Review: Anatolia, Leyton

Anatolia – you know the place, just near Leyton Technical – is where we go when nothing but a kebab will do. It isn’t fancy, but that’s not the point: it’s all about yummy Turkish food here, from meze to a selection of healthy fish dishes (we’ll get onto those in a minute).

To start? There’s the usual selection of hot and cold starters such as humus, taramasalata, sarma (vine leaves stuffed with rice and pine kernels) and ispanak (spinach with garlic, yoghurt and tahini). But a more recent revelation is that there’s also the likes of salmon, squid and sea bream: as a lover of all things piscine, I’m starting to wonder why we’ve never ventured away from our meaty comfort zone.

Which brings us to the starring role. There’s pretty much every kebab you could imagine here, including combinations if you can’t make up your mind. (Vegetarians can choose from falafels, vegetarian musakka, veggie ‘babs and cheese borek).

Somewhat stuck in our ways, we always order the Shish Kofte Adana, a spicy minced meat kebab, grilled on a skewer and served with freshly baked flatbread; so good, we always aim to limit ourselves to a couple of pieces, but usually polish off the lot. It comes with rice, salad and two dips, an addictive garklicky yoghurt one and a tomato-y one that’s so hot we only tried it once and, well, never again (but then we’re useless when it comes to spicy food).

And it’s pretty damn bargainous, too. Starters hover around £3, kebabs costs from £6.50 (up to about £12), and veggie dishes are around £7.50. You could chuck in a baklava for a couple of quid extra. Drinks are soft – it’s not BYO as far as we know – but panic not, you’ve got the Leyton Tech a minute in one direction and the Coach & Horses a couple of minutes in the other.

And, although it’s not really a place to linger, there’s often a sporting event on the TV, so if you time your meal right, you might even get half a football match alongside your kebab. For some blokes I know, life doesn’t get much better than that.

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