Efes – King Street 🇹🇷

It was father’s day so the family decided to head out into Cambridge for some Turkish cuisine.

When you take the family out for a meal you want somewhere consistent with a good reputation. A place which has been there for years and never has a bad place said about it. With all this in consideration, it had to be Efes!

Efes has been going for as long as I can remember. Looking it up online they proudly boast that it’s been serving the Cambridge community for a respectable 25 years. That says a lot in itself but I have not been back in a long time, so I was keen to pop by and see if it was as good as I remember.

I am always fascinated by the grills going off in Turkish restaurants. I love the heat, the noise, and the fact your food is prepared in front of your very eyes. It really adds a lively and bustling atmosphere which you don’t get with any other type of restaurant. It’s also reassuring to know that your food is not being prepared in some secretive kitchen in the back.

The menu had a good selection with all the things you’d expect from a Turkish restaurant. I noticed a set menu which looked to be a great deal. For £23.95 you got an entire dining experience, including starters, mains, dessert, and a Turkish coffee. With inflation running rife at the moment, deals like this are becoming rarer and rarer, so I thought I’d take full advantage of this.

The Turkish coffee was sublime. A truly deep flavour and incredibly smooth. This was one of the best coffees I’ve had in a long time.

The staff here are simply excellent. They were engaging communicators and really tried hard to make sure everyone was included. There was banter with my son and jokes with my dad. They describe themselves as a “warm and a calming atmosphere” on their website and they are exactly right.

We ordered some hummus and a meze platter for starters. The meze came as part of my set menu but ended up being enough for the five of us to pick at between us.

The portions were great and everything tasted delicious. The feta from the meze platter worked well with the side salad of cabbage, lettuce, and carrot. The beans particularly stood out and was something I could really see working well as a dish in its own right.

The mixed grill was a selection of chicken and lamb cuts. All the meat was so tender and executed perfectly. The meal was served on a small bed of pita and some rice. Frankly, the meat was fantastic but the rice didn’t really offer anything to the meal and made it feel very dry. The pita was a much better match in my opinion. The side peppers made the dish a little more exciting and added some colour to the meal. I would have liked to have seen an entire large pepper with this dish to give up enough to go with every mouth full as it really brought the dish to life!

My father had the Antep Kebab. This is minced lamb blended with a special mix of herbs and spices. This is similar to the Kofte kebab but spicier. For me, this was one of the stand out meals as the spicy sauce not only made the dish more exciting but added a more succulent texture.

My sister had the Yogurtlu Kebab. This was chicken and lamb on pita with a tangy tomato and mint sauce with yogurt. This, along with my father’s Antep Kebab had a succulent sauce which made the dish far less dry than my mixed grill. Having that sauce really complimented the rice too.

As part of my set menu I had some baklava. This is a sweet pistachio pastry dish which is also one of my all time favourite desserts – so it was no surprise that I absolutely loved these! They are the perfect size to enjoy after a large meat and carb based meal without indulging too much. A perfect fit for a set menu. I can’t recommend these enough!

Our meal at Efes was flawless. The service, the food, and experience was all perfect. The meal came to (what I thought) was a very competitive price for the centre of Cambridge and is actually cheaper than what I would expect out in the fens. I’m not sure how they do it but it was a great deal for what you get!

Top marks!