Istanbul Cafe Bistro

WOW. ! Don’t be confused by their signage as its a bit eclectic, or choose one of the corporate and/​or franchised options that surround it. The food here is awesome, and the waitstaff attentive and patient. My only complaint is that I wish we had found it sooner.

I had a turkish breakfast at this café. It was a sunny day in London, and they have a really nice outdoor area.
The portion wasn’t too big, since their large turkish breakfast had a lot of bread but small bits of everything else, but it works.
Their food is nicely presented, and the staff is friendly.
Not too bad for a sunny day. :)

A friend and I visited this amazing café three times while in London. Every time our food was prepared correctly, quickly and deliciously! The vegetarian burger is the best I have ever had. The Turkish breakfast plate of sausage and fried eggs was amazing and easy to eat with toast. The atmosphere is great and easy going with a quiet and kind staff. I will come back again if I return to London!

So disappointing! My friend suggested it but as an avid Unilocaler now definitely had doubts has going in, just didn’t look that great. It seemed like the waiter was on crack, kept getting my order wrong and after two times of trying to get him to bring me s tap water I ended up asking another waitress there! And eventually it came! My lamb mouasska was horrible! I couldn’t eat it! The rice was lovely though, but e calamari for starters was also pretty gross! The strawberry smooghie was nice though!

I’ve become a regular here since I discovered it a couple of weeks ago. Convenient location (just behind the Great Portland Str.), warm and attentive waiters and tasty food.
I usually pop in for takeaways as they are very busy at lunchtime. They do amazing lamb shish kebabs!

When visiting London for the first time, I think the common culinary thought is fish & chips. Of course, I had to sample a few different batches to make sure my craving was satisfied. Little did I know that the best of these would come from a Turkish restaurant.
My friend recommened the fish & chips here from the days when she stayed at the International Student Housing across the street. I, of course, was skeptical considering there was no newspaper wrapped fish or nostalgic looking food cart. I was pleasantly surprised. The fish was fried to perfction as were the fries/​chips. It far surpassed any of the fish & chips I sampled from the touristy carts and food stalls that I passed by. While Im sure there are better places to have this English classic, I havent tasted it yet.
I did sample a sampler platter of more authentic ethnic items… I forget what all was on the plate – various hummus and dips. They were ok, but nothing spectacular. Perhaps it wasnt the best choice to consume such things along with fish & chips though.
Pros: Location on Great Portland street right by Regents Park, excellent fish & chips, affordable in an expensive city, friendly staff
Cons: Somewhat slow service, the more authentic ethnic items I tried were average

I always buy my breakfast & lunch.
Tasty food and very busy place.
Love the Chicken Burger & the Chicken wrap its beautiful, fresh salad and worth.
Always good site out on Friday or a Saturday Nights looking at Outdoor Experience of the Pubs «The Albany». . LOL: D

Love this place. Especially the kebabs on a bed of eggplant

I’ve run in Café Meze a number of times for a grab and go dinner while in town for business.
The staff has always been friendly, the food is pretty good.
Being a New Yorker I think I have an unrealistic expectation of speed, so even though I would normally say the service is slow, I’m going to chalk it up to me being picky.
Overall, it’s a nice little café with decent food and decent prices. It’s worth a shot if you just want to get something and go.

I came here because I was in the area and had read the few Unilocal reviews for the incorrectly named «Café Mezo». It was busy outside, but mist people (maybe it was just that time of day) were just having various coffee drinks. I was not able to test their coffee though; I just had a (mozeralla and roasted vegetable) panini served with chips and salad. I was surprised that their «eat-​in» menu was a bit pricey for what it was (hence i ordered a sandwich, despite hate having to do so). My panini was dry, the chips weren’t very hot, and the salad was more like garnish you’re not supposed to eat. Disappointed. That said though, I’d still choose here over Pret a Manger directly across the street. I’d give two stars but I’m leaving a third for the potential that this place has really good coffee.

Café Mezo was awesome place to pick up breakfast or lunch. It’s right next to the Tube station, and service was fast and friendly.
Food was fresh and good portion, I usually had ssandwitch and always had good experience.
They also have outdoor seating which was perfect. It’s accross from the big pub, but I think this place has more class and better place to chill.

We can here for an early dinner last night, and it was a decent meal. Since a couple people in our party wanted to sit outside, they graciously combined a table by the window with a 2-​top outside to accomodate our group.
We shared the meze platter, which was ok, I thought the hummus could have used a bit more zing vs. a water-​down taste, but the cold pink sauce was pretty tasty, not sure what it was but it went well with pita. For dinner I ordered the Istanbul avocado and prawns salad, which was again, ok, not particuarly memorable but had nice gobs of feta despite lack of dressing and only a few prawns. Not sure it was worth the 10 pound price tag.
Others in our group got the chicken and lamb kebabs and bass fish, which were decent and fresh… the lamb seemed to win over the chicken, and the bass portion (part of the set menu) was a good size. Nice, attentive service, Turkish décor and open kitchen. Cold water. Overpriced Prosecco. Best value is probably the set menu for an app and entrée for 11 pounds. The best part of the meal for me was the free Turkish delight candies! Request them if they do not come with your check! Conveinent location if you’re near UCL, although not quite a destination spot at the moment.

Favorite place to eat in London hands down. The location makes you wonder how good the food actually is, as its in the same building as the Great Portland St tube station, however don’t let that sway you from stopping in– it’s amazing.
I was living right across the street for awhile and so I finally stopped in by myself one evening for a quick glass of wine and dinner. I had one of their soups which was so flavorful and amazing. The service was fantastic, it’s a small place but it’s clean and nicely decorated and seemingly even a great place to go alone (I wasn’t the only one there dining by myself).
Every time I went back my meals were great– I also recommend a pasta dish with mushrooms that they have. Even the olives in garlic and oil that they serve initially are incredible!
All the food tastes «home cooked» and the price is completely reasonable!

Café Meze is a wonderful example of a family (In this case Turkish) who’ve come to the UK to set up an eatery, serving the finest cuisine from their homeland.
To woo the British public into trying something exotic and Mediterranean… only to find that a good deal of the British public are still stuck in he post war rationing mentality and don’t want to eat a breakfast that hasn’t been fried and have the word «bap» attached to it.
So, by way of a compromise, café Meze do both!
The atmosphere and décor of the joint are both remarkably relaxed and attractive, given that it’s located on a traffic island above a tube station (now that’s exotic!).
So on to the litmus test; The coffee!
There’s no shortage of competition in the immediate vicinity (opposite a pret and the Albany pub which serves Illy) so their standards have to be high… and they are!
Also when i was extremely hung over they made me a melted cheese sandwich which literally saved my life!
Go café Meze, stick it to the man!

Wandering around the corner from the flat of a summer’s evening we stumbled on this little restaurant. We couldn’t get one of the two outside tables, but the big windows were open, and the sounds of the city ambled in as the world rushed by.
The atmosphere here is lovely — relatively few people in the early evening, and well worth checking out, there’s also a downstairs bar/​party area. Also under atmosphere comes *having a proper carafe of iced water*. Seriously, I don’t know how many restaurants I’ve been to that don’t take table water seriously when it comes to table aesthetics.
There were two specials available — £10 pp for 2, or the £11.90 set menu, the latter being what we went for. The starter was a mixed meze, but, while tasty, didn’t look nearly as good, nor was it in such huge quantities as say Tas.
The main course, and after meal hand-​made turkish delight however, more than made up for it. My lamb was juicy, spicy, and the chilli sauce is full of flavour as well as being hot. The other dish — well lets just say it’s the first time in a long while I’ve voluntarily eaten chicken.
£30 for two, including our drinks and some extra bread makes this a really excellent deal, and well worth a visit.