Sofra (Covent Garden)

We went there on a Friday night (group of 3) and were seated immediately. After 30 minutes I asked the waiter if we could order some drinks please. No response. Anyway, the short story is that we had a great meal (the 12 dishes sampler, every single item was superb!) but in 2.5 hours at the restaurant we never got anything to drink, not even water! The lousiest service I can possibly imagine! Despite the food being terrific this was so bad that I don't think I can recommend Sofra to anyone. Yes, they had the nerve to add 12% mandatory tip. The waiter wasn't worth a penny!
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Werner Wingen
7 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Thursday, March 03, 2011

I and a couple of girl friends ecaped into the Sofra Restaurant after a morning of 'heavy' shopping in Covent Garden and found the same smiling staff and the same great Turkish food, much as I had found a few weeks ago when I and my daughter dined at the Ozer Restaurant..

Sofra was not only the 'great escape' but a great find too... not a doner in sight, the menu offered delicious mouthwatering Turkish food at its best... Thank you Sofra for the great food and a lovely end to the girls day out at Covent Garden
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Sara Scott
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Wednesday, February 02, 2011

My boyfriend and I went there last Wednesday evening. The service was dire - slow and unconcerned about it. I really wouldn't recommend it unless you're happy to hang around killing time. Despite the place being only half full, we were ignored for the next 20 minutes - even just to get our drinks order. The waitress seated people right next to us and still managed to ignore us. She didn't seem to be mean just hopeless as a waitress. We finally asked the bartender if we could order some drinks and despite having no customers at the bar, he acted quite put out that we were bothering him.

The waitress finally took our drinks and dinner order but then let the drinks sit behind the bar for another 10 minutes. We were just about to walk out about when the manager walked by and intervened - after which things improved a bit. We realized we weren't the only ones unhappy as other tables started waving the manager down after noticing that he managed to perk up our service!

The food was all right - we both had the healthy meal which is an assortment of meze type items, both vegetable and meat based. Thank goodness we didn't order anything 'complicated' as we'd have been there all night!
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Monica
2 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 2
Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Went there with a group of 9. Three of us were vegetarians. We all had the 'healthy meal' which has quite a lot of veggie stuff in. However, they serve the meze to everyone, and then once that was all eaten, served huge platters of meat to the table. Very tasty - except the vegetarians were each given a small mound of rice and boiled veg. Apart from not even being Turkish (when there are so many Turkish vegetarian options), it tasted awful. One of our party complained, and the waiter actually stood behind her and shouted at her, so the whole restaurant could hear. The attitude was rude and hugely arrogant.

Later, another waiter told us the vegetarian meals would be taken off the bill, but when it came they were still on there. We complained again and after another round of shouting, eventually the bill came back fixed. Of course, it had 12.5% service added, but after all of the shouting at our party we just decided to pay it and get out of there instead of complain again.

The problem wasn't the food, but nasty service. That the hot meat was brought out so far after the meze made the veggie option seem more pathetic. The raised voices from the staff made the meal change from unexceptional to unacceptable. We won't be going back.
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2 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 2
Friday, July 16, 2010

Absolutely dire service made this a meal to regret. After struglling to find a table (we b ooked in advance) we waited 25 minutes before we were even offered a drink, and only because we noticed the next table had guests seated after us and service before us. the waiting staff were rude, and tried to laugh off any complaints (as four young women we were not kicking up much of a fuss) and they then had the gall to add a 12% tip, despite knowing how upset we were. They tried to give us somebody else's bill after that. (It was cheaper than ours - we should have paid.)

The food was fine, but it's Turkish and how far wrong can you go with hummous, which is clearly made in advance in large amounts (I wouldn't expect a restaurant to make up each bowl individually). Their website also has no way of registering a complaint when the waiting staff themselves are completely hopeless.
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Sarah Campbell
1 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Thursday, March 25, 2010

Went for dinner on Tuesday 15th Sept 09. We were a table of 9 and went for the 3 course group menu at £20 per head. The meze of vegetarian starters was generous and pretty good. I went for the mixed grill for main and was very disappointed. The chicken, lamb and kofte had all been grilled as I expected, but had then been smothered with a very wet salsa which took away the crispy outside of the grilled meat. The meat must also have been marinated to an extreme as it was very spongy. Yes, the menu does describe the meat as moist, however it had no texture what so ever, it felt wet and mushy as I ate it. Edible yes, enjoyable no, disappointing as this should be the house specialty. Others in the group said the lamb tagine was very good.

The temperature in the restaurant was also way too high, it was really uncomfortably hot towards the end of our meal even though it was cool outside. Service was adequate though we struggled to get a waiters attention to order additional rounds of drinks. One positive is all the beer was very well chilled.

Overall I was disappointed with the whole experience and do not see any reason to recommend the restaurant nor, sadly, would I go back.
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James Holden - View all reviews by this user
4 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 4
Wednesday, September 16, 2009