Akarsu Turkish Restaurant & Grill in County Durham

The best authentic Turkish specialty the lamb.

What a find from trip advisor. Entered to a busy restaurant but were found a lovely seat overlooking the river. Did take a while for staff to come take our drinks order. Food was amazing. Don’t bother with starters but two main and fries which was more than enough food. The meat was cooked perfect and was tasty. Loved the dips and the fries were crispy. Will definitely return

Great service, huge portions! View of the river, easy access from city centre. Friendly staff - super super huge portions!

Lovely ambiance and excellent service. The food was absolutely delicious. Would highly recommend this restaurant to others. Great example of Turkish food.

Amazing food and great atmosphere. Love the decor inside, looks stunning and the artwork downstairs is really beautiful too! Food tastes incredible every time and the staff are great. Would highly recommend if you want authentic Turkish food. Adana kebab and biscoff cheesecake are my go to.

Today we have been served by Ahmed. The customer service was excellent. He is very friendly, polite and always and happy to help. The food is excellent and very good quality. Highly recommend. Thank you to all staff for the hard work 😁

Lovely food and staff, we love it and always come back !!

Amazing experience at this restaurant today! I came with my family and Julie was absolutely fantastic. She was amazing with my baby niece and couldn’t be more helpful. She really made the experience special!! Thank you so much Julie. Food and atmosphere was amazing and couldn’t fault service or price!

I'm really impressed with this place, I have to be so careful with my milk allergy and our server was spot on and even came back to the table to tell me certain things had milk in (I did check the allergens menu first) and offered me substitutions. The food was lovely and great value as well, will definitely be back!

Coffee is absolutely horrendous!

We visited this wonderful restaurant yesterday for the first time...wow! The best Turkish food out of Turkey 🇹🇷 It was so authentic! The portions were extremely generous and the food was sooo tasty. I would highly recommend a visit. All staff were very friendly and helpful too. Cok cok lezzetli!!! Tesserkurler for a super meal!

Wonderful; great service food was terrific

A really nicely set up restaurant that had an authentic Turkish feel and nice lighting as well as a very unique stairwell down to a second seating area. The service was great and the menu was extensive enough to suit most tastes. We opted to have a Tapas style dish of prawns along with the house mixed grill. Along with a drink each it came to just over 40 pounds. The lamb chop was extremely tender and flavourful as was the mixed meat skewer and the kofta style lamb kebab. Altogether a very tasty and satisfying meal for 2. Top service also.

Had an excellent dinning experience food was great quality and tasty, the service was great.

The food is fantastic here, one of the best Turkish meals I've had outside Turkey

Delicious n authentic Turkish food. Priced reasonably. Good vegetarian options. Generous portions.

Had a lovely experience trying authentic Turkish food. The Turkish coffee certainly kept me awake, but was well worth it! Loved the Turkish delight on the side too - finished it off perfectly. The service was very good. I can see why people recommend this restaurant.

Great place for a meal and excellent welcome.good service by friendly staff.🤓👌

The food was great and the service for quick.

Great food (I had guvec). Not expensive.

Terrific meat sharing platter. The service was good. The atmosphere downstairs was not as good as it looked upstairs. We would definitely be back.

After lots of good reviews we thought we would try. Bad choice. Cold food and no apology. Very busy restaurant but without any sole. Other Turkish restaurants in Durham are far better. I think the venue attracts people because of the sunny and busy street. A disappointment as I had heard lots of good reports. 👎👎👎

We have eaten here multiple times as the lunch time deal of 2 starters, a main and soft drink is fantastic, and also available on a weekend. All of the food is fresh and tasty and the restaurant feels authentic. The Turkish apple tea is amazing!

Food was ok, the falafel could have had more flavour and after the meal I had a salty taste in my mouth that I couldn’t get rid of.

We had dinner at Akarsu. The staff were very friendly, helpful and efficient. We had chicken and lamb kebabs which were beautifully presented, absolutely delicious and served with rice, dips and salad. The portions were huge. We really enjoyed our meal and would love to return.

Very good meal - huge portions so be aware!!

Lovely food, a great selection for gluten free and coeliacs. Waiting staff very pleasant and knowledgeable. Would definitely return with family.

They are kind and polite 😊their food is so delicious and with fresh ingredients 👍

Had a lovely lunch here this week. Weather was on our side so we managed to sit outside. Service was good. The real stand out was the food though. We ordered from the lunch special menu where you got two starters and a main for 13.95 (I think! It was good value anyway!!). That meant we could get all the starters between us which came with bread. Then we had a grilled chicken kebab dish that came with two dips, salad and rice. The quality was excellent and portions were spot on. A really great spot for lunch, totally recommend!

Food was well presented and delicious. Excellent quality. Time between starters and mains was very long as was the wait to pay. Appeared to be understaffed. Couldn't fault the food though.

Delicious food in an atmospheric setting. My sister and I went there at lunch time and could enjoy looking out at the river and one of the Durham bridges while surrounded by lovely Turkish lamps and sitting on very comfy chairs. We had Cacik and Hummus to start which were both delicious served with delicious warm bread. Then I had a vegetarian Guvec casserole which was a juicy mix of fresh aubergine, tomatoes and peppers served with really tasty rice. To drink I had Ayran, served cold in a copper tankard. Our waitresses India and Elise were very helpful and attentive.

Amazing experience food was full of flavour and the quality of the meat so tender. Service was outstanding

My favourite restaurant in Durham! We had a mix of small plates which were all absolutely delicious and finished off with a baklava. The food was delicious and the staff were helpful and efficient.

Well cooked traditional Turkish dishes in a great location with attentive staff and easily on a par with its Tyneside rivals. The best chilli sauce this side of Calis Beach hands down.

Good experience, great food, excellent service. Great view over the river. I can recommend it!

After reading the glowing reviews, me and my sister decided to give this restaurant a try. First off I’d like to say the food is beautiful. 10/10. I’ve tried a lot of Turkish restaurants and this was by far the best food. What let it down was the service. Upon arriving it took a bit for us to be acknowledged before being shown to our table. It wasn’t busy as it was only 4pm. Not a single smile from any of the staff too. It felt awkward and frosty. The staff looked miserable. Once we’d chosen food and drinks and made it obvious we were ready to order, no one came over. One of the men working there didn’t even look at us despite putting cutlery on the tables next to us. We actually had to say something to get his attention to order. When ordering we asked him a few questions about the food and his replies were unenthusiastic and as if he’d rather be anywhere else. We had to ask twice for water too as we hadn’t received it. Once we finished, we fancied ordering dessert or a coffee, once again, no one came over. We observed service on the other tables and genuinely felt like it was just us being ignored. We waited over half an hour to see if anyone would come and even clean our plates away but this didn’t happen so we got up, paid at the front and just left. We did let an older lady know we were upset with the service and the first thing she said was ‘well it wasn’t me serving’ and took a bit to actually get an apology. All in all because of this experience, despite the food being lovely, we wouldn’t come back and I wouldn’t be recommending it.

Delicious food and good service. Also outside area is pleasant for dinner.

Best restaurant in durham. Friendly staff

Found some sort of bug in wine food was like rubber won't be going back found staff argent when I complained about whine

One of the best restaurant in Durham, Turkish food, drinks all of them. We were there for a birthday party, it was really funnn, everyone should go.

Everyone should go, best food in durham, friendly waiters and fun atmosphere

The food was half cooked and not very tasty,we had ordered some kebabs but there wasn’t enough bread.One of their staff was very unfriendly and rude to us,plate's and forks wasn’t very clean.

Food was awesome! We liked it so much we ate here 2 nights in a row. Sizeable portions and prompt friendly service. Great location overlooking the river too. Loved it and busy for midweek, which is always a good sign

Good quality Turkish food in slightly jaded riverside restaurant. Service was prompt and polite. The wife went for the sea bass which was perfectly cooked. I went for the lamb beyti sarma which came in a generous portion and was very tasty although I would have preferred the tomato sauce to be a little thicker. Would definitely go back

Food was unreal and Bethany gave exceptional service, 10/10

The food here is delicious, the service is really nice and the restaurant is nice in a great location. We ordered 2 cold platters, rice, falafel, spicy potato cubes and soup of the day (which was lentil).

Always fantastic and value for money x

Wow! What a brilliant Turkish restaurant! The setting is lovely, being right next to the river. The staff were very friendly and gave good service. There was a great atmosphere in the restaurant and most importantly the food was fantastic! The prices were very reasonable as well. One of the best restaurants I have eaten in for a very long time. Will definitely visit again if we return to Durham.

Lovely traditional Turkish food, friend staff and good atmosphere.

Very friendly and constructive service

we loved it: the service was impeccable, the dishes were copious and tasty. Reasonable prices due to the quality. In short, we had a great time and we recommend this place. We chose a very nicely presented dish but impossible to remember the name (the last one in the dishes: Lamb bethi Sarma after checking). The price of the drinks is very reasonable and the non-alcoholic cocktails are not super sweet as is often the case.

Good food, good experience. Great view of the river.

Only been here once but it was very good. Food slightly bland but I'm Indian so I thats probably my own bias. I think I got a mixed grill here and it was quite lovely. If you want nice turkish/middle eastern food its either these folks or leben-eats. Both are nice places. Ambience and Wait-staff also did a very good job.

My husband and I turned up -Without booking. They were very apologetic that they couldn't fit us in at that moment, but asked us to go back in 45 mins.. We chose to sit outside in the evening sun with a glass of wine whilst we waited.. 15 mins later a table became vacant. From beginning to end we had the most enjoyable evening. We were made to feel welcome, the atmosphere went with the food. Top class. So so tasty..and fresh And, having had starters, mains and a couple glasses of wine.The bill was very very reasonable. A lovely end to our weekend away in Durham.

Really good quality meals and the staff were very efficient and friendly. Recommended.

I recently dined at Akarsu with family, I’m writing to offer some detailed feedback based on my experience. During my visit, I ordered the falafel and spicy potato as hot mezze, both of which regrettably fell short of my expectations in terms of flavor and quality. Furthermore, as this was our first time there we asked the waiter what is the top selling item at Akarsu, upon his recommendation, we went with ordering the mega meat feast. However, there was a significant miscommunication regarding the pricing structure. The waiter conveyed that the mega feast would be adequate for two to three persons, without clarifying that the listed price of £26.5 was per person, not for the entire plate. This led to confusion and disappointment when the bill arrived, as the total cost was much higher than anticipated. Moreover, when I sought an explanation for the discrepancy in pricing, the response from the staff that this menu been there for six years and no one ever had the same issue. I get it, I admit my fault, I should haven’t relied on what was communicated by the waiter blindly, without reading again on how the item is priced on the menu. Written in bold (Minimum for two Persons). Anyway, the mega feast has very good quality of meat, chips and rice, while the chicken was over cooked and less then average. Thank you for considering my feedback, and I hope you get it as a constructive review, as it’s been genuinely written.

Nice location overlooking the river, good food, good service, not noisy for a Saturday evening, all at a reasonable price. Also liked the Akarsu beer

Beautiful food , great service will 100% return and try different things 👍🏻

Another 1st visit and very nice indeed. It was a Saturday afternoon, so not too busy and we had a great seat looking over the river. Food is so tasty and very filling.

Wow ... just wow 😯 We are from Berlin / Germany and are on a trip in England. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 We visited the restaurant for the first time and we have never had better and more authentic Turkish food. Everything tasted fantastic and was super fresh. I would particularly like to highlight the cacik, the fresh Turkish bread and the pilaf (turkish rice). Thank you for a wonderful evening with great service ⭐️

Wow amazing food. loved the Seafood guvec, so much fish beautifully cooked

Very friendly helpful staff if you're not sure what to order , good fast service the food is very tasty. It was my birthday when we visited and surprised me with birthday cake and happy birthday song the drums where fantastic. We will be back.

Superb food, lovely place, great atmosphere. We will definitely come back.

Been several times, had the lunch menu, every time really tasty and great value. Service a bit slow but seemed like there was only 2 serving. Will go back.

Fabulous food very large portions. Lovely family owend restaurant

Good menu with all the Turkish dishes you'd expect. It was busy but service was quick.

Very good high quality halal food. Nice atmosphere and fast service,even in the busy time (we visited at Friday evening). They also have alcohol, what is good for other visitors 🙃

Nice food with generous portion sizes. Service was fast and overall atmosphere was great.

What a beautiful restaurant. We ate here on our stay in Durham. I had never eaten Turkish food but it was absolutely delicious. Service was great and very reasonably priced. If you ever go to Durham you should try here. Look forward to going again

Nice restaurant but service was very poor. Young woman who works in there has bad attitude.

Very friendly and helpful staff and the food was delicious. Especially the Meze for two.

Lovely food a bit pricey especially with the service charge

Very friendly staff. Great quality food. Can't rate this restaurant highly enough. We will definitely be back.

Where can you take a family of meat eaters, dairy lovers and vegans and guarantee beautiful authentic food for everyone? Akarsu. Beautiful food, lovely environment and a fantastic team. Highly recommend.

Beautiful food, excellent service, I would highly recommend 👌

Simply fantastic. Impromptu lunch whilst waiting for our son at the uni. Sat at table 1 and had the lunch menu. Service was extremely friendly and on it. Food was amazing, loved it. Can't wait to go back once my son starts in September. The staff were choosing to eat there on there lunch, that speaks volumes. Really clean well presented venue. I suspect the atmosphere on a night has a really good vibe. A very happy customer

Great tasty food, good prices. Friendly and attentive staff. Well worth a visit.

All round great experience. Friendly staff. Try having your birthday party here if you are shy 🤣

Great food..and we hadn't been since it had moved .looks great as well

Simply the best meal I've had in a long time. Outstanding quality and flavour, with friendly and attentive service. Excellent value for money and highly recommended.

Edible but average over-cooked lamb and chicken mixed shish on a non-busy Wed night. Partner's chicken thigh dish was more moist.

Good tasty halal food in Durham, good portion sizes for the price and great atmosphere and service

Service was great (waiter was very friendly) food was exceptional in quantity and quality, got the 2 starters a main and a soft drink which ended up being more than worth the price, atmosphere was lovely with a riverside view, 10/10 would eat here again.

Me and my friend dropped in here for something quick to eat after a little day out in Durham and the food was absolutely beautiful! We got the lunch time special, starter and main course and and the price was so good and the standard of food was unreal. The guy who was serving us was very friendly and polite and the restaurant had a lovely atmosphere. I can’t wait to come back!

Birthday lunch with my daughters and granddaughter.Absolutely lovely food and attentive staff.Even my granddaughter tried everything.Will definitely be going again.

Visited for lunch on a Saturday, just managed to get in without booking as a group of 3. Staff very friendly, and the food we had was great, will definitely be back. Been back since the move to a bigger, better venue down the road - food still really good, definitely will be here more often.

Very nice service amazing atmosphere and the food was very delicious very good service

Food was ok but nothing spectacular. Our seating location was not fit for purpose. 10 seater corner table with no room to actually get out once everyone was seated. Going to the toilet was virtually impossible. Two guests were cold all night next to the window. When booked we were not informed that the table was in the lower floor which involved two of our guests struggling to get down and back up due to mobility issues. On a plus drinks were reasonable and the atmos was great.

Fantastic Amazimg food and Ahmed was a diamond his service was spot on 👌

Great restaurant Great food Will be back

Nice place to visit with friends and family. Good food with adequate portion size. Definitely recommend this place.

Loved it here, nice and informal, great food, lovely friendly service. Will definitely eat here again

Great alcoholic drinks on offer and the food was delicious. A group of friends all ordered different mains and every single dish was so delicious. The meat was cooked to perfection, not over cooked or under cooked. We all truly enjoyed our dinner here and the staff were very welcoming and lovely. Would definitely be back if we ever visit the town again. High recommended!

Food was amazing, service really good and a fantastic atmosphere. Staff very friendly and helpful.

This is, by far the best Turkish restaurant I have ever been in and it’s in Durham and not turkey, in fact I’ve eaten all over turkey too and this is still better, amazing place. The online booking system is easy, the staff are friendly and the atmosphere is very good and welcoming, BUT the jewel in this crown is the food, I had the vegetarian moussaka and I have to say it was absolutely delicious and I mean that with all my heart, I do eat meat dishes but fancied a change and to be honest it was nicer than the meat version. My wife had the same and enjoyed as much as I did, my son had chicken and it was also delicious and my other son had lamb kofta which was out of this world. Absolutely must visit here if you are in Durham, this place and it’s staff are a credit to our beautiful city

Previously visited at the old location and I was looking forward to returning. Sadly our visit on the 27th December didn't meet our expectations. Food wasn't hot, more warm. And then our servers seemed preoccupied while taking our order. It wasn't a particularly busy night and there was adequate staff. Yet, we didn't get asked if we wanted a second drink at any point, nor did we get asked about desert when they took our empty plates. I would have ordered 2 more drinks and a baklava had they asked.

Always the best quality and portion size

Food was lovely. The staff are friendly, but the service needs a bit of adjustment. Wrong order been served, but apologised and swapped our food. We where not really bothered as the place is such a cosy place that you simply can't get mad. Plus the food is like AWESOME. We will definitely go back to this lovely place.

We had a lovely meal at this place & would recommend it

Beautiful food, great service, lovely restaurant