Turkish Delight

Turkish Delight is simply a wonderful place to enjoy great food with wonderful service.

Turkish Delight has long been a Chorlton mainstay (30 years & counting, including a National Kebab Shop Award). However, despite having spent a lot of time in Chorlton, it’s only in the last year that I’ve got around to visiting. And having broken that duck, I haven’t stayed away.
I’ve not had takeout yet, but each time I’ve been to the restaurant section, it has been a treat. The food has been great and the service too. As I normally drive, I haven’t really explored the drinks menu but a Vedett always hits the spot.
On my last visit (Saturday 18^th), my girlfriend and shared some hummus & pitta as a starter and ordered the Lux Karisik Izgara for main. The Lux is a platter of lamb chops, chicken breast, fillet of lamb, chicken pieces and donner meat, served with rice, flat bread along with yoghurt and chilli sauces. It is for 2 people and costs £29.95 (in total).
The meat was delicious and we were so stuffed that there was still some left at the end (highly unusual for me!) as there was physically no space left no put it. I think I might still be full now: o

Had a takeaway last night, previously eaten in the restaurant. I had a big falafel and hellim cheese (turkish halloumi) wrap which was really tasty and reasonable for £4.80. Also shared some filo pastries with spinach and soft cheese which were pretty good. The service was friendly and quick. The restaurant is worth going to too.

This is a tough one.
This has always been out top takeaway choice. If we have ever had an evening where we really wanted to be decadent and throw caution to the wind, then this is where we would get our food from. The kebabs are just the best. If it was purely on this experience then I wouldn’t hesitate to give this place 5 stars.
But then I came here for a meal…
I had been telling people how good the kebabs were from here, so it was a natural progression to go eat here. We ordered the shared starters, which were ok. just ok. it was a collection of 9 thali like dishes with pitta bread to dip and scoop with. A lot of the dips didn’t taste of anything. One of the dishes was a slice of lemon. A SLICE OF LEMON.
For main I chose one of the most popular dishes on there, the mixed kebab. Now we are talking! But it wasn’t quite right… It was a piece of tortilla folded into quarters under a pile of meat, covered in some sort of juice. We debated this round the table. We think it was bean juice. It didn’t add to the flavour. The meat was good, but it wasn’t the same.
If it wasn’t for the takeaway saving this place, I’d have given it 1 star. But it does, so bang in the middle.

We had a bit of a lad’s night out in Chorlton recently and decided to hit Turkish Delight for some food. I always liked the kebabs from the Take Away there and have been wanting to check the restaurant bit for a while.
Slightly disappointing is how I would describe that experience. The food was OK, interesting flavours and well cooked, at least for me. But those couple of thin grilled lamb steaks and rice is just not worth £15.
Service was good, smiles not always genuine but I put that on the account of the fact that the Friday night crowd is not expected to be the most behaved.
Decent beers available from Belgium which is a plus too. I wouldn’t venture on the wine though personally.
So to resume, we had a good time, decent food but we wouldn’t eat in the restaurant again I don’t think. It’s just not value for money.

First and foremost, I don’t like writing negative reviews. I haven’t written many negative reviews, but a negative review is necessary when I smiled through gritted teeth every time the waiter asked if everything was okay. In all honesty, if I wasn’t with friends I would’ve walked out the moment I saw the main. But being british, it’s uncouth to complain amongst friends (although one did give me the eye that he was thinking exactly the same thing), so I sat there and ate it. I guess you can’t really have your anecdote on the worst food you’ve had in Manchester without completing the meal.
It started off one Saturday afternoon, and the decision was made to go to Turkish Delight kebab shop. I was already apprehensive about going to a kebab shop, it’s always been the uglier side of british tradition for me, but my friends insisted this was a «proper» kebab place that had a nice restaurant bit. So I went along with it, afterall, this is Chorlton! It may not be Didsbury, but it has its fair share of young professionals wanting trashy food presented in expensive ways.
First up was the Lux meze to share. The pastry parcels were okay, can’t go wrong with a bit of goats cheese and filo pastry (even Iceland can’t screw that up). The meatballs had that dense processed taste, as if they had been compacted in a car crusher, and were covered in a gelatinous sauce that didn’t really taste of much but had a deep red colour so I can only assume was meant to be tomato flavoured. The rest of the meze were cold things that were pretty bland for the most part. Green beans and other beans (canellini?) were okay but the best of a bad bunch. The salsa was utterly tasteless. The hummus was okay, but overly garlicy and too runny. None of it really had the quality of restaurant food, it was typical stuff that had been hanging around the larda and could be chucked on top of pitta bread.
Then came the kebab. I had chosen the Iskender kebab, which is a «special» and includes various kinds of meat. Being in a restaurant I expected some sort of presentation, but this is laughable. One half of the plate was taken up by a load of meat dumped on top of a folded pitta bread, with the lack of attention that can only be given by apathetic kebab shop staff. The other half of the plate had a swizzle of a non-​descript brown sauce — that’s their idea of restaurant presentation!!! Oh, and a grilled cherry tomato that had half its skin hanging off. The whole plate looked like someone’s parody sketch of Masterchef. In all honesty, I don’t really care about presentation if the food’s good and honest, but don’t put things on the plate that clearly don’t belong there.
So how was the meat? Well, the sliver of lamb fillet was tasty with a decent chargrill smoky flavour. The rest was abysmal. I had never had a doner kebab before, but I’ve just discovered I don’t like them. There was a shami kebab, which had the same weird texture as the meatballs of the starter. The chicken was polluted with a sauce that can only be described as a can of cheap baked beans drained of the beans. I scraped off as much sauce as I could, but it didn’t taste of an awful lot other than the sickly sweet remnants of sauce that clung on for dear life.
One of my friends defended the meal, but he had the good fortune of ordering just the lamb fillet. In one way, he was the lucky one, but in another, he was missing out in that bond that can only come from friends realising they’ve all made the same hideous mistake.
Being a restaurant I was hoping for kebabs that clearly had the quality there, but it was just like any other greasy kebab shop, placed on some nice plates for which £15 is served. Yes, that one course is worth £15!!! I could cry just thinking of all the great food in Manchester for less than £15. The entire meal cost me just over £20 for two courses and a lemonade.
This place really has dumbfounded me. A kebab shop cannot provide a few chairs and nice plates and expect to charge £15 for a trashy kebab. There appeared to be absolutely no relation between the price and the product. I can only imagine the owners glanced at other restaurant menus and noticed all the mains are about £15, then remembered they had some space out back for some chairs where they too could charge £15. What’s in the menu isn’t important, all that is important is that everything must cost about £15, because that’s what restaurants do!
Avoid, or just get a kebab from the front of shop, it’s probably a third of the price.

Let’s get the admission out of the way first: I’d never eaten a doner kebab before in my life.
So it was with some trepidation, but mostly an extreme urge for meat, that I found myself in Turkish Delight with four mates, ordering what became the ‘poshest’ looking doner I’ve ever seen. (This review is of the restaurant, not the takeaway).
We all shared Lux Mezes for starters, which were a selection of eight small dishes (the ninth was a lemon slice) — some were very good, the rest so-​so. For me, they didn’t compete with the likes of Alexandros Greek Restaurant’s meze offering (
).
The service was also very good, taking extra drink orders and bringing more pitta bread (FYI the Efes beer was lovely, not too ‘gassy’).
For mains, three of us opted for the Iskender Kebab which comprised plenty of meat rested on a large pitta bread and partially covered with a tomato sauce. The grilled fillet of lamb, chicken breast and minced lamb were all ok, but I just couldn’t like the doner meat. Strangely I found myself wanting some salad with it but it came without, a veritable meat-​mountain.
So it was a satisfactory experience, but not amazing, and at £14.50 for a kebab, you’d definitely insist on it being amazing.

Some genuinely awesome kebabs get eaten here! This is Turkish food done well. In the last few years they’ve gone a bit more modern with the restaurant food presentation, which isn’t to my tastes, but it’s cool that they’re thinking at least. Outstanding Donner, all the meats are great quality. Pricey, but value for what it is. Don’t go looking for Indian style kebabs here, it’s a different but amazing thing. Get Yufka.

Straight off the bat, this is only based on the takeaway side of Turkish not the sitting in part.
Turkish Vs Panicos… Panicos Vs Turkish… You’re across the street from each other, of course everyones going to be comparing you against each other.
And it’s a difficult comparison. But I think I lean more towards panicos. But this would be swung by my ordering preferences. And what’s awesome is because they are both good at what they do, neither can afford to slack off with competition mere feet away, whihc is always going to be good for the customer
Turkish is good, I’m a big fan of what they do with their sides, though I’m not so keen on their Halloumi options, and sides are important. But I don’t think their meat is ‘as’ good as Panicos, though their naan bread is better.
I feel like one of the two needs to offer one of their daughters to cement an alliance between them so I didn’t have to make such decisions.

I ran into Turkish Delight on the way home from my book club as we hadn’t had any dinner and their kebabs are to die for.
This place looks like a take away with a few tables out on the pavement and a counter inside. However don’t be fooled as if you push on further through the double doors at the back of the take away section you will find a lovely restaurant space where you can sit and eat in. The menu is full of delicious grilled meats with lots of options for extra sides. We first went in a few years ago for a friend’s birthday and when we asked the waitress what was good she simply said ‘meat’. They then produced the largest platter of mixed meat we had ever seen between 5 of us.
Head over and order the ‘meat’ it’s amazing. I can also recommend the moussaka if you want a few carbs to broaden your experience.
In terms of take away a kebab on naan with everything on it is fantastic. I drove ours home and after 20 minutes they were still perfect. I just wish they would open a branch in Sale!

I actually met one of the ‘chefs’(?) who was living in a house backing on to our alleyway (might still be there for all I know) and he was a really nice bloke.
That’s kind of tangential, so back to the review.
If we ever do the «70s /​80s TV series + Beer + Kebab» nights, then Turkish delight is where we go to get our kebabs.
Yes, they are perhaps on the slightly pricey side, but, they don’t skimp on volume, which, as I’m sure you can understand, within the context of the evening I have just described, is paramount.
«Taste is everything» works well for me when referring to Turkish Delight; the food is great tasting and you never feel cheated for flavour in the same way as I noted about quantity.
«So, why are you only giving four stars?» I hear you ask me.
Solely on price. Genuinely, how much does a pitta, some salad and the kebab meat cost? Plus Overheads, rent, wages etc. I still feel they are a little on the expensive side. That said, we won’t be going anywhere else for our kebabs.

This is the best meal of my life *Burp* — exactly what I said after I demolished this huge chunk of tender, succulent and juicy lamb. I am extremely jealous of the Chorltonites now because its unfair to have such a ridiculously good restaurant in their hood. Even while writing this review I can remember the taste and flavor of my lamb that is how good the food was. The front of the restaurant is a take away so even if you are in a hurry you can experience their amazing food.
The service was fast and really good, our waitress was very friendly and she is the one who suggested me the dish I had. It was lamb on bones served in a red sauce with tomato, garlic and potatoes (yummm). My companion went for a char grilled chicken dish and even that tasted delicious. At the end of the meal they were in no rush to give us the bill and ask us to get out (like a lot of places do). The bill also came in a little wooden box (love these personal touches). The price was moderate and they also have a good list of wines on their menu.
Verdict: Can’t wait to go back again!!!

I’ve known Turkish delight literally for decades now. When I first went there, I thought they were the best kebabs I’d tried. 20 years later on I still do.

Turkish Delight has some seriously delicious food. Opt for the takeaway, though, because this place is not value priced. I think we ended up spending about £10 per person for our takeaway. Service was patient and friendly (and this is an American talking, we have high standards for that sort of thing!). The chickpeas and spinach were amazing, and the cold bean salad as well. Both the spinach and the bean salad were lemony and bright in a way that was lovely and surprising. Everyone else in my group loved their food, too. Also, I’ve taken a few food safety courses in my time, and I was thrilled to see that they seemed to be following best practices, even in ways that a casual observer might not notice. It was nice to eat with confidence.
My main gripe is that portion sizes were very inconsistent. One item was about three times the size we were expecting, which several of us would have split if we had realized. We had intended to share another item, which from the menu description and price seemed substantial, but that became awkward because there was very little. Those things were ordered by other people so I’m not 100% sure what they were. My recommendation is that you ask them to hold up the container they are planning to fill with your selection, before you commit to it. Also, don’t order over the phone until you know what you’re doing. They had an item called Russian Salad that looked good on the menu, but extremely unappetizing in person (though maybe I should have tasted it before I decide it’s awful)
I was also irritated that our takeaway containers were not all closed properly, so there was a lot of leakage in the bag. None of these issues is bad enough to deduct a star, though! The food and service were way too good to let such minor bumps get in the way.
I have only had Turkish food a handful of times, and at this place I only ordered types of food that I had never eaten anywhere before, so I didn’t get a chance to do a comparison. I’ll update this review after my next visit, when I’ve tried something more familiar, like hummus.

I’ve been dining at Turkish Delight for many years, and it’s always been a favourite of mine.
It’s a pleasant environment, with an unassuming décor of white walls, hung with Turkish artwork, including attractive silk rugs. The lighting is at a pleasantly low level, creating an ambience of informality and intimacy. One thing I like about this place is its unheralded location behind the takeaway, giving you the feeling that it’s your own hidden gem; a secret place, frequented only by those in the know, rather like a dining equivalent of a prohibition-​era speakeasy.
The food is consistently good, supplied in generous portions, and in the past offered with simple yet appetising presentation. For this reason I was surprised on this latest occasion to see a change to the way the dishes were served. It seems that Turkish Delight has gone all nouvelle cuisine.
One of the things I’d always found appealing about this restaurant was the attractive yet unpretentious presentation of its food. On this occasion my meal was artistically moulded, presumably with the use of a small bowl, into a precarious stack of doner kebab meat. The mixed grill items were laid on top of each other like the corner joints of an American frontier log cabin, and the plate drizzled with the tiniest arty trails of sauce imaginable. I expect that many discerning diners will no doubt find this modernistic arrangement appealing and spot on trend. For me though it wasn’t to my personal aesthetic taste. It looked pretty enough, but I couldn’t help feeling that the presentation clashed uneasily with the food genre. Kebabs are hearty fayre, and the amount of sauces applied to the dish should be the choice of the diner, as has been the case in the past. If I’m honest, I have to say that one gripe was that the sauces were so nice, I wanted enough to go with the considerably sizeable amount of meat on my plate. I didn’t find a drizzle adequate. It would have liked it if additional ramekins of the sauces had been supplied to the table for diners to apply, according to personal preference.
Surprisingly, in a departure from the norm, service on this occasion was not the greatest. The staff were polite when taking our order on arrival, but unfortunately less than attentive thereafter. We had to ask twice for a jug of water, and when it eventually arrived, it was actually three glasses of water instead. We observed a number of other diners also having to make several attempts to attract the attention of the waiting staff in order to ask for items missing from their order, and to ask for extra drinks. This has not been the case on other visits there however, so I put it down to a hiccough.
An issue which was mildly amusing and quirky, but at the same time a bit of a trial was the fact that we had the wobbliest table imaginable, and also the plates slid around all over the table top as if they were served on an ice rink. It was quite a challenge chasing our chinaware around in order to eat our meals! The placement of mats under the crockery would easily remedy this.
It was a shame that the cosy downstairs dining area wasn’t open. Seating in this snug jewel of an environment has only ever been offered to us on one visit, which is frustrating because we absolutely love that room. I assume that it’s only open when the restaurant is busy, but it would be great to have the choice. I’d choose downstairs every time.
I can’t fault Turkish Delight for the size and quality of their meals. I had the Iskender Kebab this time, which is basically a bit of everything, rather like a mixed grill. Unnecessarily trendy presentation aside, the dish was fabulous, and every meal I’ve had there has been so. I’m especially fond of the filo pastry parcels of soft cheese and fresh parsley. Turkish Delight serve what are without doubt the best kebabs I’ve tasted, both in the restaurant and the takeaway, and the ingredients are always very obviously fresh and of high quality. I always like eating establishments where the kitchen is on clear display, as is the case here. You can see how good the raw ingredients are, as well as the standards employed in preparation and cooking.
In the past I’ve always had excellent service here, so I’m giving the restaurant the benefit of the doubt and putting this visit down to a glitch. The presentation is only a matter of my own personal preference, and the availability of the downstairs area no doubt due to practical restrictions. Therefore, on balance, I would have no hesitation in recommending Turkish Delight to dinersjust be prepared to ask for more sauce. :)

Behind a secret door, at the back of one of the finest takeaway kebab houses in the North, is a hidden gem of a Turkish restaurant. Recently expanded into the basement and redecorated tastefully throughout, Turkish Delight is a great little family restaurant serving superb Turkish food at reasonable prices. Not many restaurants expand during a recession, so TD’s continued success is testament to the food, the service and the friendly atmosphere. And all this despite the average passer by hardly knowing there was a restaurant there!
The main course menu is somewhat limited — every type of kebab, plus other meat and fish dishes — but everything is top drawer. And besides, you’ll be agonising over which of the many delicious starters to try to worry too much about your choice of main. The service is extremely friendly — you can see that the family behind the business cares about its reputation.
If you haven’t got the time to stay for a restaurant meal, then do at least try their takeaway. You’ll never want to eat a donner kebab anywhere else after you’ve tried one at Turkish Delight.

Majestic — one of the best things about living in Chorlton is this place. Equally good as takeaway or as eat-​in. I chose this place for my 30^th birthday, as it never disappoints.
I wish they offered some higher quality wines, although the ones they have are passable. Don’t go for the wine though, go for the grilled meat. Efes beer washes them down nicely enough.

This is better than your average takeaway. Turkish Delight is actually a restaurant too, and extremely popular with Chorltonians and visitors. The front of the restaurant encompasses the Turkish takeout and once inside the eatery is cosy, welcoming and comforting.
As well as friendly service there are little touches that make a visit worthwhile, such as the treasure trove the bill comes in with its little Turkish Delight sweets in it. The food is top notch too — meze and falafel in abundance, always a favourite of mine, and deep fried filo parcels stuffed with spinach and feta being regular choices where I’m concerned. With daily fresh preparations (even to the extent of mincing their own meat for the kofta) everything tastes healthy and vibrant and the décor complements the food perfectly.
The prices are so fabulously reasonable that you can’t ignore this place, it’s too good. They’re even open at lunchtimes too which enables you to eat twice as much from here should you want to! Turkish or otherwise this is certainly a Delight to be reckoned with.

This is without a doubt Chorlton’s most popular takeaway. My Hungarian friend loves it, although she calls it Turkish Daylight. I suppose that’s a reasonably apt name for it, as it is one of those rare takeaways that you could actually visit in the daylight rather than when you are so intoxicated that you cannot even see what you are eating.
Unlike Alison, I have never been to the restaurant part of this establishment. Although I’ve heard very good things about it, it just seems a little bit weird eating in the backroom of a takeaway in a room you can’t see from the outside. The lunchtime offers seem especially good at around £8.95 for 2 courses and coffee.
However, the fact that the takeaway was born in the same year as me (1985) and the fact that a guy I know who used to work in the takeaway is actually Turkish and would bring home a kebab for his own dinner, shows that they’re doing something right. The takeaway is busy 7 days a week at lunchtime and in the evenings. Being a veggie and having only had chips from this takeaway I feel that I’m missing out somewhat, as many will claim that Turkish Delight do the best kebabs *ever*.

There are many things I miss about Chorlton now that I no longer live there — and Turkish Delight is pretty much at the top of the list.
This unassuming little takeaway serves up what are arguably the best kebabs in the whole of South Manchester. Be they shish, donner, or lightly spiced mince meat patties, when slowly cooked over a charcoal grill, topped with houmous and fresh salad and stuffed into wonderfully soft, doughy home made bread, they become an amazing taste sensation — even more after you’ve consumed a couple of pints of tasty beer in one of the local bars. Best of all, the meat is all halal and it’s all cooked fresh to order. If you’re vegetarian, I can also highly recommend the Borek which are small filo pastry parcels stuffed with spinach and feta cheese before being deep fried.
If you fancy more of a sit down meal, Turkish Delight has a restaurant attached to it at the back which serves an eyewateringly large array of mezze, kebabs and other Turkish delights. They also have an excellent and very reasonably priced wine list for you to wash your meal down with. All in all, it’s a great little takeaway — one that more people on Qype should be raving about!