Istanbul

One of the joys of being in a different part of town later in the evening is the opportunity to give the local late night takeout place a shot. I’m rarely in Portobello around midnight, so was pleased to cross the threshold of Istanbul, on the High Street.

I’d spent the earlier part of the evening at the opening of Marie Varley’s exhibition at the Skylark. Marie’s the gallery manager and general whizz at Hula, so I was joined in my visit by the creme de la creme of the Hulagang.

I thought I’d give their seafood pizza a shot so ordered that. They’d run out of donner meat by this point, so the place is clearly a popular spot.

Soon enough the pizza was with me, so with farewells exchanged I toddled along the road in the gathering gloom.

The pizza was pretty routine stuff with little beyond prawns and a few flakes of fish in a creamy sauce in the way of seafood topping. It was still a solidly decent effort and did the job, but no trees were torn up nor heather incinerated.

So overall, I was glad to add Istanbul to my list of takeaways visited. It’s doing pretty fair work and looking after the nearby residents quite ably. A couple of the local chip shops looked worthy of attention, so maybe I’ll try to time my pub departure a little better next time and give one of them a try.

Scores
Blythe scores Istanbul
3/5 for food
2.5/5 for presentation
3.5/5 for service
3/5 for setting
giving an overall 12/20

I ate: seafood pizza

I wore: skinny tie

Total bill: £7.50