Hello, chums.
This week’s kebab related adventure takes us to the capital city of the UK, England, and indeed, Greater London: London. In what should be a regular reminder that a lack of sleep, alcohol, and reading emails at 3 in the morning are a dangerous mix, I had booked a weekend in London and then promptly forgot that I’d done this. I had no reason to be in London that weekend – no plans whatsoever – and annoyingly I’d booked my return from Euston at 5.30pm meaning that a trip to the football was off the cards. Turns out I’d missed a nil-nil draw with Rotherham – so I guess you could call that a win.
So, what does one do when they find themselves in the largest city in Europe for two days with nothing better to do?
- Go to the West End and see some quality theatre?
- Visit the Tower of London to see some quality Beefeaters?
- Visit London Zoo to see some quality animals?
- Visit Buckingham Palace to see some quality Head of State?
NO
I went to the place on Stoke Newington Road with the funny, now sadly mothballed Twitter account in order to get some meat injected into my face.
Well, Ferhat didn’t delete this account tomorrow as it turns out, but it hasn’t been updated since, which is a shame, because this account had some real gems…
And literally thousands more like that at twitter.com/mangal2.
Anyway – where was I? Oh yes, food. They also do food. The food looks like this:
To start, stuffed vine leaves, with a salad and lemon garnish. Very nice! I’m no expert on stuffed vine leaves – in fact, this was only the second time I’d ever had them, but it was a good little starter. These little cuties were stuffed with rice. Now, I am on record as saying that I hate rice and everything it stands for – and this is true to a point – but these were good. If you’re going to serve the worlds most awful foodstuff, at least do it in an interesting way, like hiding it inside a plant.
Suddenly, the waiter ambushed me with more plates. I had ordered the Dolma (thats the vine leaves) and the Lamb Cis (shish) as part of the lunch deal. The menu read “served with salad, grilled peppers, grilled tomatoes and grilled onions”, yes, but I was kinda expecting it to be on the side – so when a plate full of rabbit food arrived, I was confused! Don’t get me wrong, I still ate it, because y’know, food, but I’d got a lot more than what I bargained for. The bread wasn’t even mentioned, and I got a plate full of pitta! This I tried to eat, but failed due to bread aversion.
Then, the main event – the lamb cis. This was nice. I always think that restaurants such as Mangal 2, Havet and the like really should get smaller plates to make the portions look bigger – ‘cos the photos don’t do it justice. Even without the insane amount of salad and bread, this was more than enough. Really good too – nicely marinaded (the picture above is without the added sauces), and the grill gave it quite a smoky barbecue flavour on the outside that you’d expect, but also delicately cooked and chewy on the inside. This was very pleasant indeed.
So, what was the damage, financially speaking? All of the above cost £12 English Notes. Admittedly, it’s gone up a little bit since the lunch deal was advertised on twitter:
…but y’know, brexit ‘n’ that.
Mangal 2, Stoke Newington Road, Dalston*
Stuffed Vine Leaves, Cop Shish (basically smaller chunks than normal shish) and a can of full fat Coca Cola, £12.
9/10
*pedant’s note – they’re on Stoke Newington Road, and they’ve got a Stoke Newington postcode – but the restaurant state that they’re in Dalston. Who would we be to argue?
Shawarma Police 