Turkish food is very definitely the culinary flavour du jour and Lezzet is the latest Turkish restaurant to open its doors on Bedminster’s colourful cosmopolitan streets. The interior is decorated with deep scarlet walls and a mismatch of gold and red furniture with a variety of interesting Turkish ornaments thrown into the mix. The kitchen is open and we could see the chef hard at work making Turkish pizzas; they are like the flammekueche from the Alsace region, very, very thin crispy dough with a light spread of topping but in this case the topping is highly spiced. He offered us some to try and it was delicious.

 

Although the restaurant is licensed nevertheless you can bring your own wine if you wish but we decided to stick to a couple of old fashioned pints of lager to go with our meal and very reasonably priced they were too. With a dish of cold mezze to share to start, we ordered moussaka and the Lezzet mixed grill, with lamb and chicken shish, chicken wings and lamb ribs. All the main courses are served with salad and rice.

 

The starter was lovely, the various dishes arranged beautifully, separated by half moons of cucumber and served with a basket of hot Turkish bread (which was speedily replenished as soon as we got to the last piece!). We both really enjoyed our main courses; the moussaka was exceptionally good with a nice thick topping of melted feta cheese and although I always think moussaka is a meal in itself the rice and salad made a nice accompaniment. Anyway, whatever I thought my plate was clean at the end. The mixed grill was more than up to standard, the lamb and chicken shish being nicely spicy and the whole dish enough to fill a hungry man.

 

The service was excellent, a fresh and pretty waitress who couldn’t do enough for us and the friendly chef who was obviously proud of his cooking and wanted everybody to share his enthusiasm. There’s fierce competition for diners out there in Bedminster but this new venture should do well, coupling their fair prices with good food, and a most welcoming atmosphere. Speaking of the price, they don’t take credit cards (but I assume they may do in the future) which was a surprise but luckily after rifling through pockets and searching the unplumbed depths of the bottom of my bag we made up the total.