Mardini in Leeds

The food at this place is the best Turkish I’ve ever had, I’m ashamed to say this was my first visit to Mardini, but it certainly won’t be the last. The chef was so accommodating when my son in law asked for something wasn’t on the menu, the waitresses were so friendly & polite, I can’t recommend this place high enough, & can’t wait to go back.

Great choices of Turkish dishes well worth trying A warm welcome, good value for all of the courses The evening menu read well too

We first visited when this place first opened. I’m happy to say that the menu has increased and we have sampled some nice brunch food. Other friends have celebrated their food with the evening menu. There is something for everyone to eat here.

I had the seabass salad and wife had pizza. Shared some chips. Thought it was very tasty. The chef is on hand for advice and will add toppings to pizza for free. Very reasonable prices so left a decent tip Would reccommend and will return!

We booked a table for 5pm on Monday 1st May. When we arrived the chef was on his own. He got us seated but did not offer us any menus or any drinks and started frantically ringing people up. He was also doing the cooking for another table, pots were stacked up in the kitchen and it appeared he was running the show alone. After 20 mins of still no drink or menus, another man showed up with seabass in a supermarket bag and took it to the kitchen. A few minutes later, he came to the table and asked if we wanted drinks. We had been in the restaurant for 40 minutes at this time. We ordered drinks which arrived promptly, but still no menus so in the end we went to ask the young lovely girl called Olivia for menus. It took a further 25 minutes for Olivia to come back to take our order. We ordered 2 starters, 4 mains and a garlic bread. 20 minutes later the starters arrived and 3 of the mains arrived 25 minutes after this. Unfortunately they had forgot to cook my meal which was a chicken fajita style dish. They apologised and my main arrived 15 minutes later with the reason being Olivia had missed it off the check and the chef is on his own. Unfortunately the rest of my party had finished their mains so I was eating alone. We weren’t asked for any desserts. In total it took 2.5 hours to get drinks, get menus, take our order and to get our food. A pot washer had arrived by this time also which helped the chef. It was all very chaotic, poorly ran and abit of a shambles in total. The food was tasty enough but I would hate to see it on a busy night if this is how chaotic it is which 16 people in. When we came to pay we gave £10 extra gratuity but this was returned to us with the explanation that Olivia had “messed up” so she wouldn’t be getting any tips. Overall with abit of organisation and people knowing what they are doing, and more than one chef, this could be a nice place to go. Unfortunately until these things are in place I won’t be rushing back. There is a far superior restaurant selling similar food across the road that far outweighs this one. Sorry but you really need to up your game and as a chef myself in a restaurant, I do know what I’m talking about.