Sariyer Balik

You know how they say that if you want to go to a Chinese restaurant, you should make sure that you see other Chinese people eating there. I’ve applied the same method to this Turkish restaurant near Newington Green… in fact, I’ve taken it one step further: first, I asked a Turkish person living in London where they would go if they wanted to have a proper Turkish meal. Then, once I’d ventured to the suggested place, I peeked through the windows and made sure that there would be other Turkish people sitting in there… turned out, that I would be the only non-​Turkish person ;-)
Sariyer Balik specialises in seafood, so if you came here craving a döner or kebab, then you might leave feeling rather disappointed. However, if you like seafood, then you’re in for a treat. I have to admit, I’m not big on eating whole fish, as I’m always bothered by the many bones. But — the sea bass that I ordered was grilled and seasoned so wonderfully, that I almost enjoyed sucking off the meaty bits of even the tiniest fish bone.
As an appetizer I had the green beans, which I thought were not so great, but I received a freebie appetizer, which was aubergine in chili-​yoghurt (Patlican Ezme) and that was just delectable… finger-​licking good!
Apparently they also have a downstairs and during my visit I could hear a band playing traditional folk music and people clapping and singing excitedly — which is probably just another hint as to how authentic this place is…
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When the person who recommended this place to me, read my review he sent me a note saying this: «The tradition is that you order around 5 – 6 appetizers before the meal with a side of Raki (similar to the Greek Ouzo) and then start singing :)»

Food was appalling: bland starters, deep-​friend seafood and extremely tired fish. Very poor quality wine served to some of our group costing £14. Small glass of lager was £3.50. Staff ignored requests for tap water, despite us all ordering alcoholic drinks in addition to this. Overall: best avoided as there are many excellent Turkish restaurants in north and east London.

I attended a friend’s birthday meal at Sariyer Balik, which had been booked in good faith, in view of the mostly positive reviews. Unfortunately the experience was a huge let down, with the restaurant clearly cashing in on catering for a large group by providing bad food, bad wine and bad service.
My friend had pre-​negotiated a fixed price and was promised a generous Mezze meal with fresh fish dishes (the restaurant’s speciality) featuring prominently. While the usual bread, hummus and yoghurt were all provided (albeit nothing special), the real disappointment lay in the abysmal fish dishes which were served.
The kings prawns wrapped in filo pastry were so stodgy and devoid of flavour that they could have only come from a frozen bag. The calamari were the same. The deep-​fried mussels were so deep-​fried that it was like chewing on rubbery bullets. The prawns in tomato salsa were of the tiny, anaemic, watery variety which you could not even pretend were fresh! I had hoped that redemption might have arrived in the grilled fish, however this was dry, overcooked and rubbery. Overall this dismal food offering was such a blatant attempt at cutting corners it was insulting.
Not only was the food bad, but the staff were shamelessly dishonest with serving drinks. One of our friends was blatantly short-​changed and had to protest forcefully to get the money back. Furthermore, the quality of wine progressively diminished as the night went on (but the price did not!) to the point that one of the later offerings was virtually undrinkable.
In summary, the extent to which Sariyer Balik cut-​corners and tried to cheat us was offensive and very upsetting. I would be extremely wary about giving them your custom.

I had the misfortune of enduring an evening at Sariyer Balik recently when I was invited to a friend’s birthday gathering being held there. For this event, my friend had visited the restaurant and made arrangements for a fixed price Meze meal for our group, and was assured that plentiful amounts of traditional Turkish starters followed by the restaurant’s speciality of fish and seafood would be served. Sadly, Sariyer Balik failed to live up to any expectation of quality or value, serving us the cheapest food they could muster and overpriced mediocre to appalling wines.
The starters were acceptable; a standard mix of humus, aubergine and tomato combinations and yoghurt-​based dishes served with bread. Although bland and generally tasteless, these offering were in no way offensive, though I was surprised at the absence of taramasalata in a restaurant that claims to specialise exclusively in fish (there is no meat at all on the menu).
Sadly, this specialism was a hideous gastronomic embarrassment. Deep fried calamari were joined by King Prawns wrapped in filo pastry; both these resembled those available in a certain well-​known frozen food supermarket at around £2 a box. It was clear that no effort had gone into these, and there was certainly no indication of freshness or culinary ability. Perhaps the most upsetting of the seafood dishes were the deep fried mussels; a truly insulting offering both to the diner and to the ingredient. They were chewy and devoid of flavour, save that of the obviously well-​used oil employed in their over saturation.
After an extremely lengthy delay, were then brought the ‘fresh fish’ offering once the restaurant had been reminded that it had been offered. Admittedly, the fish had been cooked on a grill, but was rubbery of texture, smelly in an almost comical way and again, it was clear that this was very old and tired stock that was simply being disposed of. For the price per head, leaving the restaurant with an easy total of £400 just for the food (we paid for drinks separately), I felt extremely cheated and that the restaurant had taken advantage of the situation and my friend’s kind and trusting nature.
The wine served began acceptably. Whilst overpriced at £14 a bottle, the initial white wines were of good quality, including Cankaya which is at the top of the Turkish white wine market. However, as beer was being offered at £3.50 for half a pint, the entire group soon turned to wine instead, and the restaurant very quickly ran out of the good stock. They then continued to find wines that went from poor to eventually totally undrinkable, but were in no way prepared to reflect the plummet in quality in the price with all bottles still charged at £14.
Furthermore, the service was uninviting and there were several issues with change returning short when drinks were paid for. As the restaurant insisted on simply taking immediate payment as soon as any drink was ordered, this meant that everyone felt uncomfortable as they knew that they had to be constantly vigilant with regards the little tricks being played at this unscrupulous establishment.
In short I cannot emphasise strongly enough the need to avoid the ghastly Sariyer Balik, where the policies of management are almost as foul-​smelling as the food.