Pivaz is situated in the heart of Epping Forest, on a very pretty high street and is the renowned for it’s luxury and decadent interiors and boasts authentic Turkish chefs cooking traditional dishes with a modern twist. My dinner partner, Nelly and I were lucky to dine in Pivaz Epping but the group also have restaurants in Hackney and will be opening one in Brentwood soon.
As soon as you enter the building you are struck by the quality and opulence of the décor, it was simply stunning. We were shown to the VIP booth by a warm and welcoming front of house staff member and we were offered the drinks menu from a very friendly waitress. The booth was beautiful, with plush red velvet seating and matching curtains. The whole restaurant is based on a vintage theme with marble tables and bespoke lighting; and the atmosphere was very relaxing with soft lighting and gentle music.
Our waitress brought us a bottle of Voss water and talked through the menu with us and recommended some dishes. The menu was very intriguing, with a lovely selection of courses, consisting of traditional Turkish dishes, hot and cold starters, grills, steaks, seafood and specials.
We started with hummus and pitta bread, stuffed vine leaves and grilled prawns. The hummus was gorgeous, creamy in texture and full of flavour and the pitta soft and fresh; this ended up being Nelly’s favourite dish! The stuffed vine leaves were lemony and had a filling of rice, pine kernels, sweet spices and fresh herbs, and were delicious. The Pacific king prawns were outstanding, succulent, garlicky and very moreish and were served on a bed of rice.
For our mains, we chose lamb and chicken shish and whole lobster in garlic butter. We also ordered a side of fries and a salad to share. The shish was superb, juicy and cooked to perfection and was accompanied by grilled pepper and tomato, we enjoyed the hand cooked chunky chips dipped in garlic mayonnaise and the salad was fresh and clean with pomegranate, mint, tomato, cucumber and lettuce. Nelly thoroughly enjoyed her lobster. It was beautifully presented, cooked beautifully and was dripping in garlic. The plate it arrived on was huge and the dish was big enough to share with accompaniments of mashed potato and mushrooms.
For dessert I had a chocolate fondant with ice cream (Nelly was too full!). The fondant was wonderful and oozed chocolate sauce, it was truly chocolate heaven and the ice cream counterbalanced the sweetness of the dessert perfectly. The front of house also brought out some Turkish baklava for us to try and it was truly amazing. I have never been a lover of baklava but have now been converted. It was the lightest filo pastry filled with walnut and honey syrup, served with a cinnamon mousse. I have never tasted baklava so beautiful, I highly recommend it.
We didn’t sample the wine list as we had a lunchtime reservation but I noted that it was extensive and reasonably priced.
Pivaz is a stunning restaurant, the food was outstanding and all of the chefs hail from Turkey and this is clearly evident in the quality of the food. The staff were very attentive and the eclectic, opulent décor was out of this world and I would recommend it for couples and families alike. A wonderful Turkish experience, ‘harika’ (fabulous in Turkish!)
Address: 240A High St, Epping CM16 4AP / 01992 571440 / pivaz.co.uk/epping/
