Anatolia, Lytham St Anne’s, Lancashire

I’ve never been a big fan of Blackpool but for various reasons I booked my flight to Portugal from there rather than Manchester. I didn’t want to stay in Blackpool the night before though and I certainly didn’t want to eat there.

I noticed that the airport was as close to Lytham St Anne’s as it is to Blackpool and always remembered it being a much nicer place so decided to stay there. Of course I needed to find somewhere good to eat. After a bit of searching Anatolia kept on coming up so I made a reservation.

Anatolia is a Turkish restaurant with an open BBQ and if the many reviews I read are to be believed absolutely everybody loves it!

First impressions when we arrived where that the place is very small and also looks more like a takeaway than it does a restaurant. I’m sure i’d never have even given it a look had I not read the reviews in advance.

Inside is decorated with Turkish lamps and artefacts and whilst i’ve never actually been to Turkey it looked and felt authentic. The owner was very friendly and welcoming.

We were brought a basket of Turkish bread which smelt delicious. It tasted fantastic too, it was clearly very freshly baked, was still warm and the softest bread i’ve ever had. So good.

Turkish Bread

We dunked the bread in fresh houmus, Cacik – a creamy yoghurt sauce with cucumber & garlic and ‘Barbunya Pilaki’ which is a sort of sauce made of olive oil, tomatoes, lemon & parsley with boleti beans. It was the first time i’d ever tasted it but I hope it won’t be the last as it was really really good.

Houmus, Cacik & Barbunya Pilaki

The bread didn’t last very long at all, luckily we didn’t have to wait too much longer for more food. Our Mixed Meze of BBQ meats arrived very quickly. It contained lamb, chicken wings, chicken breast pieces, shish and lamb chops. All grilled to perfection on the open BBQ in front of us.

Mixed BBQ Meze

To balance out all that meat we also ordered a couple of vegetarian dishes. Vegetable Moussaka which apart from being as hot as molten lava when it arrived and for the next 20mins was really good once we good finally eat it. Layers of aubergine, peppers and courgette in a delicious tomato and garlic sauce and topped with loads of stringy melted cheese and served with more of that amazing bread, yay!

Vegetarian Moussaka

The final savoury dish was ‘Ispanakli Pide’, a type of Turkish pizza. There were several on the menu including some with lamb and pepperoni which looked brilliant but being sensible after all that meat earlier we went with spinach & cheese. It came served with an egg on top and looked amazing. It tasted really good too, the base was incredibly thin. They were more like flatbreads than pizzas and that is a good thing!

Ispanakli Pide

There is really only 1 dessert to eat in a Turkish restaurant, Baklava! (Actually there were 3 on the menu). Baklava is layers of buttery, thin and really crispy filo pastry filled with the wonderful combination of walnuts, pistachios and syrup. It was great and it was gone in seconds, my only complaint was that it was quite small but it certainly made up for it in flavour.

I really enjoyed Anatolia. The food was all very good quality and felt really authentic and there’s a really friendly atmosphere. I’ll definitely be back next time i’m flying from Blackpool airport!

Date Of Visit: 15.08.12

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