Everyone deserves a celebratory meal on their birthday. Whether it be at a fast food chain or a high end restaurant. Whether it be with friends or with family. For me, on the 11th of February I wanted an authentic Turkish restaurant with a soothing ambience and quiet atmosphere and Zavi opened its doors promising just that.  

 

Situated on Sidcup Road, London (SE9 3SA) Zavi was established on March 2019 and its stylish, art-deco architecture and delectable meals prove that it’s here to stay. I arrived with my parents and brother at around 2pm on a Sunday and the seats were still quite empty – presumably because it hadn’t been open for too long and is more of a late-night service.  
However, the waiters and chefs did not take advantage of the lack of customers to attend to, and remained attentive to my family for our entire stay. Frequently requesting to re-fill our drinks and making sure to ask if we were satisfied contributed to the enjoyable time we had. At one point during our starter, my brother requested for a different sauce with his bread and was returned to with an array of 3 new options. He wasn’t expecting it at all and said that he felt like it was “his birthday instead”.  

 

As for the food, it would be a disservice to settle for the word ‘exquisite’. It’s hard to find a restaurant that pleases everyone in my family, but Zavi has a menu that ranges from seafood to kebabs to salads that is sure to acquire to everybody’s palate. They also don’t stick to your basic traditional soft drinks and offer cocktails plus some other alcoholic drinks, as well as hot drinks including Turkish tea and coffee.  
I had crispy battered king prawns with a small side salad and sweet chili sauce and let’s just say that my family was fighting over my plate. For my main, I had chicken wings as I wasn’t in the mood for something too heavy, and from the presentation to the taste I was left with no complaints. The wings were generously seasoned and went perfectly with my left over sweet chili. The rice was light and fluffy and if you decide to pile the salad with some of the meat off the wing and some rice, each forkful guarantees a bite bursting with flavour.  

 

The experience of eating at Zavi unfortunately can only be understood if you try it out yourself. Especially because I only can give my opinion on one small fraction of the entire menu. Even if you were to not find yourself gravitating to anything on the menu, chances are you wouldn’t even want to leave the restaurant with it’s cosy feel and brilliant jazzy covers of pop songs in the background. I urge you to try it and bring whoever you can with you.