Sofra (Covent Garden)

There are so many things wrong with this restaurant, I don't know where to begin and I don't want to make this a long review. I'll just mention a couple of things briefly. The managers are such money grabbers, it's really sad and that probably bothers me most about the place. The atmosphere is terrible and the people working there are very incompetent. It will take ages for food to arrive. The food is okay but definitely far far from the better Turkish restaurants in London. My advice is to just stay away from there.
Comment on this reader review

James
0 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Tuesday, March 05, 2013

I'm not a fan of writing scathingly bad reviews but never in my life have I experienced a worse experience as the one I had last Saturday at Sofra.

We booked a table for 10 people and were seated upstairs in the "greenhouse" terrace section which was quite nice. There was another large party present (20 people) next to ours who were a bit noisier than we'd of liked but hey, it was a Saturday night so what the hell. It all went downhill from there.

There were 2 waiters serving the 2 big parties as well as a handful of smaller tables upstairs and it took a long while for 1 of them to come up to us (understandably so as it was a Saturday and they may have been understaffed). This wasn't a problem, but what my first problem was, was the fact that they'd offered to take our drink orders but only delivered half of our drinks. It took us 5 separate prompts to each waiter (who obviously didn't communicate to one another) to bring the rest of the drinks over. Strike 1.

So onto the ordering. We waiting another 20minutes before any attention was eventually given to us. Granted we were a big group so obviously takes a bit more time to take all the orders but we made it a point to repeat and check our orders in case it was wrong. The waiter serving us looked quite annoyed by this point (let's call him waiter1) and quickly took all our orders and went into the kitchen with a huff. Strike 2.

25minutes later, waiter2 brought out our starters. Guess what? They brought out an extra portion of "Mixed Grill" as a starter by accident. We had ordered 3 Mixed Grill main courses but they wrote down 2 mains and 1 starter. So politely we refused it saying it was a wrong starter.

Now here's the kicker, he stated "well, SOMEBODY ordered it." and just stood there and stared at us. So we politely declined again and repeated our order to him and he just said "well, it's on this order pad, so somebody MUST have ordered this", again standing there staring. So I told him that there's 10 people here and we've repeated our order a number of times and no one has ordered this. He accused again, eventually after 3minutes he turned around not saying a thing and stormed off into the kitchen. Seriously...what the hell kind of attitude is that?!

So naturally we were all shocked and appalled, and I decided to go downstairs to speak to the manager (who didn't appear once upstairs) and guess who decided to chase after me? :) Well I reached the manager first and half-way through my complaint, waiter2 literally BUTTS IN with his version of the story. Again with a shocked look, I let him finish, then carried on with my story and he BUTTS IN AGAIN! I felt like I was at school justifying myself to a teacher, but thankfully the manager literally told him to "shut up and go to the kitchen" :)

After my complaint, thankfully the manager was very understanding and apologetic and offered us a bottle of champagne on the house, but he made the excuse that this waiter often had a "loud voice" especially when it was noisy. I said it wasn't the voice but the attitude which he didn't argue with.

So out came the main course after another 30minutes of waiting (how long does it take to grill meat?!) and to our expectations, the food was very so-so. I would have rated it a 5 however with the nasty taste in my mouth, I couldn't enjoy my food. Ironically, the main course Mixed Grill was identical to the starter Mixed Grill!

Scoffing down the mediocre food, we hurriedly paid our bill and got the hell out.

We spent a total of 3hours in this restaurant and I would never wish this hell-hole on anyone.

You have been warned!
Comment on this reader review

delmontebanana
1 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 0
Tuesday, October 09, 2012

I've been to this restaurant twice now in last 3 months. Once for drinks and last night for a meal. Its going to be a definite favourite of mine in Covent Garden. Wonderful selection of Turkish foods and all our choices were fresh and tasty. Goats cheese to start was very generous and then a delicious Spicy Fish stew which had the perfect blend of being predominantly succulent chunks of fish in a sauce that was enough to cover it but not so much that it was more sauce than fish!! A rarity. Added to this, the prices are reasonable and even better the staff are amazingly friendly and polite and make you feel very welcome. Turkan is particularly notable! I definitely recommend this place! Its always busy-you will need to book.
Comment on this reader review

Elaine Jamieson
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Friday, May 18, 2012

Had dinner on a Sunday evening here. They advertised a two course meal including a glass of wine/beer/soft drink which we all chose as it seemed good value for money.

Although the food was good, the portion sizes were very small and not value for money, I was still hungry after the meal.

On paying the bill we were charged extra for our drinks. When we went back in to challenge the bill they changed it without problem but made a joke of it rather than being apologetic. I'm under the impression they often overcharge in the hope that tourists and busy people don't check the bill.
Comment on this reader review

Morgan
6 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 4
Friday, February 24, 2012

Went to Sofra on a Saturday night and what a disappointment. Service was terrible throughout the night. Staff seemed totally disinterested in their customers, more interested in chatting to each other. Big delay with the food coming out and when it did it was cold. If I hadn't been invited along I would have walked out halfway through the evening.
Comment on this reader review

Neil Gold
2 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 2
Monday, February 06, 2012

Disorganised staff. Bland food. Overpriced. Not a good representation of turkish cuisine..... Not one we'l be going back to :0(
Comment on this reader review

David - View all reviews by this user
0 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Saturday, January 28, 2012

A friend and I went to Sofra in Covent Garden a week or so back just before Christmas - we'd been once previously several months ago and found the service to be very slow on a night when we were in a rush and needed to get to a show, but decided to give the restaurant another chance. Very glad we did, as our second experience was great on every count. The restaurant was just as busy but the food and service were both excellent. Waiter was attentive but not overwhelmingly so, and the food (meze) was all delicious, without exception. The lamb and halloumi deserved special note - really well cooked and spiced. My friend is pregnant and the waiter took note and gave us advice on what to have accordingly. Will definitely be coming back.
Comment on this reader review

Liz
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Sunday, January 01, 2012

Sofras is a restaurant that I have always liked, but I usually go for the Meze which was great and the reason I returned to the restaurant time and time again.

However, Sofras have changed the menu and the original Meze is no longer there. They do a another Meze which has more meat dishes, which will appeal to many, but if you have vegetarians in your party, then the meat replacements seem pretty lousy.

Also, the restaurant has become more expensive. I took the vegetarian dish (some Spinach and rice dish) which the waitress told me was great, but I thought it was nothing special. But I was missing the original Meze!

I went with friends and the bill came to about £23 per head without starters or deserts.

Sofra needs to review their menu....Also, their toilets do with a refurbishment.....
Comment on this reader review

RK
8 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Saturday, May 21, 2011

I hadn't been to Sofra in Covent Garden in about 5 years. The food was still really great with good sized portions. I won't leave it so long til the next time. Highly recommended especially for lamb dishes.
Comment on this reader review

Cat OC - View all reviews by this user
6 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 6
Saturday, May 14, 2011

Me and my partner had a lunch at the Covent Garden Branch on Thursday around 2 pm as we really want to tried Turkish Pizza (Lahmacun) it was the worst lunch experience when we paid £30 for tiny , very small just one piece of Lahmacun (hardly to see in the plate) and one yoghurt drink. Waiter even laugh at the plate. Having our maincourse tiny mini pizza took 2 minute and we left starting to looking for another restaurant to feed our empty stomach.

never come back again. And dont vaste time and your money
Comment on this reader review

Gokhan
1 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 0
Thursday, April 28, 2011