Small, loud, bold and dark, but I loooove the food!
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.
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.