Gzing Restaurant

The best shisha place in leeds, go there enjoy it I think real shisha in United Kingdom only in gizing restaurant then they using original flavour and good service thanks a lot

Great food! This is one of my favourite restaurants to visit in Leeds. I absolutely love all sorts of Middle Eastern foods and this is one of the best Kurdish restaurants I’ve been to. There are a lot of very good choices on the menu and all reasonably priced.

Gzing bills itself as ‘Leeds first and only Kurdish restaurant’. Which, if you’re a taste junkie like me, should be enough to take the short trip from the centre of town to seek out the culinary delights offered here. Or you could be swayed by the recommendation of a friend who I have to thank for alerting me to this very cheap, very tasty little place.
Lincoln Green estate is probably not people’s first choice to find great places to eat. But just off the main road, lit up like a beacon with a bright red sign and its own car park (is it churlish of me to admit I was relieved to see the private parking?) is Gzing. The restaurant is a large room with glass windows overlooking the car park (scenic), with basic cafeteria style décor.
I’m not really selling this place am I? Don’t be fooled by my flippancy. As we entered we were warmly welcomed by the member of staff on the door, and chose ourselves a cafeteria table. As we were getting familiar with the menu, our host arrived with a couple of bowls of delicious vegetable soup by way of appetizer, on the house. I like these people’s style.
The menu features some dishes that might be familiar if you’ve visited Persian or Turkish restaurants. There’s a charcoal grill in the kitchen and it gets well used, with a large part of the mains menu dedicated to varieties of grilled meats. Ful (broad beans), hummus and ghanoush were all dishes I recognised on the starters menu, with a number of tasty looking lamb and cereal type dishes we didn’t try. Vegetable casseroles form the other part of the mains courses, with a short dessert menu featuring baklava and ice cream.
We opted straight for the mains, boyfriend opting for a grilled skewer of chicken breast, with rice, salad and the delicious Kurdish flatbread/​nan. I had a grilled half chicken, which was served with a bowl of vegetable casserole, rice and a flatbread. It was unseasonably cold so we fortified ourselves with delicious Kurdish cardamon black tea. The food was a triumph — tasty, tangy chicken that melted off the bone in the case of the half chicken. I chose an okra casserole, which was rich and flavourful. I suspect there was lamb in the stock that made it — this is not a place to take your vegetarian friend. Flavours are subtle, hints of lemon, saffron and cinnamon coming through. Boyfriend stopped demolishing chicken skewer long enough to indicate strong approval. I have a slight quibble with the bread — it wasn’t quite fresh I thought, but boyfriend disagreed so maybe I am fussy. Portions were enough that I took half home for lunch the next day.
Now here’s the really amazing bit… our meal of soup, tea, chicken, rice, bread and vegetable casserole came to £11.50. For both of us. I think I almost laughed with disbelief as we paid up (yes, we did leave a tip!)
Gzing also does takeaway, and throughout our meal enormous piles of flatbreads were being handed over to customers coming to pick up their order. Service is warm and friendly, it feels like a community, informal kind of place. This impression is strengthened by the existence of a shisha lounge and pool table out back. It has to be said that the community is mostly men,