http://www.ahmets.com/south-bank/
Our usual Sunday afternoon ritual is to find somewhere to have dinner in the city or surrounds and then head off to see a movie. Last Sunday we ended up doing things a little differently and saw an afternoon session before heading off to dinner straight after. You would imagine that this little change to our routine would have a minimal impact on our evening....... As it turned out the whole evening was thrown out!
It was the regular Sunday crew of CI, TB, SC and I and we ended up going to an earlier session of Zero Dark Thirty because we could not choose between Flight and Hansel and Gretel, the only problem was that Zero Dark Thirty was a 3:30 pm movie finishing at 6:30, no problems, dinner after. Once the movie finished we were at a loss of where to go. We checked out a few places that had all closed for the evening and ended up in a queue at the Casino to visit the Fat Noodle. However, after being told that we would need to wait 30 minutes for a table decided to wander over to Southbank where more restaurants would be open.
How we ended up at Ahmets I am not sure, perhaps call it nostalgia for a simpler time or perhaps it was the fact that we could not decide where to go as we were walking past. Anyway, as we did not have a reservation (when did Ahmets start taking reservations?) we were placed in one of the worst table positions available, even though there were plenty of better seats available. Fortunately we did not have to wait too long for menus to be delivered, unfortunately this was the only time for the evening that we did not have to wait a really long time.
After a while of trying to catch a waiter's eye to place our order, we finally had someone come along and our orders were under way. TB was a little rushed with her order because she was pretty keen get a cocktail, but since we had the waiter at the table we were keen to not let her go as we did not know how long it would be again to catch her attention.
Orders taken we settled in and got slowly more frustrated as we waited for our meals to arrive. Table after table had their orders delivered, even though they placed their orders after ours. We were not the only tables getting frustrated, with all bar one person at the table next to us eating their meals (the last person got theirs delivered about 10 minutes after the rest had started). At this stage we were quite annoyed and had to ask the waitress where our meals were! Finally, they came out, I hoped it would be worth the wait....
I had ordered my favourite menu item which was simply Lamb Shish - lamb skewers marinated in paprika, oregano and garlic with turkish rice and green leaf salad. Unbelievably after such a long wait for my dinner the lamb was cold and overcooked. I was expecting to see just a hint of pink through the lamb but it was just a dull grey colour. Luckily they were still relatively tender and tasted quite nice, otherwise they would have gone back and I would have forgone dinner. The rice with the dish was delicious and almost made up for the overcooked lamb, but not quite. The salad was a bit limp and not very nice and I am not sure if it added anything at all to the plate apart from some colour. All up a pretty disappointing meal.
SC fared much better than I did with her favourite dish the Lamb Guvec - slow cooked lamb with eggplant, zucchini, mushroom, garlic, potato & spices served with turkish rice. It was quite a large serve with big chunks of well cooked lamb and root vegetables, in a slightly spicy stew. The lamb was very tender and the vegetables cooked perfectly. Most importantly this was hot! SC also really enjoyed the rice and in particular spooning the guvec liquids into the rice and mixing it all together.
CI had mixed feelings about his Mixed Grill - which was a combination of chicken, lamb and adana skewers with a lamb cutlet, turkish rice and a green leaf salad. CI's lamb was not as over cooked as mine and his chicken was cooked very nicely with great flavours. The adana skewer, or mystery meat as we called it was interesting. The texture was like tightly rolled minced meat and the flavour was of a very gamey meat with heaps of added chilli or spices. CI could not make up his mind if he liked it or not, but the fact that he did not eat it all and was trying to give much of it to me spoke volumes!
Continuing with the shish theme TB ordered the Prawn Shish - marinated and grilled prawns, potato with a garlic and cheese croquete and a green leaf salad. The prawn skewers were really colourful and there was a surprising number of prawns included, quite generous really. Unfortunately, like my lamb, TBs prawns were cold. The prawns themselves were well cooked and tasted wonderful with a hint of spicy paprika & the croquete was full of cheesy garlicy goodness. If this dish had come out hot (or even warm) it would have been a winner.
Our usual Sunday afternoon ritual is to find somewhere to have dinner in the city or surrounds and then head off to see a movie. Last Sunday we ended up doing things a little differently and saw an afternoon session before heading off to dinner straight after. You would imagine that this little change to our routine would have a minimal impact on our evening....... As it turned out the whole evening was thrown out!It was the regular Sunday crew of CI, TB, SC and I and we ended up going to an earlier session of Zero Dark Thirty because we could not choose between Flight and Hansel and Gretel, the only problem was that Zero Dark Thirty was a 3:30 pm movie finishing at 6:30, no problems, dinner after. Once the movie finished we were at a loss of where to go. We checked out a few places that had all closed for the evening and ended up in a queue at the Casino to visit the Fat Noodle. However, after being told that we would need to wait 30 minutes for a table decided to wander over to Southbank where more restaurants would be open.
How we ended up at Ahmets I am not sure, perhaps call it nostalgia for a simpler time or perhaps it was the fact that we could not decide where to go as we were walking past. Anyway, as we did not have a reservation (when did Ahmets start taking reservations?) we were placed in one of the worst table positions available, even though there were plenty of better seats available. Fortunately we did not have to wait too long for menus to be delivered, unfortunately this was the only time for the evening that we did not have to wait a really long time.
After a while of trying to catch a waiter's eye to place our order, we finally had someone come along and our orders were under way. TB was a little rushed with her order because she was pretty keen get a cocktail, but since we had the waiter at the table we were keen to not let her go as we did not know how long it would be again to catch her attention.
Orders taken we settled in and got slowly more frustrated as we waited for our meals to arrive. Table after table had their orders delivered, even though they placed their orders after ours. We were not the only tables getting frustrated, with all bar one person at the table next to us eating their meals (the last person got theirs delivered about 10 minutes after the rest had started). At this stage we were quite annoyed and had to ask the waitress where our meals were! Finally, they came out, I hoped it would be worth the wait....
I had ordered my favourite menu item which was simply Lamb Shish - lamb skewers marinated in paprika, oregano and garlic with turkish rice and green leaf salad. Unbelievably after such a long wait for my dinner the lamb was cold and overcooked. I was expecting to see just a hint of pink through the lamb but it was just a dull grey colour. Luckily they were still relatively tender and tasted quite nice, otherwise they would have gone back and I would have forgone dinner. The rice with the dish was delicious and almost made up for the overcooked lamb, but not quite. The salad was a bit limp and not very nice and I am not sure if it added anything at all to the plate apart from some colour. All up a pretty disappointing meal.
SC fared much better than I did with her favourite dish the Lamb Guvec - slow cooked lamb with eggplant, zucchini, mushroom, garlic, potato & spices served with turkish rice. It was quite a large serve with big chunks of well cooked lamb and root vegetables, in a slightly spicy stew. The lamb was very tender and the vegetables cooked perfectly. Most importantly this was hot! SC also really enjoyed the rice and in particular spooning the guvec liquids into the rice and mixing it all together.
CI had mixed feelings about his Mixed Grill - which was a combination of chicken, lamb and adana skewers with a lamb cutlet, turkish rice and a green leaf salad. CI's lamb was not as over cooked as mine and his chicken was cooked very nicely with great flavours. The adana skewer, or mystery meat as we called it was interesting. The texture was like tightly rolled minced meat and the flavour was of a very gamey meat with heaps of added chilli or spices. CI could not make up his mind if he liked it or not, but the fact that he did not eat it all and was trying to give much of it to me spoke volumes!
Continuing with the shish theme TB ordered the Prawn Shish - marinated and grilled prawns, potato with a garlic and cheese croquete and a green leaf salad. The prawn skewers were really colourful and there was a surprising number of prawns included, quite generous really. Unfortunately, like my lamb, TBs prawns were cold. The prawns themselves were well cooked and tasted wonderful with a hint of spicy paprika & the croquete was full of cheesy garlicy goodness. If this dish had come out hot (or even warm) it would have been a winner.
Based on our experience with the meal we all decided that dessert could wait for another day.
Throughout the night we had plenty of time to reflect on our decision to choose Ahmets for dinner and talk about our past experiences there. We all agreed that we had had some of the worst service experiences in our lives there. On one occasion I was the unlucky lone diner at my table without a meal and no idea about when it would come.
On the other hand we had all experienced some lovely and delicious food at Ahmets in past visits. The thing about a place like Ahmets is that it's completely hit or miss. SC and I used to go there quite often after work because it was often quick and convenient (and SC really does love that lamb guvec) and I think that a little bit of nostalgia creeped in on the night. I think on the whole though Ahmets is a place best left in the past, one of those places we used to go.........
Maybe a 30 minute wait for the Fat Noodle was not a bad idea after all....
you want Turkish???? go to eat street, gozleme world.thank me for the advice later
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