The first through the doors on a Monday teatime, by the time we left the restaurant was filled with families, couples and groups of friends – sharing soup and dates as part of Etçi’s Ramadan welcome – clearly, we were the last to know that this is the place to be.

Award-winning – TripAdvisor’s Travellers Choice Award 2024 and the Culinary Excellence Award for Turkish-Inspired Cuisine – we were incredibly impressed by the food and welcoming staff. There to try their new menu, the staff presented us with platter after platter of delicious food. More than we could finish and so we were very delighted to be able to take our leftovers away with us!

To start we shared Meat Turkish Spring Rolls (3 crispy spring rolls stuff with mozzarella cheese and Turkish sausage); Beef Tacos (2 crispy beef tacos filled with slow cooked BBQ pulled beef, smashed avocado, sour cream and salsa); and a Mezze Platter (a sharing plate of cacik, hummus and baba ghanoush) and all served with the softest Turkish bread we’ve ever tasted.

The flavours were fantastic all cooked to perfection, and I could eat the Mezze Platter forever BUT aware we had another course to come we did our best not to completely clean the plates.

Wowed by the starters we were blown away by the main courses, with added dry ice drama, to create a real sense of spectacle and occasion as our food was served. Chosen from the new menu we had the Mixed Kebap Platter (included köfte, chicken shish, Adana kebab, chicken wings, lamb ribs, and lamb chops); apparently for two it easily beat three of us, all alongside Turkish salad, grilled tomato, peppers, onions, and Turkish rice plus skin on fries and more Turkish bread.

We were also served with the Beyti Kebap – which is a traditional dish – rice, salad and minced lamb in a flatbread cut into slices and covered in tomato and yoghurt – full of flavours.

All the plates are so generous that it’s easy to share making Etçi Mehmet excellent value for money in our opinion. That said, my fellow reviewers and I were gobsmacked by the Gold elements of the menu – with a gold-covered Tomahawk steak coming in at a cool £200.

Convinced we could eat no more we happily accepted a traditional Turkish tea and then of course couldn’t help being persuaded to share an Etçi Baklava sliced and diced in front of us and filled with ice cream. Delicious.

We’d strongly recommend you take a trip to Etçi Mehmet at Star City arrive via their red carpet and make sure you’ve plenty of space for a Turkish feast that is full of flavour.