I liked Zengi straight away: unpretentious, simple, an interesting menu blending Turkish, Zengi, Iraqi and Syrian flavours. Downstairs there was a leak in the ladies' toilet, which rather let the place down a bit, but I'll assume that was a one-off.
As you would expect, there was a good selection of mezze, both hot and cold. I wanted to try most of them, but settled for the baba ghanoush and some hummous, though I berated myself afterwards for not getting something more interesting instead of hummous. Anyway, there was nothing wrong with the hummous - it had slightly more texture than many - and the baba ghanoush was excellent. I had been intrigued by the fact that the menu included two aubergine-based dips, the baba ghanoush and moutabel. The differences between the two had escaped me before now, but in Zengi at least, moutabel is a creamier version with yoghurt and tahini added to the eggplant pulp, while baba ghanoush is a fresher-tasting blend of roasted aubergine with green pepper and spring onions, sprinkled with pomegranate seeds. I'm sure I've seen the dish that Zengi calls moutabel served as baba ghanoush in some other restaurants, but perhaps I am getting a bit pedantic now... What really set it apart, though, was the home-made flatbread - no pitta bread here. You can watch the chef rolling out the flatbread in front of you before sliding it into the traditional oven.
Main courses include every kind of grilled meat, plus stews of lamb, chicken or vegetables. But inspired by the chef rolling out the flatbread in front of us, we ordered the pide - a Turkish variant on pizza, basically a topped flatbread. Usually these are boat-shaped but I was slightly disappointed to see that these were round like a normal pizza. You can get an array of toppings, but we tried the Zengi special - Turkish sausage with cheese and olives - and a vegetable and cheese version. The results were slightly closer to Italian pizza than I really wanted, but perhaps I should have ordered an more unusual version like the three herb and cheese pide, or the one topped simply with mince, coriander and a dash of lemon.
You can, of course, get baklava for dessert, and they have chocolate cake too. But I had already eaten more than enough for one day.
Prices are reasonable (only £6.50 or £7 for a pide) and you can get a discount if you book with Toptable or a Tastecard, which makes it pretty much a steal. I'm not sure whether it's useful to compare it with Ottoman Palace: both are doing decent food at a good price, but for me, the homemade flatbread at Zengi carries the day.
Zengi
44 Commercial Street
City of London,
London E1 6LT
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