Efes Restaurant (Whitechapel)
The restaurant dates itself to 1974, which puts it on this corner about a decade before the Dalston ocakbasi wave that Londoners now think of as the city's Turkish grill tradition.
Why go
It sits at 1 Whitechapel Road, at the southern end of Brick Lane, and it is full most of the time. Jake Missing, reviewing it for The Infatuation, called it a Turkish institution
doing seriously good meats and salads
and almost permanently busy and buzzy
(The Infatuation). The ordering shape is a table one: cold meze and warm bread to open, then a mixed grill to share. The venue's own site says 1974 and very little else, so what follows is what can be established rather than what a longer file would carry.
Order this / avoid
- Order: cold meze with enough warm bread to finish it, then a mixed grill for the table. Lamb shish if you are ordering for one.
- Avoid: expecting close attention when it is full, which is most of the time. Missing's line is that you should not "expect the most attentive service in the world."
What locals & experts say
- Jake Missing, The Infatuation (14 June 2018): a
Turkish institution
withseriously good meats and salads
,almost permanently busy and buzzy
. He leaves it unrated and flags the service as the trade-off for the room being that busy.2 - The venue, on itself: established 1974, offering an
authentic Turkish dining experience
. A first-party claim about a date, recorded as one.1 - Almost nothing else exists. A restaurant that has traded for fifty-two years has produced one reachable bylined review. That is worth stating rather than filling with a listicle.
Good to know
- Where: 1 Whitechapel Road E1 6TY, at the Brick Lane end.
- Timing: noon to 10pm Monday to Thursday, noon to 11pm Friday and Saturday, noon to 9pm Sunday.
- Booking: by phone, and worth doing at a weekend.
- Sites: three London businesses trade as Efes and they are not related for our purposes. This page is 1 Whitechapel Road. Efes Lahmacun & Pide at 74 Whitechapel High Street is a separate premises with its own food-hygiene record. Efes Restaurant & Bar in Fitzrovia is a third business, and none of its coverage is used here.
- On the ocakbasi question: the saved list files this as a Turkish ocakbasi, and nothing reachable establishes a live charcoal grill set into the counter. Until that is confirmed, the entry says Turkish grill house and claims no city signature.
- Hygiene: FSA rating 5, inspected 29 May 2025, clean fives across all three components.3
Verdict
could-visit — Go if you are at the Whitechapel end of Brick Lane and want a Turkish grill that has been there longer than almost anything around it. The venue dates itself to 1974, which is fifty-two years on one corner, and Jake Missing writing for The Infatuation called it a Turkish institution with 'seriously good meats and salads', kept 'almost permanently busy and buzzy'. His warning is the practical one and it follows from the first part: when a room is that full, 'don't expect the most attentive service in the world'. It sits at could-visit rather than higher for an honest reason: half a century of trading has produced exactly one bylined review that anyone can reach, and it is eight years old and nobody scored it. Longevity is never the basis on its own, and there is not much else on the file yet.