.99. What's not to like?
At 1pm on a Thursday, Efes was very quiet, but it had rope barriers outside and, if it is anything like its neighbour, Istanbul, it is heaving on a Saturday night with queues running down the road.
Ambience
The restaurant is very pleasant - a large airy space with comfortable seating, chairs and upholstered benches, with high backs to some of the benches creating more private areas.
Lunch Set Menu £9.99
Efes Mangal specialises in Turkish food with typical charcoal grilled meats, breads and vegetables. The set menu had a good selection of meat and vegetarian dishes, starters and mains.
The third "course" was a soft drink - I chose cherry and pineapple. Little appetizers and fresh hot bread arrived and the starter soon followed.
I chose feta cheese on a bed of lettuce and tomato. It was enormous, and could easily have fed two or more as a starter, especially with the delicious bread!
By the time you had added in the creamy yoghurt dip, minced vegetable and chilli salsa and two types of olives, the starter was almost a meal in itself.
The little black olives were lovely, fragrant, salty and toothsome. The yoghurt was creamy and luscious and the salsa very hot and addictive!
I chose the Adana Kofte Kebab as my main course - minced lamb mixed with peppers, onion and spices and cooked over the charcoal grill. It was served with rice and dressed salad (plus still lots of bread and dips left)!
It was a very tasty meal (the dressing on the salad was perfect) but huge. There was probably more meat on the plate than I would eat in a week.
Luckily, Efes is used to wrapping up leftovers for you to take home, and very nice they are, too.
Drinks
Efes is licensed and has the usual range of alcoholic and soft drinks, along with cocktails and mocktails. The cherry and pineapple drink I had was a nice combination I hadn't seen before, and they provided a nice cup of English tea as well.
Service
The service was very good, the servers were friendly, helpful and efficient. Everything was very pleasant.
Strangely, a bill arrived for £18.85. I queried this and two items were removed, leaving my £9.99 lunch at £10.50. Hmm, not a great deal of difference, but you did say £9.99.
This restaurant has been recommended to me numerous times and I see it comes in at #21 on tripadviser (Anatolia, which I reviewed last week, is #8). The food and service were nice, but I was disappointed about the bill.
Efes is the name of a popular Turkish beer, I drink it a lot when I am visiting Cyprus.
Restaurant Information
Efes Mangal
32 Braunstone Gate, Leicester LE3 5LG, UK
EFES MANGAL | TURKISH LUNCH at £9.99
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