It’s always nice to meet friends for a weekday lunch, especially when it’s a Friday! So it feels like the weekend has started early! Constolia has a red and blue themed interior. The walls are decorated with various artwork pieces. The dining area is quite spacious.

The staff were friendly and made us feel comfortable. We were given plenty of time to decide on our order and also we were not rushed through the meal. The waiter even put on the heater for us as he thought that the restaurant was slightly cooler than normal!

The meal started off with a cup of mint tea! This was served in a clear glass with the fresh mint leaves and a slice of lemon. As for food, the starters that we chose were the Falafel and the Sigara Boregi. The Falafel were golf ball sized spheres and were made of chickpeas and broad beans. They were very crispy on the outer but had a softer interior. The Falafel were served with houmous.

The Sigara Boregi were filo pastry triangles filled with feta cheese and parsley. These pastries were generously filled with the feta cheese. The downside was that they tasted quite salty and may have been better if they had an additional filling such as spinach.

The starter dishes were very filling. In addition to them, we were served with a big mixed salad, a separate onion salad and warm flatbread.

It was a choice between the two aubergine dishes, Musakka and Imam Bayaldi, for the main meal. The Musakka was a vegetarian bake with cheese. I didn’t fancy something so heavy so chose the Imam Bayaldi.

The Imam Bayaldi was half of a baked aubergine stuffed with vegetables, raisins and pine nuts. It took centre place on the plate of tomato sauce and also came with rice. The whole dish worked well together. The aubergine was cooked well, the vegetables were tender and the tomato sauce had a good flavour to it. It was quite a rich dish and extremely filling.

All the food at Constolia were big portions! It all seemed to be cooked fresh! Constolia is a nice place to come to for a relaxed lunch. They also do takeaway orders!

Constolia, 207 Holloway Road, London, N7 8DL

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Bakko is a fantastic family run Turkish restaurant which serves food of the highest quality! There were so many things on the menu that took my fancy. It finally came down to a choice between some mezes or a main dish. I chose a few of the hot mezes so that I had some variety in my meal!

The soup of the day was lentil soup. It was a good bowl of soup in both size and taste! I was expecting the Sigara Borek to be triangle shaped pastry filled with feta cheese and parsley. Instead, I was presented with thin crispy rolls with the feta filling, cooked to perfection and served with houmous!

The last dish that made up my selection of meze was the Mantar Guvec. This dish consisted of mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers and onions in a red wine and tomato sauce. The flavours worked well together and was even better with the cheese that it was topped with! The warm pitta bread was great to dip into the sauce and also to go with the soup and the houmous!

The restaurant was so warm and welcoming! The staff were superb, friendly and gave service with a smile! The decor in Bakko was interesting; it had lots of original items and treasures from Eastern Turkey! The wooden chairs and tables gave a nice contrast with the plants and the colourful wall decorations! Bakko also has some comfy seats at the far end of the restaurant! This is truly a gem of a restaurant in the heart of Muswell Hill!

Bakko, 172-174 Muswell Hill Broadway, London, N10 3SA

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Tas is a great restaurant that serves Anatolian/Turkish cuisine. The food is very tasty and portions are quite big. The kitchen and the bar are at the back end of the restaurant.

The starter we had was borek: filo pastry filled with feta cheese and spinach. This was nice and as there were four pieces, it was a good starter to share. The borek was not at all greasy even though it had been fried. It was also served with some salad. Bread, houmous and olives were served while we were deciding what to order!

Tas has lots of vegetarian options including numerous hot and cold starters. The turlu main dish was really good and extremely filling. Turlu was made mainly from aubergine, potatoes and peppers. It came with couscous and a lot of yoghurt. I would have been happy even if there had been less yoghurt!

It’s a shame that we were too stuffed to try the baklava dessert or the sundried apricots with cream, almonds and pistachios!

Tas serves coffees and a selection of teas including herbal and fruit teas. They also do Turkish coffee which is like a very thick espresso. This can be served sweetened.

The staff and service was good and pretty efficient. The only thing that I did not like about Tas was that the tables were very close together, so it felt a little cramped.

Tas, The Cut, Waterloo, London, SE1 8LF

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