Mahdi Restaurant

I visited this establishment recently and I was thoroughly disappointed with the staffs attitude and the ability to get my order right. I could say the staff were rude enough to eclipse the lengendary Wonkee's.

The starters, to choose 5 from a list of 14 some were not available.

I would say to anyone, it is a place to avoid at all costs.
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John Bull
3 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 2
Sunday, October 17, 2010

Being a fan of middle eastern cusine I have eaten at so many Persian / lebanese resteraunts all over the city with all different price ranges, and I can honestly say that Mahdi is in a league of its own.

This isnt the most ideal place for a date but if you are going out to eat good food sold at a very reasonable price then you cannot go wrong. The menu has kebabs that you can find in any iranian resteraunt but also serves more traditional and classical iranian dishes such as stews, vegetable dips cooked in various different sauces. I think I have tasted almost every starter on their menu and they are heavenly, order the starters with their freshly baked bread which is normally 3.50 for a starter and 1 pound for a naan and that could comfortably be shared between two people as portions are generous at this place. Considering in most places you are paying 6 or 7 pounds for a starter and normally not even knowing what you have eaten.

With the mains, the meat is perfectly grilled, moist and juicy packed full of flavour and the accompanying garlic sauce for the chicken is heavenly, The grills are served with butter and saffron infued basmati rice which is nice but if you are feeling slightly adventourous I suggest you order your selection of meat seperatly and eat it with rice mixed with forrest berries or nuts, this makes for a much more exotic flavoursome taste.

Mahdi doesnt have a wide selection of deserts, its either persian iceream (saffron flavoured) faloodah (vercmelli noodle sorbet, lemon flavoured) or Iranian sweets which are mainly made from syrup and dough (order with tea) They are all authentic and delcious, But I think the sheer size of a desert portion cannot be good for your health.

Overall to ge the best out of this place, I suggest you go their as a group of friends and prefebly 4 or more, the reason being, it's great 2 taste a slection of the starters, as ultimatly they are the traditional persian food just presented as starters. Furthermore I think when it comes to deserts all three items should be ordered and the sweets should be consumed with tea as a fourth course as hot aromatic tea sweetened with something that isnt your boring old sugar bring the perfect balance to a meal. A group of 4 people that eat the mizxed starters, with bread, 3 different types of kebab, 2 different types of rice, 1 stew, deserts, tea and sweets will cost you about 22 pounds a head which is amazing for London.

Review is based on 5 visits
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Hammal Amiri
9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 10
Sunday, November 15, 2009

Love the food, love the prices, friendly, love the bread! :)
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Elisa
9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 10
Sunday, October 25, 2009

My husband who is persian and I regularly eat at Mahdi, the food is excellent, much better than the over priced ones around London, yes the service isnt fantastic but it is efficient, in so much that you order your food and it is delivered to the table, I personally do not enjoy waiters hovering and smoozing, maybe others do.

The comments I have read on here about "left over food policies" are rubbish I think what has been misconstrued is that if you have left over food it will be packed for you to "take away", not take away orders are made up of left over food from other diners......

The portions are very large and great value. we have yet to have a bad meal there, the only time we ever had a problem was when one piece of my joojeh (baby chicken) kebab was still pink inside, I was immediately offered a replacement meal, which having eaten most of mine quickly declined, but on the next visit it was remembered, and my meal was deducted from the bill, having trained as a chef myself and having lived in Iran I think im a fair judge of food, and would and have recommended it several friends of all nationalities and never heard a complaint from any of them.
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t
9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Friday, August 21, 2009

the mahdi restaurant is very near to my work place, therefore i have tried it 3 times, each time there was a problem with the food and i told myself not to go there again. However, you know when you have a strong desire for some type of food and too tired to travel far! so i said to myself lets give it another chance...

dont just take my word for it, go there and try their Kabab koobideh, this dish should be the signiture dish of an iranian restaurant and i had the worst one i ever had in my life at mahdi restaurant.

too add to the problem there is this guy who keeps talking about the amazing things he has done in his life and calls it customer service.

Mahdi restaurant is the worst iranian restaurant i have ever seen (infact not just among the iranian ones but any type of restaurant).
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Ali Amouzad
0 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 1
Tuesday, August 11, 2009