NEW SERIES! The GOOD, The Bad And The Ugly! Best Restaurant in SOUTHAMPTON?

Ajouté : 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]Welcome folks to a brand new series here on Greeno Eats. Yep, I've got an idea that I hope you're going to enjoy. This is going to be called the good, the bad, and the ugly. I'm going to go to a town or a city, find the best reviewed restaurant, find the worst reviewed restaurant, and one that maybe's got a bad health rating, maybe he's got, I don't know, grumpy staff, something that makes it the ugly. And what we're going to do, we're going to find out if the best reviewed one really is the best. If the worst reviewed one is getting a bad rap. And you know, you know how these things are. The ugly might not be quite so ugly after all. That's the plan.

[00:00:42]Where am I starting out? Right here in Southampton. That's right. Now, this fairly unassuming looking Turkish restaurant behind me, Anatolian, is apparently the best rated restaurant in all of Southampton. 4.9 on Google, 4.9 on Trip Adviser.

[00:01:03]Sounds pretty good to me. You know me, I love Turkish food. So, hopefully, fingers crossed, this is going to live up to the billing. Come on, let's get inside and find out a bit more about it.

[00:01:14]So folks, here we are inside the Anatolian Turkish kitchen. Fairly simple in here. It's quite a long kind of thin restaurant. Seating about that's part of 100 people in here, I reckon. Probably gets pretty busy here over a weekend, too. It's not too far from sort of the main center of town. Walking distance from West Key, which is a big shopping center. Yeah, looks all right to me. The menu All sorts on here. All sorts of hot and cold starters, including platters of various different bits and bobs. You get into the main courses. You've got all your Turkish classics here. Sheesh.

[00:01:56]You've got adana kebabs. You got chicken wings, lamb ribs, lamb chops, bi. All sorts of good stuff. Even a lamb shank on there. There's vegetarians catered for here as well. Seafood dishes. And if you're out as a group, they got some big platters. 70 quid for one that feeds two to three people or £110 if you want one that feeds four to five people. Sounds like a lot of money, but if you're feeding five people with it, £22 each, maybe it's not so bad after all. Yeah.

[00:02:28]Problem I've got in a place like this. I love all this Turkish food. How on earth do I choose what we're going to have?

[00:02:35]It's a tricky one. It's a tricky one.

[00:02:38]Drinks menu here as well. And if I can reach all the way over here, there's even a dessert menu on the table, too.

[00:02:46]Everything catered for at this point.

[00:02:48]Right, we're going to get some drinks.

[00:02:50]Have a look through the menu and think about what to order. Okay, can we please order the the mixed hot mess platter, please? And seeing as we're going with mixed things anyway, a mixed kebab, too, please. And that comes with couscous and salad.

[00:03:05]Yeah.

[00:03:06]>> Yeah. Okay. And >> sorry, you want only couscous or couscous and rice? Because we put half only half couscous, half rice, but >> All right. Okay, that's perfect. Yeah.

[00:03:18]Yeah. Half. Yeah, that's that's great.

[00:03:20]And that that will do us. Thank you very much. Excellent. Thanks very much. So, let me tell you what I've just ordered then. We've gone with a mixed hot mess platter and a mixed kebab. Okay. On the platter here, we got falafel, calamari, grilled halumi, suchuk, which is a Turkish sausage, and excuse the pronunciation on this one. Cigara borei, which is rolled pastry filled with baby spinach, onions, parsley, dill, and feta cheese. Sounds good to me. The mixed kebab, chicken shish, lamb sheish, and adana kebab. Adana is a kind of the minced up stuff, bit like a kofa.

[00:03:56]Lots of different things to try.

[00:03:58]Hopefully all delicious. Come back when we got some food. I'll stick to my water for now. Being a good boy today. No fes, nothing like that. Just a sparkling water. Not just any sparkling water, mind. It says here it's artezian water.

[00:04:15]Whatever that means. Probably just means it's more expensive. So folks, what a feast has just been plunked in front of us here. So, starting off some Turkish bread, homemade here, and some sort of dippy things. There's a garlic yogurt, some marinated olives, and a chili dip here. These are compliment actually.

[00:04:37]These are complimentary to every customer that comes in. We have just here the mixed hot mess platter.

[00:04:47]The uh spinach is in someone's allergic to something. The falafel, the sushuk, the halumi, the calamari.

[00:04:56]Uh, actually, no, that doesn't come with the salad. The big bowl of salad here.

[00:05:01]This is what comes with the salad.

[00:05:04]The mixed grill. Look at the beautiful colors on there. Nice adana kebab there.

[00:05:10]The chicken kebab. It looks up. It's been marinated beautifully. And the lamb she there. Grilled veggies on the side.

[00:05:17]A bit of rice.

[00:05:19]And then on top of that, we got some satsiki here and some hummus. Demored them. So, who knows why they've got them here. I don't think they come as part of the bread thing. Maybe they've seen the camera. So, we'll probably we'll taste these or comment on them, but they won't be part of the review as such. You know, this is what we're talking about. So, I'm going to start with this bread. And look at that color on that bread.

[00:05:44]That looks beautiful. Nice and thin. A little bit crispy.

[00:05:50]What we're going to do, just rip a bit off.

[00:05:54]>> Little bit of the chili on there.

[00:05:56]See how fiery this is before I let camel girl loose on it.

[00:06:04]Not crazy spicy, but spicy enough. I think she'll try that. It'll be all right. Here we got the garlic yogurt.

[00:06:14]Can't believe she like garlic. You're fine with that, let me tell you.

[00:06:23]>> I'll keep the vampires away. Oh, olives escaping.

[00:06:28]Fairly standard green and black olives.

[00:06:32]Bit of garlic in there. We've got Turkish spicing, too.

[00:06:38]That's nice. Bearing in mind that's complimentary. Okay. Everyone gets that.

[00:06:44]with whatever they order when they come in. Right, let me get sorted out and we'll move on to this mixed mess starter. This is the hot mixed mez. We have the uh the spinach pastry here with the falafel, the suchuk, the Turkish sausage, some halumi, and calamari. We also got a dip here, which I guess is mostly for the calamari. So, we'll start with that. Oh, that cut through really easily.

[00:07:11]Doesn't feel rubbery at all.

[00:07:14]Very good.

[00:07:16]>> Get that in there. I guess it's going to be something sort of yogurty, creamy.

[00:07:26]That's very good calamari.

[00:07:29]Lovely and crispy and not chewy at all.

[00:07:36]Yeah, I like that. The sauce, it's almost got a sort of sour creamy taste to it.

[00:07:45]It's nice and fresh and vibrant.

[00:07:48]Goes very nicely with that calamari.

[00:07:52]That's a winner. Let's do the falafel next.

[00:07:56]We got two falafel here on the platter.

[00:08:01]We are falafel obviously made out of chickpeas. You can see whole chickpeas in there or bits of chickpea as well.

[00:08:10]Served on a bed of that hummus and crispy on the outside, soft in the middle. Lovely spiced chickpea within.

[00:08:22]Very, very happy with that.

[00:08:27]Try this with our fingers.

[00:08:29]You can see in here the spinach feta kind of filling.

[00:08:34]It's almost like a Turkish spring roll in a way, isn't it?

[00:08:38]the Ailo pastry nice and crisp but not too crisp that it shatters and the filling inside is tasty possibly could do with a touch more in there I wouldn't mind that feta that really sort of sharp sourness in there spinach bit of a kind of iron rich taste very very acceptable Okay, halumi time.

[00:09:14]Now, this makes your teeth squeak, doesn't it?

[00:09:19]Looks nicely cooked. Little crisp to the outside.

[00:09:26]And it's not that squeaky.

[00:09:30]>> Oh, no, it is. I'm getting that squeak.

[00:09:35]>> It's salty.

[00:09:37]soft within, crisp on the outside.

[00:09:43]>> Really tasty. Last, but by no means least, the suchuk.

[00:09:51]There we are. Just a thin little slice of the Turkish sausage.

[00:10:00]Quite highly flavored.

[00:10:03]Bit of salt in there.

[00:10:05]M. Very, very nice. Again, little bit crispy on the outside, but still soft enough in the middle.

[00:10:16]That's got the most intense flavor out of everything on this plate.

[00:10:22]That is a nice little starter. I mean, it's not cheap. I'll give you that.

[00:10:28]$18.95, but that's for two people. Okay. Two starter portions there. Easy. There's one of everything apart from the pastries which you get two each. I think that's good. I think that's good. And the flavors are great. Right, I'm going to finish this up. Then we're on to the main course. Right, then on to the main event here. You got the salad here, which is really nice. Some rocket underneath there. You got some red onion, fairly rustically chopped tomato and cucumber in there with what looks like a sort of pomegranate dressing on there.

[00:11:04]And here the mixed kebab platter with some rice, with some couscous, and some grilled veggies. So, let's start with the Adana. This is the great big minced lamb skewer.

[00:11:20]Cut a piece off of there and take a look there in the middle.

[00:11:26]That's what I'm talking about.

[00:11:29]>> Nicely spiced. I can just smell the spicing in there.

[00:11:37]That's very tasty. You can pick up personally cooked on a charcoal grill there.

[00:11:43]Camera person is making weird faces cuz I think she wants to try it.

[00:11:49]I don't think she's going to wait. Here you go. Get that in your face.

[00:11:56]eyebrows raised straight away. I think she's enjoying it.

[00:12:01]>> Yeah, you can see the the herbs and the spices running through it. Tiny little bit of chili.

[00:12:08]It's just the flavor of the lamb and the charcoal grilling that really sings through.

[00:12:15]Move on to the chicken again and see where it's been charcoal grilled.

[00:12:24]But >> I can see through it >> where the skewers gone through the chicken.

[00:12:31]>> There we are. It's cut through there.

[00:12:33]You can see inside. Nice white chicken there.

[00:12:37]Looks good to me.

[00:12:44]>> Mhm.

[00:12:45]>> Still moist.

[00:12:47]>> Great marinade on there. A little bit more of a chili hit with this one.

[00:12:53]Yeah, not dry and overcooked, which is not always easy to do when you're cooking small pieces of chicken, chicken breast, certainly.

[00:13:05]Very nice. The lamb next.

[00:13:09]And look at that. That's where the flavor is going to be, isn't it? That little bit on the outside there where it's been kissed with the flame. And look how easily that's cut in.

[00:13:21]No pressure needed at all.

[00:13:27]It's soft and tasty. Slightly more lightly spiced on the outside. Oh, camera person's at it again. There you go. Goodness me.

[00:13:37]This is unprofessional, isn't it?

[00:13:42]>> You don't see this with uh Gary Eats and his cameraman, do you? And having to feed the cameraman live.

[00:13:52]Yeah, that lamb's really soft, really tasty. Let's try a little bit of this salad as well.

[00:14:01]>> Yeah, nice juicy tomatoes.

[00:14:04]There's red cabbage under here as well.

[00:14:08]There's cucumber in here.

[00:14:13]Oh, the cabbage is pickled. That's nice.

[00:14:20]Yeah, I'm enjoying that. Get a little bit of this rice and couscous.

[00:14:24]Half and half again. Cooked well. The rice, you can see there. It's just individual grains.

[00:14:35]No clumping in there. The couscous is tasty. Yeah, this is enjoyable.

[00:14:44]Right, we're going to finish this up.

[00:14:49]I'm surprised the camera person has just got the fork and just been jabbing in.

[00:14:54]It's going to happen now, I'm sure.

[00:14:56]Right. Yeah, we'll finish this up and we'll talk to you a bit more about it outside.

[00:15:02]Looking good, though. Looking good. So, I've asked for the build while they're preparing that. Even brought some baklava. Again, I don't know if this is something they do for every customer or not, but we got some. And I like baklava. So, you see there's like a pistachio cream or something drizzled over the top.

[00:15:21]>> So, yeah, >> they look good. They look good. Let's go for this. The biggest one.

[00:15:29]You can see here the layers. Pistachio in the middle there. All the layers of the pastry.

[00:15:37]>> I can't put this in my mouth in one go.

[00:15:39]That would be ridiculous. I'm still going to have to go Python mode, I think.

[00:15:48]It's soft.

[00:15:50]>> It's sugar syrup running through it.

[00:15:53]>> It's kind of starter.

[00:15:54]>> A pistachio there. Great flavor.

[00:15:58]>> No, it's like onion rings.

[00:16:00]>> That is nice.

[00:16:01]>> You just got it.

[00:16:02]>> Yeah, sure.

[00:16:03]>> It's really sweet.

[00:16:05]>> I always find one piece, maybe two pieces is enough. Just noticed the microphone's not on. It may not have been on for one or two of the segments earlier, so apologies if the sound in this video isn't brilliant, but um yeah, I'm enjoying this.

[00:16:23]It is sweet, mate. It is sweet.

[00:16:30]So, that was Southampton's best rated restaurant, Anatolian Turkish Kitchen.

[00:16:37]4.9 on Google, 4.9 on Trip Adviser.

[00:16:42]I liked it. I did like it. And I say fairly simple inside. Nothing too fancy.

[00:16:48]The food is what this place is all about. So, what did we order there? We had the mixed hot mess platter with all the different bits and bobs on there.

[00:16:57]All really nicely done. The little spinachy felo pastry. Possibly could have done with a little bit more filling, but it tasted good. All the other bits and bobs really, really enjoyable.

[00:17:09]We had the bread and the complimentary dips with the olives, the chili sauce, that sort of garlicky yogurt thing, and a nice homemade flatbread. Everybody gets that, and again, very, very tasty.

[00:17:22]The bread was nice and crisp. The dips were really tasty. Comparing it though to our favorite Turkish restaurant down in Dorset, Merram Kitchen, a place I did do a video the first time I ever went there. They got a slightly wider range of dips there. You get five. And I think for me they're just a bit nicer there.

[00:17:40]These were good. The ones in Barum kitchen are excellent.

[00:17:44]We move on to the mixed kebab. So we had the little rice and couscous with that.

[00:17:49]And then we had the adana. We had the lamb and the chicken. All of which were cooked well. All of which were flavored very, very nicely. That was £2345 for that dish. That comes with the salad as well. I don't think that's unreasonable.

[00:18:04]What have we got there? Three drinks in total. I had a sparkling water. There was a Sprite. There was a Coke.

[00:18:12]And as I suspected, I don't see any mention on there of the hummus or the satsiki. I don't think they're part of that dip selection. I just got a feeling they spotted a camera and bunged a couple of extra free things on the table. So, obviously, you know, we're not going to take them into account in terms of the review, but they were both very, very tasty. So, what did I pay all together? £52.75.

[00:18:34]No service charge on there. uh did leave a tip obviously. Yeah, nice. Really nice. I mean, is it the best in all of Southampton? Well, I haven't eaten in all the places in Southampton, have I?

[00:18:47]>> I'm not sure it's a city with the greatest food scene out there, but what I will say is it was a very, very, very enjoyable meal. Service was good.

[00:18:57]I'm going to say overall probably about an eight and a half, something like that out of 10. I think that's fair. Eight and a half out of 10 is a good score. It is a good score. One or two things, like I say, simply comparing it to the place that I use that I think maybe could have be, you know, upped a little touch, but the flavors absolutely great. Really good. £52.75, eight and a half out of 10. Does it get Greo's green light? Yes, it does.

[00:19:30]Absolutely. Really nice. If you're in Southampton, like I say, just Well, I'm stood here by the old castle gate and it's literally 100 yards away from here.

[00:19:41]West Key shopping center, 100 yards that direction. Easy to find. Right, that's going to be it from me for today. That's the first of this new series, the good, the bad, and the ugly. You had the good.

[00:19:55]Next up will be the bad. That's where you're going to find me next. Oh god, I'm not looking forward to that. Right, we'll see how it goes. I'll see you next time, folks. Bye for now.