Black Axe Mangal is small, loud, bold, weird and outlandish. This sums up pretty much everything about Black Axe Mangal from their interior, decoration, fittings and not least, food. It is hardly the place you would take a date out to for a romantic night, gazing into each other's eyes and drowning out everyone else around you. It's casual, has the neighbourhood/local feel, somewhere for a takeaway after a couple of pints, a notch up from the usual kebab place and the music is much too heavy and loud to ignore. Usually I turn away from such deafening places, especially when coupled with a no reservations policy, but the food looked promising. So together with our usual troop of five we waited for 30 minutes for our table.
All five of us had the same goal, to try everything on the menu, unless certain things are too similar or are on the common side of food in the restaurant. We only chose two of the flatbread option, going easy on the carbohydrates, and had all the mains except for the falafel and curd.
The drinks menu is a small selection of cocktails, beer, wine, prosecco and non-alcoholic ones.
lamb offal £6.00 - a lovely spice and a cooling yoghurt but I would have liked chunkier pieces of the offal. It was very finely minced and lacked the deep reddish offal taste. The bread, lovely.
squid ink with smoked mackarel £6.50 - the dirty black, the colourful gold dust and THAT egg yolk. Of course it was meant to be photogenic but there was not much taste to the actual flatbread and luckily for the smoked mackarel otherwise, it was just boring.
grilled ox heart, camone tomatoes and hash browns £8.50 - amazing hash browns and the whole dish makes a perfect salad plate. I love it but other foodies felt this was slightly out of place in the whole concept.
buttermilk fried quail with mission spice £9.50 - seriously crispy, beautiful cumin aroma, and the meat was moist. Knowing that it was quail it did not have much meat on and so for someone who loves gnawing on bones, it was just right for me. That pale, one coloured slaw next to it, was just amazing!
asparagus and smoked cod roe's roe butter £7.50 - just by looking at those thick asparagus I thought it was going to be bitter and woody but oh wow, it was just downright tasty. The cod roe butter was rich but not too oily. It had a very well balanced and rounded flavour.
saddleback, scallop and chilli £17.00 - my favourite! I was worried that the pork looked undercooked but it was just perfect! The crackling, still attached to the meat, was so crunchy and made me wonder how did they get the perfect crunchy crackling with the meat so moist and juicy? The salad with scallop and chilli was good but with that extra dash of fish sauce was just clever.
mutton chops and kidney sizzler £16.00 - the meat was cooked to medium rare and I am going to say again, it was delicious. You have to pick up and nibble on those bones! The lentils were tasty but it felt like it was another dish on it's own.
BAM reuben £16.00 - delicious beef in a cheesy sauce, topped with red cabbage and served in a flatbread wrap, a nice bite!
Service was good and friendly. The place seemed grubby but it was not. They care about serving on warm plates, but not for the long term effects on your eardrums. A few dishes that were over the £15.00 price was a little pricey for their portion sizes. On the other hand when you take into account how the meats were precisely cooked and how wholesome the flavours were, it felt worth paying for.
Irrespective of whether you like it or not, Black Axe Mangal is what it is. I would not say that it was Turkish food but it was Turkish style food smartly paired with Oriental ingredients. It really works! Now, this is what I call a fusion done rightly. read more