277 / 302
bite
cuisine
taste the alcohol, it wasn’t overpowering.
Finally, the Banana Daquiri, infused with
Bacardi, dark rum & lime juice, crème de
banana and fresh banana was my absolute
favourite.I could drink this cocktail all night.
And when we thought we had finished,
three more drinks landed on our table:Tad
Special, creamy and delicious with the rich
taste of Baileys; B52, with a liquorice taste
that reminded me of the strong anise taste
of black Sambuca, and Mojito, a clear lime
coloured concoction.
Tad Restaurant has a very extensive menu
with a huge variety of dishes to choose
from.We didn’t know this at the time, but
we were in for a real treat that evening.
Restaurant owner, Huseyin Ulus, helped
us choose our dishes, and even ordered
some he thought we would like.The array
of dishes that we had was a menu in itself.
For starters, we had a mixed meze for two,
a variety of hot and cold starters including
halloumi, calamari, falafel and feta cheese
filled pastry and hummus, and Albanian
fried liver, sautéed strips of lamb liver in
butter, caramelised onions, mixed herbs
and chilli with lemon juice, both served
with Turkish bread. I thoroughly enjoyed
the mixed meze but as a non-lover of
liver, the Albanian dish didn’t personally
appeal to me. For the main meal, we had
several dishes, including Lamb and Chicken
Shish, Lamb and Chicken Beyti, Lamb
and Chicken Iskender, Lamb and Chicken
Lahmacun, and Tad Special Mix Grill,
served with rice, red onion salad and
grilled onions.Many may recognise Shish as
large cubes of lamb or chicken marinated
in olive oil, mixed spices and herbs,
skewered and charcoal grilled and
Lahmacun, oval shaped thin pastry topped
with minced lamb, onion and mixed spices
or finely diced chicken, red and green
peppers with mixed spices. However,
dishes like Beyti, spicy minced lamb or
chicken seasoned with garlic, parsley,
olive oil and yoghurt may be relatively
unknown. We also had two additional
drinks: Raki, the unofficial ‘national drink’
in Turkey and Efes,Turkish beer. To say we
were stuffed at the end of our meal would
be an understatement but the food was
thoroughly enjoyable with rich flavours
and well cooked meat. This is thanks to
the Ocakbasi Grill, a special design for
grilling kebabs and meat with natural
coal. Believe it or not, we still managed to
have room for dessert: Baklava, filo pastry
with pistachios, walnut, seasonal berry
and honey syrup served with ice-cream or
yoghurt – absolutely delicious!
At the end of our wonderful and very
filling dining experience, we sat down
with Huseyin to find out more about
his background and the success of his
restaurant. His story begins in 1989 when
Huseyin and his family came to the UK. His
father, a chef, had previously cooked for a
variety of people, ranging from ministers
to hundreds of employees in electricity
plants since he was a teenager. Huseyin
said, “I come from a very humble family.
After settling in the UK in early 1989, my
father and mother worked 16-18 hours
a day and sometimes they would work
round the clock as the garment industry
was very busy in the late ‘80s and early
‘90s. My mother sewed clothes and my
father cooked for numerous factories with
hundreds of workers in Hackney.” Being
the eldest in the family, Huseyin had the
responsibility of helping his mother at
the weekend and after school, until “after
sewing my fingers a couple of time, it was
unanimously decided that cooking was a
much safer job for me and I should help
dad instead.”
Cold Meze
Albanian Fried Liver
Lamb Iskender
Lamb Shish