Red Art Cafe

Went to Red Art on a visitor’s last night in London. My friend had the mackerel sandwich and I had a lamb stew sort of dish. Very good service and definitely one of my go-​to places in the Dalston area. The portions are massive, cheap and very delicious! Atmosphere is fantastic as well, feels extremely home-​ly. Definitely recommend it!

Red Art café is not really a great Turkish restaurant. I wouldn’t actually say it’s a good Restaurant full stop, but I still go there. «Why, you mad cunt?!?» I hear you ask? Well because it’s cheap and sometimes I can’t be bothered with the fuss of dining and want to eat mediocre food for not much money, fully disengaging my brain in the process. Red Art does that just fine. This of course this can backfire. Last week I arrived around that tricky time of midday — ie: too early for lunch /​too late for breakfast (I refuse to acknowledge the concept of «brunch» as a positive thing, btw — it’s just confusing). I couldn’t decide wether to have menemen or falafel so I embraced decadence by throwing common sense out the window and decided to get both as they were cheap individually. They arrived together and, oh dear — I forgot how massive and oversized the portions are, thus leaving me looking like a disgusting hungover pig amongst the cool Dalstonians with their salads and business meetings. The falafel was also quite dry, hard and over fried and the menemen was a bit like an endless bowl of soup for two or something. Despite this it still all tasted ok-​ish, if you erased from your mind what it was you were eating. I tried to eat it all but the menemen wouldn’t seem to disappear no matter how hard I tried and I had to hide the falafel under the table in absolute shame. The whole thing left me feeling a bit like Gordon Ramsey in an episode of kitchen nightmares. Nice staff though and the staircase down to the toilets is nice, as are the toilets themselves.

I have to agree with the other two reviews, this place is barely mediocre.
I popped in for lunch. It was packed though in hindsight I can’t imagine why. The décor is pleasant enough and the staff *seemed* to want to try. I ordered a chicken «sote» (apparently it’s spelt phonetically by them, was a ‘sauté’ after all) which arrived on a large platter with rice and a salad. The waitress severely underestimated the size when I asked and even suggested «a starter or two». She must have thought I lost my way from Mayfair.
I ordered the perfectly proportioned starter of aubergines, tomatoes and potatoes. I should have stuck to another starter as the mains was something out of a canteen. In fact, I’m sure the canteens of Mayfair churn out tastier fare than this.
I had breakfast here once and it was much better. Probably because it was a much simpler affair. I lost my appetite after several spoonfuls. The service was rather zombie-​like after the lunch crowd petered out. Only reluctantly did I pay my bill. Not returning, needless to say!

This is quite a cute little café next to the Rio cinema, so perfect for a pre– or post-​movie bite to eat. The service was very friendly, and they have excellent Turkish coffee and fresh mint tea, which I love. Unfortunately, the food just isn’t that great — while the basic staples such as hummus and falafel were quite good, the other dishes we tried just didn’t cut it (frankly, I can do better at home).

Dropped in here after starting an exploration of the businesses around Dalston Junction. Can’t say I was super-​impressed. The ambiance is pleasant enough, but I found the lighting a bit harsh, and the ambiance a little lacking (it has a somewhat upmarket diner feel to it). The waiters were attentive and pleasant. We ordered three vegetarian/​vegan options: the hummus, a falafel plate, a plate of grilled vegetables. The hummus was nice; the falafel was good (though it would be nice to get more than three falafels for the price) — though in fairness this came with a reasonably nice salad; the grilled vegetables were quite unpleasant though (the grilled peppers and tomatoes really didn’t seem grilled, and the eggplant just wasn’t that nice). Sad to say I think Italian antipasti is just much better. The total cost including Turkish coffee and peppermint tea was £18.
Overall I thought this was a solid three stars, but not more.