Durum Restaurant

The chicken wings are to die for. Great service, and will regularly give you extra Turkish delight. 5 stars!

The food here is really good, hence why they always seem to be quite busy. Particularly the bulgur pilaf it’s delicious.

Pretty decent, there’s another restaurant in the area that I favour, but I went here on a recommendation — and I certainly wasn’t disappointed!
The staff were friendly and courteous, the food was fresh and full of flavour, and I left with a smile on my face!

Food&Drink
Cherry Juice
Ispanak Boregi (Pastry Filled with Feta Cheese & Spinach)
Ali Nazik Kebap (Grilled aubergine, garlic, yoghurt, and lamb beyti)
Keskul (Almond based milk pudding)
Total
£21.35
Dürüm is not fancy, glitzy or glamorous. There is no ‘tasting menu’, no ‘amuse-​bouche’ and no one will take your coat to the cloakroom. What Dürüm delivers is pure gastronomic, authentic ocakbasi bliss, from people who love and care about food for people who love eating it.
For those who are familiar with the term ‘ocakbasi’, is just simply refers to Turkish cuisine cooked on a fired grill and Dürüm deliver it perfectly.
All dinner guests at Dürüm are laden with their delicious flat bread, which is incredibly moreish especially when accompanied by their homemade garlic mayonnaise and tomato and chill sauces.
Glancing over their menu, it proves hard to select just the right choice with 33 starters and 48 main dishes. Now this seems extensive and a large menu is always a warning sign for me because it rapidly diminishes any chance for freshness, however Dürüm’s palette of ingredients is actually very simple, with aubergine, green pepper, tomato, garlic, yoghurt, rice, chicken and lamb making up a vast majority of the menu. It is the multitude of flavour combinations that Dürüm present before you that makes dining choice tantalisingly impossible!
For starters I opted for their feta and spinach pastries, they were soft, warming delights and generous in their portioning. As you can see from the photos, the food comes with a no-​frills attitude or presentation, just freshly prepared, deliciousness.
As usual I find it hard to decide what to choose to eat, and I find this especially difficult at Dürüm to select just the right combination of fresh ingredients for me. I let my love of aubergine guide me to the ‘Ali Nazik Kebap’, a yoghurt laden, meat-​rich platter served on a bed of grilled aubergine.
Now, I must warn you to only think of venturing into Dürüm if you are ravenously hungry, because the meals are not dainty and you will not want to waste a morsel of the pure piquancy.
Upon speaking to a couple of members of the wonderful staff, you not only get a feel for its family-​run business environment, but the pure passion and enthusiasm for authentic quality that is a shared mantra throughout. Quality is the raison d’être and they do not appear to cut corners with this, with their meat freshly delivered every morning from local producers and every inch of their menu freshly prepared. The beautifully, vibrant and simple taste is the result and a taste that makes you hooked from the very first visit.
Uncompromising quality comes at a price, but Dürüm does not hurt the pocket, Dürum’s family run environment makes you feel looked after and they are truly generous in their portions and their discounting. Eating in the restaurant automatically earns you at 10% discount and the kind staff even gave me my dessert for free, which i just had to take home after hitting an almighty ‘food-​wall’ after the previous two courses. My dessert, an all-​time favourite of mine of ‘Keskul’ or a set milk pudding was beautifully smooth and comforting, with a sprinkling of cinnamon lacing the light, almondy milk.
Two people, three courses each and a £40 bill to show for it. Dürüm get it right and provide addictively delicious food, generosity, friendly customer service at an unbeatable price.
Check out reviews:

Best quality turkish food in the area. No-​nonsense, reasonable pricing. Drops a star for décor — place looks a bit tired but don’t let that stop you from enjoying their food!

I first came here because of the Unilocal reviews and have been a regular for about a year. Definitely the best local Turkish food.
You get so much for your money, especially if you get takeaway as it is discounted (takeaway prices at sit-​in lunch too!).
The veggie dishes are prepared in the back, away from the meaty charcoals in the front, which is nice of them. I always get the Imam Bayildi (stuffed aubergine), I can’t get away from it. Roasted into melt-​in-​your-​mouth softness, stuffed with roasted tomatoes and onions; simple but complex. The falafel are little nuggets of joy as well– crunchy fried outside and soft, moist centre (I almost forgot falafel should NOT be dry and crumbly!)
Dishes also come with a salad you actually WANT to eat (and I have a grudge against salads). Crunchy cabbage, carrots, radishes– no sad, soggy sat-​out-​all-​day nonsense. Plus a lemon wedge and not a cucumber in sight– bonus!
Don’t forget about the bread! GIANT wraps AND thick Turkish bread accompany your order. Oh oh, and don’t forget about the sides of spicy sauce!
Lots of different kebabs and a falafel one of course. Their mezes have bright flavours, the portions large, nice veggie selection… How can you go wrong here? Even grandma likes it!
Open 12 – 12 everyday.

Really great food! We usually get takeaway kebabs, the aubergine kebab is a favorite! great smokey flavor! Everything we have ordered is delicious.

I have a new love in my life — the moussaka at Durum. It doesn’t quite top the lamb sis but it’s pretty damn good.
They say that variety is the spice of life. Well every time I’ve tried a different Turkish restaurant I’ve been disappointed.
Durum — you just get better and better! YUM!

This has to be the best and most popular kebab takeaway in Finchley Central, and for good reason. Their takeaway portions are freshly made, inexpensive, and huge.

just go there!

This is a great, local restaurant, ideal for dining with friends and family. It isn’t too noisy so you can chat easily.
The staff are welcoming, attentive and approachable.
The décor is pleasant enough and it is clean.
The kebabs and bread are cooked fresh and are delicious, good quality with nice, fresh, crunchy salad, pickles, sauces, etc. The other dishes on the menu are also worth trying and are wholesome and tasty.
You definitely won’t go wrong with this one and since moving away, it is the local restaurant I miss the most.

Great place to get a kebab and have banter with the boys who run it. Family run place in Finchley Central and deserves the amount of custom it gets.

Really good quality kebab take-​away and restaurant.

Have been here countless times to get takeaway kebabs (I usually get a lamb Beyti or chicken shish) and have consistently been impressed by the quality. This a highly professional restaurant/​takeaway where the food is cooked on open coals as other reviewers have mentioned. They are also very generous when dishing out breads to go with your kebab and all of this comes at a really quite cheap price. My only slight whinge would be that the kebabs can sometimes be a little dry but that’s a small gripe.

A far cry from your average kebab shop!
Durum is a Turkish barbeque restaurant with an indoor barbeque, on which you can actually watch your food being cooked! You can choose either to eat in, or phone ahead to get a quick take away, with a gigantic kebab either way!

A thriving well run simple place where they are taking very good care of the food which is well above average.
Has a good business most nights so book.
Very fresh salads, well marinated meats, ‘famous’ Turkish wines. Everything we eat was very good.
Friendly attentive service and very geneous portions for those who need them.
They also offer very fast take-​away.
Inexpensive excellent value and recommended.