Mediterranean-inspired dishes in a spacious wood-beamed restaurant hung with coloured lanterns.

The Iskelé Restaurant & Bar

I am always thrilled to discover a low key, modestly priced neighbourhood restaurant that serves terrific food.  Great attention to detail.  Everything freshly made, even sauces and salad dressings (though I cannot be sure the bread was made in house).  Our order was not adventurous but represented consistently excellent versions of Turkish classics.

We shared the baba ghanoush as a starter which came with bread for mopping it up.  A really great dip, where the aubergine mash was redolent with charcoal flavour and sesame and just very subtly lemony.  A good size portion for sharing.  Served at a pleasant temperature not straight from the fridge.

For mains I had the lamb cutlets and my companion had the lamb kofte.  I asked to replace the fries that normally come with cutlets with rice, and that was no problem.  Meats were cooked medium and were served with a very fresh, bright, fiery ezme dipping sauce.  Like a chilli-spiked tomato and onion salsa.  My cutlets were good if a little under seasoned for my taste, but nothing that couldn't be fixed with a salt shaker.  My companion's kofte were delicious, but some diners (not me) might find them on the salty side. Mince used for the koftes was lean.  My companion has a digestive disorder where fatty burgers, for example, make him nauseous a few hours later.  No problem with the koftes at Eskele.  The smokiness level of the meats was light, unlike the heavy charcoal flavour of the baba ghanoush starter.  Accompanying salad was dressed with olive oil and flavoured with lightly pickled slivers of red cabbage.  A step up from a lot of Turkish restaurants that serve only wedges of lemon with salad.  Rice looked plain but tasted very buttery.

Not being fussy about wine, we normally order the cheapest red at restaurants.  However my companion was distrustful of the house wine, because Turkish reds can be aggressively tannic so we had the Chilean Merlot for £27.90 which lovely, mellow and great value.

The restaurant was quiet despite containing a large group.  No music.  Dim lights but not dim enough to make reading the menu difficult.  Our server was very gracious.

Decent Turkish and Mediterranean food. The starters and mains came in good time. We e were a group of 5 and most enjoyed their meals.

The service was slightly off. We were hurried to order and encouraged to leave quickly after finishing our meals. I appreciate the staff wanted to finish earlier but left disappointed by their attitude.

This was a great find just minutes from Barbican Center. We were warmly greeted by Ali. The décor is very pleasant and the service was wonderful. We ordered 2 glasses of the Turkish red which we really liked. We ordered the baby broad beans as a starter. We had the Iskender plate with lamb and the lamb tagine as our mains. All dishes were delicious. Since we had a performance to get to we couldn't hang out for dessert.  Excellent Turkish food and highly recommended.

Lovely restaurant! The food was really yummy, and all the staff were incredibly friendly and helpful throughout. I'm veggie and had a meze selection, the falafel and borek especially were very nice (probably the best borek I've had!). Others I was with had the chicken skewer and lamb cutlets, both enjoyed very much, and the desserts (Knafeh, tiramisu) and cocktails too. Special thank you to the staff for helping with my allergy related queries in a helpful and knowledgeable manner.

Will definitely look to visit again next time we're in the area!

Info - we were a table of three, we booked for 4:30 on a Saturday and it was pretty quiet when we first arrived, but started to fill up by the time we left an hour or two later, though wasn't completely full. Definitely worth trying for a walk in but if you want to go in the evening on a Sat I would recommend booking. It was very conveniently located for the barbican. The toilets were clean and well stocked!

We had a beautiful meal here and booked it through The Fork where we managed to get a generous discount. Staff were attentive and pleasant especially the lovely lady who made sure we had everything we needed.

The serving sizes aren't as big as we're used to at other Mediterranean restaurants, but found that it was enough to satisfy the whole family, but don't expect huge portions here. They however do not disappoint in taste so everyone's still very happy and looking forward to our next visit.

The staff of this restaurant has verbally confirmed Halal status.

website:zabihah.com:(https://www.zabihah.com/biz/zVjVfuUfrT)

Halal Status for The Iskelé