"My partner and I visited La Turka last night for his birthday meal we had never been to Monton before and the restaurant was recommended to us by a friend, but sadly we wished we’d have gone else where. When we entered, the guy...at the door pointed to a table for us to go and sit at (initial red flag as ideally he should’ve walked us over with menus, but not a huge deal) it then took a good minutes for someone to bring menus over. We arrived at so the restaurant wasn’t busy at this point. We both ordered cocktails, which I hate to say were possibly the worst cocktails we’ve ever had. I had a mojito and my partner had a Singapore Sling. My mojito had about cubes of ice in it this should ideally have been packed with crushed ice. The drink was actually quite warm (room temp) and was sooo sweet it tasted like sugar water. I couldn’t drink it, which is a shame because we would’ve ordered a few cocktails! Our untouched cocktails sat on the table for a good mins with no check backs made, so my partner flagged over a waiter and asked for them to take his cocktail away and he ordered a beer instead. The waitress didn’t ask if my cocktail was ok, nor did she offer another drink so I just stuck to water. The staff did remove the cocktails from our bill in the end, but I think it may be useful to get some easy to follow bar specs or training manuals made, just to make sure that each drink going out is of a good standard. Food wise we ordered a sharing platter to start, which was ok to pick at, but nothing special. It was bland, dry and looked like no love had gone into it. For mains I had the Adana Kofte, which was nice. However, my partner had the garlic and chilli King Prawns which were served with SPROUTS?!? We were confused, a Turkish menu with seasonal veg consisting of broccoli, carrots and sprouts? It just doesn’t go. Maybe with the prawn dish roasted peppers/onion etc might be better? I’m not sure if this was left over veg from Christmas or if this is the norm, but it seems the menus identity is a tad lost and could perhaps benefit from being reduced slightly. Service overall wasn’t the best though the main waitress we had was lovely. We found that we were waiting a long time with empty plates on both courses before the plates were cleared, yet the majority of the staff were stood around the front door area leaning and chatting to one another. No check backs were made whilst we were eating, this is a small detail that goes a long way as well as asking if we wanted any more drinks etc. We didn’t fancy sticking around for dessert or more drinks so we got the bill and went to find a bar further down the road. I really am disappointed by this visit as it was a special occasion and our first visit to Monton, but I do feel like these issues can be easily resolved with a bit of staff training and honing in on the steps of service."
