Looking at the pictures from several years back of the grill at Mangal Ocakbasi, they show chairs tucked under a dining counter in front of the open grill situated almost at the entrance of the restaurant, the original kitchen table if you will. But if our visit is anything to go by, I assume a sufficient number of diners had caught fire from the spitting coals for them to stop this dare-devil practice of allowing customers to park so close to the heat that sun block factor 50 rather than a salad was their likely side order of choice. Our table, now pushed back from the grill the width of the walkway, still however took the odd spark but was nevertheless as entertaining as Saturday night dining goes and costing scant more than £20 per head, also among the best value I'd wager.
Ahead of eating here, I know nothing of Mangal Ocakbasi, but it is I have subsequently learned, a London legend; but there again, so according to Google is Spring-heeled Jack and I know nothing of him either. To recap then, the restaurant dates back 20 years or so, Matthew Fort reviewed the restaurant for The Guardian back in 2003 and described it as a place that is 'worth searching out'. Jamie Oliver named it in Hot Dinners as one of his three favourite restaurants in London (so no turkey twizzlers here then), and even Rick Stein is reported to have done a turn behind the grill.
For those in the know, Mangal is the Middle Eastern name for a barbecue and here, the menu is principally lamb, chicken and quail in various kebab forms. Our own choice, the mixed kebab, had a bit of everything on and, I have to say, was pretty damned good. Impressively, everything seemed to be cooked pretty much spot on, nothing over or under done, a fence that many a have-a-go hero of the home BBQ will surely have fallen at. Hats off to anyone who can perfectly cook through a spatchcocked quail on such a grill, especially when the lamb chops arrive on the plate similarly faultlessly cooked. With a queue extending out the door and the grill unable to physically accommodate more meat, clearly, I'm one of the few who do not know of this place's legendary status.
The breads are excellent too though the side salad, while plentiful, fails to excite, but then who really cares, that's just a little relief from the meat onslaught which is the reason to come here and is what sold me on the idea from the start, for who, when Spring comes, can resist meat on fire?
We're seldom to be found in Dalston without a SatNav malfunction, but with a good reason to be there on this occasion, it was only right that we should try a London legend. I'm glad we did, for after a low ball build up by our friend, it nicely exceeded expectations, and genuinely, if such a place were local to us, I think we'd be there often enough.
Ahead of eating here, I know nothing of Mangal Ocakbasi, but it is I have subsequently learned, a London legend; but there again, so according to Google is Spring-heeled Jack and I know nothing of him either. To recap then, the restaurant dates back 20 years or so, Matthew Fort reviewed the restaurant for The Guardian back in 2003 and described it as a place that is 'worth searching out'. Jamie Oliver named it in Hot Dinners as one of his three favourite restaurants in London (so no turkey twizzlers here then), and even Rick Stein is reported to have done a turn behind the grill.
For those in the know, Mangal is the Middle Eastern name for a barbecue and here, the menu is principally lamb, chicken and quail in various kebab forms. Our own choice, the mixed kebab, had a bit of everything on and, I have to say, was pretty damned good. Impressively, everything seemed to be cooked pretty much spot on, nothing over or under done, a fence that many a have-a-go hero of the home BBQ will surely have fallen at. Hats off to anyone who can perfectly cook through a spatchcocked quail on such a grill, especially when the lamb chops arrive on the plate similarly faultlessly cooked. With a queue extending out the door and the grill unable to physically accommodate more meat, clearly, I'm one of the few who do not know of this place's legendary status.
The breads are excellent too though the side salad, while plentiful, fails to excite, but then who really cares, that's just a little relief from the meat onslaught which is the reason to come here and is what sold me on the idea from the start, for who, when Spring comes, can resist meat on fire?
We're seldom to be found in Dalston without a SatNav malfunction, but with a good reason to be there on this occasion, it was only right that we should try a London legend. I'm glad we did, for after a low ball build up by our friend, it nicely exceeded expectations, and genuinely, if such a place were local to us, I think we'd be there often enough.