Oven East – Turkish Restaurant

Have you ever played a song so many times that you just can’t listen to it anymore? Yep, I’m sure you’ve all been there. Well, sometimes I get a similar feeling when I’ve overdosed on a particular type of food… and it’s currently how I feel about Turkish mixed grills. London is full of Turkish restaurants, and my family and I have definitely maxed out on them. There’s no doubt that Turkish mixed grills are actually pretty good, but I’ve had it so many times that it just doesn’t excite me anymore! There are however, some Turkish treats that I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of. They include: 

      a) KUNEFE – my favourite dessert!

      b) PIDE –  Turkish pizza yummm! 

When I found out that Oven East, a Turkish restaurant in Leytonstone, serves hot, cheesy, TWELVE-INCH pides, that look absolutely amazing… I had to go! I visited last Friday and when I arrived, the restaurant was buzzing with people. 

WHAT WE ORDERED:

LEMONADE (£1.50)

I love lemonade… it’s my go to drink! Oven East serves Turkish lemonade called Camlica. The taste is slightly sweeter than your usual lemonade and my aunty and I really loved it.

I will definitely be hitting up some Turkish supermarkets to buy some for home. 

PIDE (£14.90) 

Oven East has quite a few pide options, which is amazing! My aunty and I opted for the foot long beef sucuk pide, which is topped with peppers, peynir cheese and an egg. 

Our pide arrived fresh and hot, and I couldn’t wait to tuck in. The dough was soft and the combination of toppings was delicious and flavoursome. I really enjoyed it, however I felt that the egg was slightly over baked, and I would have preferred it to be runnier so I could dip my pide slices into it. 

LAHMACUN (£3.00)

Oven East’s Lahmacun was great! The dough was crispy and moreish, and topped with marinated minced lamb and herbs. We added extra melted cheese to make it even better! 

SALAD

The lahmacun comes with a leafy green salad. I liked the addition of sumac, which gave it a little tang.