Efes London
Hey Foodwalas…The search for the holy grail of kebabs has led me to Efes Whitechapel, It reminds me of the restaurants around Taksim Square in Istanbul and Baghdad Cadessi on the Asian side.
Efes is a ocakbasi restaurant, Ocakbasi translates to ‘stand by the grill’ and ocakbasi restaurants typically have one or more large hooded charcoal barbeques in the center of the restaurant.
We decided that we just wanted a light lunch, usually i order way too much and then feel guilty when we cannot finish the food.
My Litmus test for a Ocakbasi is usually the Adana Kebab….the lamb should be hand ground using Scimitar knife and mixed with ground tail fat and had mixed with spices and sun-dried red chillies.
The Adana Kebab was nice and moist and was served with Turkish Pilaf rice, the best Adana Kebab I had was outside the Incirlik Air force base in Adana…it was amazing and I have been hooked since.
The Lamb Shish was seasoned delicately and was moist and tender, The Ocakbasi is a better way of grilling meat and chicken than the Tandoor as the meat is cooked horizontally rather than vertically so the meat stays moist and the spices do not burn.
I would venture and say Mangal Ocakbasi was better
Food – 6 out of 10
atmosphere – 5 out of 10
service – 6 out of 10
cleanliness – 6 out of 10
total score – 23 out of 40