Antalya
Nottingham remains in the grip of the "big freeze", a cutting easterly wind and the occasional flurry of snow. So naturally on Saturday night the streets were full of shrieking women, exposing yards of puckered blue flesh and clattering on their heels between the heaving pubs and clubs. Bare arms waved from the windows of stretch limos, taunting the groups of t-shirted men who would yell, "GET YER TITS AHT!" after them. I once took a visiting American businessman out on the town on an average Saturday night and he said that he had never seen anything like it, except at Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
It was a 40th birthday party that brought us to Antalya, a venerable Turkish restaurant by the new Cornerhouse complex. It's a perfect venue for big groups - loud, friendly and packed to the doors. The staff are efficient and unflustered, manfully taking command whenever decisions are to be made and orders taken and then melting away into the melee. At intervals a young and generously proportioned belly dancer emerged to shimmy amongst the tables.
Antalya is not a great restauarant in the haute cuisine sense and it's not trying to be one either, which makes a refreshing change from some of the more pretentious new eateries in town. They have a simple formula that works - real, traditional, cheap turkish food that reminds people of their holidays and a relaxed environment where you can drink too much without making a fool of yourself.
The food IS good. The mixed mezze starters are varied and generous and my lamb shaslik was perfectly cooked with great crispy chunks of tender, skewered lamb and an eye-wateringly hot chilli dip. Nobody even bothered to consult the winelist and great carafes of house wine were dispatched with gusto. I don't normally eat desserts but at the end of the meal I found that I had walloped a sort of mezze of sweet things like baclava and turkish cakes without even noticing. The Turkish coffee was served as it should be, "Black as night, sweet as love and hot as hell" - according to the tradition. You get a complimentary rose liquor as a digestif.
Antalya allows, even encourages smoking at the table, with ashtrays everywhere. But there weren't many takers and this sort of thing will be history very shortly.
Total cost for the set meal with vast quantities of wine was £22 a head, excellent value
It was a 40th birthday party that brought us to Antalya, a venerable Turkish restaurant by the new Cornerhouse complex. It's a perfect venue for big groups - loud, friendly and packed to the doors. The staff are efficient and unflustered, manfully taking command whenever decisions are to be made and orders taken and then melting away into the melee. At intervals a young and generously proportioned belly dancer emerged to shimmy amongst the tables.
Antalya is not a great restauarant in the haute cuisine sense and it's not trying to be one either, which makes a refreshing change from some of the more pretentious new eateries in town. They have a simple formula that works - real, traditional, cheap turkish food that reminds people of their holidays and a relaxed environment where you can drink too much without making a fool of yourself.
The food IS good. The mixed mezze starters are varied and generous and my lamb shaslik was perfectly cooked with great crispy chunks of tender, skewered lamb and an eye-wateringly hot chilli dip. Nobody even bothered to consult the winelist and great carafes of house wine were dispatched with gusto. I don't normally eat desserts but at the end of the meal I found that I had walloped a sort of mezze of sweet things like baclava and turkish cakes without even noticing. The Turkish coffee was served as it should be, "Black as night, sweet as love and hot as hell" - according to the tradition. You get a complimentary rose liquor as a digestif.
Antalya allows, even encourages smoking at the table, with ashtrays everywhere. But there weren't many takers and this sort of thing will be history very shortly.
Total cost for the set meal with vast quantities of wine was £22 a head, excellent value
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