Restaurant Review: Meze Mangal, Brockley

Mixed meze and garlic prawns

I've been looking for a reason to visit Meze Mangal since their renovation at the end of last year. Having good friends John and Natacha in town was the perfect excuse to have a catch up over dinner.

Gone are the days, 10 years ago, when I originally moved to Brockley and you could drop in to Meze Mangal any time and they'd find you a table. Even on a Wednesday night they were packed and it was a good job that we'd booked as we had the last table in the expanded restaurant.

After some incredibly indecisive perusal of the menu we decided to go with the classics and it was the mixed meze (£16 for two) to start with. The prices may have gone up over the years, but it is still an enormously generous starter.

The mixed meze comes with a taster of (nearly) all the cold starters on the menu and you choice of a hot starter too. The humus, aubergines and acili ezme are always a favourites.

Mixed grill

Our second classic of the night was the karisik kebab / mixed grill (£16.50). The smokey flavours that they achieve on the charcoal grill are fantastic. The adana (minced lamb skewer) is my favourite and the smokey flavour even had me tucking into the kidney. And you can't forget the piece of bread they place underneath the meat to soak up all of the juices.

Over estimating our appetites we also ordered the vegetarian guvec (£10), a mix of aubergine, onions, mushrooms and garlic, topped with cheese and baked in the oven.

Vegetarian Guvec

The expansion Meze Mangal has meant you are no longer seated so close to the grill or wood fired oven and the place as lost a bit of theatre as a result. However, they are still rocking the old smokey flavours, which is a good thing in my book.

All of the pics were taken on my phone, explaining the somewhat dodgy quality.

Meze Mangal

245 Lewisham Way

London 

SE4 1XF