Anatolian Turkish Restaurant, Waltham Chase | Takeaway review

The kids are still alive, and are in bed already, so it’s a double celebration.

A gentle reassuring hum emits from the baby monitor.

With not many ways to celebrate on the table, we push the boat out and order click and collect from a restaurant.

The Anatolian in Waltham Chase has been covered by Dish Detective before, and we gave it top marks.

It’s a wonderful Turkish restaurant, in an old pub, that’s nicely decorated with an open kitchen, open fires, a garden with a small kids’ play area, friendly staff and a nice ambience.

But obviously those things don’t matter when you’re sat in front of the telly with your dinner on a tray.

We look the menu up online – but decide to stick to the tried and tested and go for ease – phoning up and ordering two mixed kebabs.

We order one with chips and one with couscous, and share.

We pray that at £36 (£17.95 each) this is not your usual takeaway kebab.

Collecting the order was easy, we arrived at our set time – 8pm – and it’s a swift operation of paying and collecting.

The place has a car park, so no worries about stopping along the busy Winchester Road.

The staff are friendly and quick, we are back home unwrapping our delicious packages before long.

The food is fresh, and hot, and fills our plate.

There is the pitta bread, obviously hand-made and wonderful, side salad drizzled with oil, a yoghurt dip and a tomato relish.

The kebab itself has chicken shish, lamb shish and adana kebab – a long, hand-minced meat kebab named after the city of Adana in Turkey.

The chunks of meat are big and juicy, and the adana kebab is tasty and rich with spices.

There’s a lovely earthy cumin taste, which pleases the Dish Detective no end.

We are relieved.

It’s a great plate of food.

This is not your ordinary late-night kebab.

It’s been worth the trip out and the cash.

We’d love to be actually dining at the Anatolian.

But while the pandemic continues to take lives, it’s great to be able to have a sliver of normal life, safe in the bubble of our living room.

The hospitality industry has been hit hard by the restrictions.

We just hope that great independent restaurants like the Anatolian survive.

We want to be sitting in the Anatolian Restaurant’s garden on a hot summer’s evening, beer in one hand, food on the table when restrictions allow.

That’s why we are happy to be paying £36 for two kebabs, and hopefully helping this family business to stay doing what it does best – cooking up excellent food.

The Anatolian, Waltham Chase

Tel: 01489 890144