Leziz

I really wanted to like this place — it had everything — good atmosphere (local Mediterranean place), friendly staff, a lady in front making those thin wraps with cottage cheese in the middle…
The food just didn’t hit it for me — it was, well, alright. I ordered grilled chicken and lamb but as I ate it my heart was longing for that succulent grilled and marinated meat in Petek — just 10 minutes from Leziz. It was basically lacking that rainbow of flavour and juiciness that you get from good grilled meat.
The wraps done in front of the shop were alright too, lacking salt maybe, but makes a decent snack.

I enjoyed the set-​lunch here — cheap and very filling and delicious. The service was pretty slow, but our server said it was because there was only one chef in that day. I would go to this place again mainly because of its convenient location (for me) and because I got a good, filling lunch for a good price. Nothing special but not bad.

Can I be honest? I wasn’t impressed. I had come here after reading the review by Jooz P. and I was looking forward to an authentic Turkish dining experience… but alas I had stirred up my hopes too high!
I had ordered the 3 course menu for 7.95 (during lunch it is 5.95), and in my case I opted for the red lentil soup & the chicken stew. I received bread, yoghurt spread and olives as starters, which was nice. The soup came right away and was tasty, yet a little watery. The chicken stew was also tasty, but I felt that the ratio of starch (potatoes) vs. meat (chicken) was a little biased towards the carb (in other words cheaper) option.
Furthermore, I have that thing where I ask the waiters to tell me what they would recommend I should try from the menu… and my red-​flag answer is: everything is good! Come on… don’t you have an opinion?
So all in all… I left satiated but not (pleasantly) satisfied…

Leziz has been in Blackstock Road for a while now (I’m guessing that since February, but a few months really). They have slowly improved the ambiance of the place, and expanded a bit on what they offer. In short, Leziz is a Turkish-​style Lokantas restaurant cum grill cum café (yes, it is this eclectic: D).
On the food side, you can choose between Turkish-​lokantas stews, which come with bread, salad and either rice or couscous. These are things like lamb kofte stew, stuffed peppers or aubergine stew. I have tried these, and found them all to be quite nice (in particular the stuffed peppers, with hints of mint and other herbs). You get a very generous portion (plus the aforementioned extras) for your money. The falafel wraps are also excellent (homous, salad, the lot) and again, very reasonably priced. I’ve seen people have kebabs, but I haven’t tried them. Gozleme (which they also call borek) are very good and competitively priced at £1.50 (cheese, spinach and potato).
They do coffee and tea. Coffee is good but not great (there’s nowhere around that does great according to my taste!), and they do have an outside space which is quite nice (I prefer staying indoors but hey!). The staff are friendly and don’t get in the way, so it is a relaxed atmosphere (maybe they could do without the music, but that’s my opinion).
In general, I rate them far higher than Good for Food, just across the road: the have a wider choice of food, generally nicer, and it is not as pretentious. It is also much more affordable. My only gripe is that they close quite early in the evening (around 21h), when a late falafel roll to take home would be great around midnight on the way back home!