Effendi!!!

[PapaBravo]

Five of us have today had an excellent 2 course lunch at Effendi - we intended to have 3 courses, but we were all stuffed after our second course. Paid our bill which including drinks was under 400TL for the 5 of us - excellent value.

HOWEVER, having paid the bill we decided, on the spur of the moment, to stay on and have a coffee. For five small cups of coffee we were billed 100TL - not such good value.

[sophie]

Ouch!! That hurt. A mistake surely?

[PapaBravo]

Ouch!! That hurt. A mistake surely?

We did query it and after some negotiation we were offered a 'discount' of 25TL.

[carrierbag]

Most restaurants give coffee and brandy for free after a meal. A bit of shame that didn't happen

[PapaBravo]

Carrierbag - yes that used to be a given, but I find that the practice is dying out now. Not too fussed about not being offered free coffee after a meal to be honest, but object to being overcharged.

[Bob 4]

It's unfortunate, but they have just turned a positive comment into a negative one for the cost of 5 cups of coffee. We have been to Effendi's and although the food was very nice the location was hard to find, up some back street , no outlook, no views and parking is terrible. We have been to numerous restaurants and offer of free coffee's are still there.

[Deniz1]

If you park in The house car park its free and only a short walk from there. 20tl for coffee is a scandal. Was it a special one?

[Panchocat]

Bob I have to disagree with you. Efendi is in the old Efendi house in the Turkish quarter and has a lovely courtyard garden. It is one of my favourite restaurants. The coffee does sound overpriced though. Latte and Cappuccino average TL9 in most places.

[Bert]

15 TL per cuppa is pretty good I would have said. Albeit a complaint drove it down to that price. Was it an error or was the original price correct

[sophie]

Must agree with Panochat. We love the place, especially when we sit out in the courtyard in the summer. In winter the log fire can be too much of a good thing though. Talk about roasting. ? In the Restaurant Section now perhaps? BTW, 9.50tl is getting to be the norm for coffee in a lot of the specialized coffee and cake establishments.

[PapaBravo]

Deniz1 -

If you park in The house car park its free and only a short walk from there. 20tl for coffee is a scandal. Was it a special one?

We had:
One Latte - small glass which was half full of coffee (which was not very hot) and half a cup of froth.
One Cappucino in a small cup, again half full of coffee and half a cup of froth.
Three Americanos in small cups.

I understand that the Latte and Cappucino were made in the little coffee machine which uses coffee pods.

[paul90]

In that case you are justified in complaining - they could have provided much better quality for that price.
We rarely go to Efendi nowadays because the quality and service, in the past, has often been hit and miss - especially when one of us is vegetarian.
Also they made a big mistake a few years ago when they changed from pricing in Lira to pricing in Stering.

Having said that, we have been for Sunday lunch twice recently and cannot fault the quality of the food.

[Heaven]

Whenever we have been, we could never check the bill properly as the drinks were billed in one lump sum, so we could never see how much each drink cost. Does this still happen?

[Keithcaley]

Whenever we have been, we could never check the bill properly as the drinks were billed in one lump sum, so we could never see how much each drink cost. Does this still happen?

often, but not everywhere. ..

[PapaBravo]

Heaven -

Whenever we have been, we could never check the bill properly as the drinks were billed in one lump sum, so we could never see how much each drink cost. Does this still happen?

Yes, the bar bill at Effendi is not itemised. It simply says, 'Bar' with a total.

[scaffman]

Well i am amazed at some of the comments regarding effendi. I have been many many times and every time service and food have been top class.Having traveled the the world ate in many restaurants effendi is in my top 10.If i have ever encounted a problem with anything at effendi either Amy or Andy are only too pleased to rectify .we British must get out of the habit of its not like England syndrome effendi is a fine dinning restaurant with top class chef and beautiful ambiance in which to dine in.If you were in frankie and Bennies in England which i was not long ago i really was ripped off for a terrible meal and coffee at nearly £5 a cup.So when fine dinning expect to pay a little more for the pleasure of dinning at Effendi.Oh forgot free entertainment and lovely Rachael Singing during your meal.

[Jonnie]

I go to Effendis quite often. It is NOT a fine dining restaurant. It is however a very nice restaurant with well above average food and a lovely atmosphere and I recommend it highly. To be honest £3.40 for coffee is probably a little on the high side for TRNC however for a good restaurant it is not ridiculous. I do not go there for a cheap meal I go because it is a nice place, with friendly staff and a lovely atmosphere.

[paul90]

I totally agree with message 17 that Efendi is not "fine dining", but it is a restaurant where you can get good quality meals as I mentioned in post 12.
I also indicated that we had a couple of disappointment in the past, when they did not do regular vegetarian options - although we phoned in advance and were told that they would prepare a "special" one for us, when we arrived they had completely forgotten to get the ingredients.
Having said that, nowadays their Sunday lunch vegetarian nut roast is excellent!

[sophie]

I agree, nice placed to go for a really decent meal and ambience, but FINE DINING it isn't.

[Deniz1]

8tl for a glass of Sprite.

[PapaBravo]

Just to wind up this post, if you read my original post you will see that I was very complimentary about the food. It was the ridiculous price of the coffee that we objected to.