Izgara Turkish Restaurant Whetstone

 We like all the Izgara Restaurants. The one in Hatch End is large. The one in Edgware served a great meal. 

But the one in Whetstone was our choice for a change. It seemed elegantly decorated .

But a plus point. A bit quieter so easier to talk.

We didn't order starters. The restaurant gave us hot bread, yogurt dip and olives.

I ordered a reasonably priced Prosecco.

I recommend the red fruit cocktail.

Main courses

I ordered meat moussaka. Good meat, and at the bottom hidden slices of potatoes.

Others ordered: lamb; kebabs; spinach pasta.

In a long street full of restaurants.  We might return, here or try another nearby.

Desserts

Baclava

Excellent. Moist. More-ish.

Coconut cake.

Turkish coffee.

The bill came with Turkish delight.

We were given foil takeaway dishes and pretty paper small totes.

Update on parking tickets November 15 2025

A short time afterwards we received a parking ticket. A parking ticket saying we had failed to pay the fine which had now doubled. We had not received the first supposed letter. We went back to the parking area down an alley. The signs did not make it clear that after eight pm you must pay. We photographed the signs and have appealed.

If I get a parking ticket I don't go back to the restaurant. Even if I forget about the parking fine, or don't blame the restaurant, somehow my memory of the occasion has moved out the section of my brain in which I store memories of places I must visit again. I can walk to Izgara in Hatch End. That will be my first choice of their restaurants. 

SWEET SOUVENIRS Chocolates, Biscuits, Cakes, Sweets, Honey, Jam and Maple Syrup from around the world

 When we are overseas, or at home, we like to try out different brands of chocolate. Here are a few with their original country of origin, though the wrapper may show that, like Coca Cola and soaps, they may be made locally.

ALBANIA

Fig jam

BELGIUM

Guylian chocolates in shell shapes

Waffles

CANADA

Maple syrup

CYPRUS

Greek

Loukoumi (marketed in the UK as Turkish Delight)

Rose syrup and Rose wine 

(not just rose colour, rose aroma from rose petals)

FRANCE

Nougat

German

Stollen (Marzipan centred roll cake sold at Xmas time, Lidl and other supermarkets in the UK)

ISRAEL

Halva

Sweet wines from UK supermarkets such as Tesco, Palwin's No 10.

ITALY

Chocolate in silver wrap

Ferrero Rocher chocolate encased nut with liquid caramel and foil wrapper

PORTUGAL

Mateus Rose wine

SINGAPORE

Sweet red Bean curd stuffed dumplings on sale hot in rotating table top stands in 7/11 and similar conveneience stalls and basement food courts

Durian flavour cakes, toppings for desserts, and ice creams

Kaya toast, jars of kaya (sweet yellow lemon curd)

Mango stick rice 

Moon Cakes for the spring (Chinese New Year CNY) and autumn festivals

SINGAPORE

Kaya (jam like lemon curd)

SPAIN

Almond cake

(Served at breakfast buffets in hotels!)

SWITZERLAND

Alprose chocolate (Factory visit)

Toblerone (Made worldwide but when made in Switzerland can show the tringaular Swiss mountain)

UK

After Eights mints

Bronte biscuits

Chocolat

Cadbury's.

Christmas pudding.

Christmas cake and wedding cake - fruit cakes, solid, with topping of yellow marzipan and white icing.

Danish pastries (from supermakets, patisseries).

Fox's chocolates. Fox's Classic biscuit selection. (Tesco and Marks have similar selections including chocolate covered biscuits and in 2024 still some covered in foil)

Thornton\s

Green & Black's

Crosissant

Freshly baked and warm (from frozen?) in Tesco express in the morning, discounted and must be reheated at home  evening and at late night

Marks & Spencer

Thick cut marmalade

Summer pudding (dessert of red fruits centre inside bread dome turned red from juice)

Smarties (Like M and Ms)

Whitaker's chocolates such as violet centre

USA

Hershey.

M & Ms. (Like Smarties)

Useful Websites

Updated July 2024

Turkish Delight and Egyptian Delight to delight visitors to London, & Dark chocolate

The pretty box.

Celebrations. You choose what to put in your box, like the old Pick n Mix at Woolworth's.

We cut open the orange one to share it. Strong flavours. strong colours. Dark orange curled around white soft nougat. Not just boring plain jelly.

The pink one was strong and totally different, with a nut in the middle.The strong jellly overwhelmed the nut flavour.

The strong fruit flavour made everything else taste stronger, too. We had black grapes afterwards. The sugar left in my mouth from the sweet enhanced the flavour of the grapes.

Also look for peera, an Indian fudge made from home made evaporated milk, boiled slowly to reduce and thicken it, added sugar and cinnamon for flavouring. Popular for Diwali, weddings and to celebrate the birth of children.

Also in this area, several Indian restaurants and curry houses, a French restaurant, Whitechapel art gallery which has a shop and restaurant, the old Synagogue where Disraeli's father attended until he fell out with the others and converted from Judaism to Christianity, which enabled his son Benjamin to became Prime Minister and Queen Victoria's favourite.

Useful Websites

aipackaging.co.uk

Rajmahal Sweets, 57 Brick Lane, Shadwell, London E1
Near Aldgate East tube station.

Two more branches.
Long opening hours, from 9 am to 11 pm, seven days a week.

Tasty Turkish delight. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Travel writer and photographer. Copyright.


Maybe you'd prefer chocolate?
My family tried that, too, a few steps away.

A cup of Espresso for two pounds, and chocolate covered orange peel at six pounds eighty four pence. (We took one piece out of the bag to go with the coffee.)

I would describe the East End of London, the West End of London, the whole of London, as English delight.

Dark Sugars Ltd Main store
124-126 Brick Lane, London, Greater London, E1 6RU.

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts.

Prices and purchases in Greece - off the beaten track - nuts about Vin Doux from Samos

Off the beaten track in Greece prices and purchases are much cheaper - but with limited choice and simple living.

Fly to the south west, the raggedy round lump slightly nearer to London than Athens. Hire a Hertz car.

A four star hotel in Olympia (with half board!) under £100.

Cheap wine. Delicious giant tomatoes and melons more flavourful than those in supermarkets in London.

Nuts. Did I mention nuts? Almonds and walnuts.

At the breakfast buffet the hotel at Olympia had a big bowl of nuts. Soft nuts. Almonds. Maybe the ones from UK are dried - you fear they will crack your teeth. The nuts at the hotel buffet were delicious, 'cracked open in your mouth like popcorn'.

It was a mistake not to have brought back some nuts as stocks and souvenirs and gifts. But we brought back Greek wines at lower prices than in the overseas supermarkets.

Airport Shopping
The little local airport, Kalamata, is relatively small and not the supermarket size shops you get at airports in a capital city.

What about the Greek equivalent of the brand name which has become a generic terms in England, Turkish Delight? We used to buy it from the Greek Cyprus shops. Known as Loukoume. So here's a list for the next trip, what to try, buy and/or bring back:

Photo by Angela Lansbury

Wines
What we did buy was wine. Wine, such as Vin Doux, small berried Muscat from Samos. The island of Samos is the only place outside France allowed to use certain terms. Vin Doux is French for sweet wine.

Vin doux naturel which you would see in France is a fairly common label wording. But in this wine from Greece extra alcohol is added to stop the fermentation leaving residual unconverted sugar making a sweet wine.

Yeast can't survive in high alcohol so adding alcohol stops the fermentation. So this bottle is labelled Vin de Liqueur. That would have been low alcohol but because you have added alcohol, it's high alcohol; the bottle says15%!

You can buy a half bottle in the UK. My family bought a full size bottle  from Kalamata airport duty free.

Car hire
A Hertz hire car for a week cost 175 euros, about £20 a day.

"The Greeks are so friendly," recalls one of the group. A smiling brolly dolly rushed out from the Hertz office with a giant umbrella to check the mileage on return of the hire car and waited while everything was unloaded. "It was like being in a five star hotel, like the Ritz."

Read my earlier post on learning the Greek alphabet.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.