29/07/2024

Mokissos Restaurant, Leek

Mokissos restaurant, meze, grill and bar recently opened on the outskirts of Leek. Serving tasty traditional Greek and Turkish dishes, both familiar favourites and lesser-known delights, after my first visit I think this great addition to the Staffordshire Moorlands food scene deserves to do well.

MOKISSOS RESTAURANT, MEZE GRILL & BAR

The venue on the corner of Buxton Road and Thorncliffe Road, just outside Leek town centre, has had several different guises even in the decade or so that I’ve lived in the Moorlands. When I first came here, it was the Moss Rose. Then Sera, followed by The Olive Tree. Next was the Spanish La Casona which ending up folding after moving to a prime spot in Leek town centre as Andalucia. More recently the venue reverted to its old name of Moss Rose, became a Mediterranean grill and bar, but closed after a year.

But, on the basis of what I ate last week, I’m hoping the building’s new incarnation, Mokissos restaurant, meze, grill and bar, is going to be around a good while longer. Taking its name from an ancient city in Turkey, Mokissos says ‘our menu features traditional Greek/Turkish dishes influenced by centuries of cultural exchange… every bite tells a story of history’.

This sounded right up my street. So, last Saturday night, I took along partner ID to try it out.

If you don’t already know the venue, it’s a spacious one with several dining areas plus some outside space. For those driving, there’s a customer car park.

While deciding what to eat, we both had a bottle of Efes Turkish beer (£4.95 for 50cl). The usual hot and cold, soft and alcoholic drinks are available, plus regional specialties like mint tea, ayran yogurt drink, fermented şalgam, and the anise flavoured spirit raki.

MENU AT MOKISSOS RESTAURANT

The food menu has a good range, including almost twenty dishes divided into Cold and Hot Starters (£4.99 – £6.99 and £6.90 – £9.50). You could also combine these to create a shared meze of small dishes.

There were plenty that are familiar due to popularity of Middle Eastern and Eastern Mediterranean food in Britain. e.g. hummus, falafel, halloumi, and feta. There were also some less well known e.g. şakşuka (more of that later) and hummus kavurma where the chickpea-tahini dip is topped with lamb. If you can’t decide which dishes to share, then you could choose a set platter e.g. a mixed cold meze of six dishes for £23, or a hot mixed meze of five dishes for £24.50.

As you’d expect from a grill restaurant, kebabs are well represented with nine different ones. These include shish, kofte, chicken wings, lamb ribs or chops, and lamb’s liver (£16.50 – £25.50).

Under the Dishes section (£17.50 – £23.50), you’ll find some traditional Turkish and Greek cuisine that’s likely to be less familiar. Iskender, Beyti, saç kavurma, and güveç were all new to me anyway. There are also Salads, Steaks, Wraps, a small number of Pasta, Seafood and Vegetarian main courses – although there’s plenty of veggie starters if you want to create your own vegetarian meze. I was surprised to see they also do a traditional British-style Sunday roast.

STARTERS

Both ID and I tend to over-order dishes when we visit a new place. I admit it’s partly greed, but also excitement. And especially when we’re looking at meze or tapas with so many tempting little dishes to try. This time though, with ID feeling a little under the weather, we decided to be disciplined. Just one starter each before a main course. However, Mokissos had other plans. Because, along with our chosen starters, came a plate of complimentary cold mezze. But before I get to that, let me tell you about the starters we’d ordered.

FALAFEL

My choice was Falafel (£6.90). If you’re also a fellow Middle Eastern/Eastern Mediterranean food lover, perhaps you think that falafel was a bit of a boring choice? After all, you can get them almost anywhere these days. But I think that falafel are a handy test of quality. Because when they’re good, they’re very good. But when they’re bad, oh dear. Stodgy, heavy, and tasteless, they can be so disappointing.

When my four falafel arrived, nestled on a bed of hummus, they looked promising. The crusty, deep brown exterior ticked off the first requirement: crispy on the outside.

Cutting open the falafel, the greenish hue reminded me that the menu said these contained broad beans (common in Egyptian falafel) as well as the usual chickpeas. Contrasting with the crisp outside was a soft, almost puree-like centre with larger pieces of chickpea suspended in it. I loved the texture and the earthy flavour with its subtle herbs and spicing.

Dipping forkfuls into the equally good hummus, I thought this boded well for the rest of the meal. Hopefully my theory about falafel being the measure of a place would be proved correct.

AUBERGINE SALAD

Turkey is known for its great number of dishes using aubergine and ID chose one for his starter. Don’t be fooled by its plain title though nor, if you’re not the biggest fan of aubergine, its appearance. Because Aubergine Salad (£6.90) is a classic. And at Mokissos restaurant it was full of delicious flavour.

As well as the silky, chopped flesh from smoky grilled aubergine, were red peppers and tomato. These were combined with parsley, olive oil, and lots of garlic to create a wonderful chunky but soft dip. Perfect for scooping up with some of the very moreish chewy bread that came in a generous portion for us to share.

COMPLIMENTARY MIXED COLD MEZE

Although I’m a committed meat eater, one of the things I love about the food of this region are the outstanding vegetable meze dishes. So, despite setting out to try just one as a starter, in truth I was very happy when an attractive plate of complimentary mixed cold meze was brought to us, including more of that great Aubergine Salad.

There was another sample containing aubergine, but one new to me: şakşuka. Although it sounds like shakshuka (the North African spicy pepper stew topped with eggs), it was completely different. As well as the aubergine, were potato, chickpeas, peppers, onion, and garlic all cooked in a tomato sauce. This had a more subtle, simple flavour, but was just as good in its own way.

Thirdly was cacik, the Turkish counterpart to Greek tzatziki or cucumber and yogurt salad. I’m a great fan of yogurt and this one was deliciously thick and creamy. Along with the finely chopped cucumber, were mint, dill, and a little garlic.

Finally, there was a beetroot and yogurt salad which I don’t think is on the menu as a separate dish. But the combination is another classic of the region. The sweet beetroot was a great partner to the tart yogurt, fragrant herbs, and hint of garlic.

Taken together, I thought the cold meze was a good demonstration of how, in the right hands, relatively simple ingredients can produce something hugely enjoyable. We were also brought two jugs of sauce. A light garlic yogurt and a tinglingly hot spicy one.

These were good, but we hardly used them as the meze was already very tasty. We held on to them in case we wanted to eat them with the main courses anyway.

MAIN COURSES

Literally all the kebab main courses at Mokissos sounded delicious. But, having recently eaten brilliant ones at Elaf Lebanese and Syrian Restaurant in Macclesfield (you can read my review of Elaf here), ID and I both decided to go for dishes completely new to us.

SARMA LAMB BEYTI

I’m one of those people who always pores over a restaurant’s online presence, including menus, before I turn up. And I’d pretty much already made up my mind to choose Sarma Lamb Beyti (£23) for my main course. This was thanks to a particularly mouth-watering image I spotted.

It’s something of an understatement to say that, when my dish arrived, it lived up to my expectations. Because it was stunningly good.

Sarma means wrapped; in this case charcoal grilled lamb mince and cheese wrapped in thin, lightly crispy flatbread. This was cut into eight slices, revealing the appetizing meat within, and placed on a bed of thick, creamy yogurt which encircled a central portion of rice. The minced lamb was incredibly flavoursome with a delicate spicing that I loved. Added to that were little bursts of cheese.

The meat and bread slices were drizzled with just the right amount of fragrant tomato sauce, which along with a little melted butter enhanced them beautifully. Now and then, I’d dip a morsel into the hotter sauce saved from our starters. Heaven.

Placed between the slices were slivers of crunchy raw red and green pepper – those lovely light green, mild peppers I wish I could buy locally.

Not knowing I’d be having the extra vegetables dishes as a starter, I’d also ordered a side of Green Salad (£4.95). Expecting for that price a small bowl of salad leaves, I was surprised to be served a big dinner plate-sized platter of lettuce, cucumber, herbs, at least three types of good quality olives, all topped with a generous amount of mild feta cheese.

As someone brought up to clear their plate, I felt incredibly guilty having to leave most of it. But it would easily have served two or three. With the portion of meat and bread also being very generous, I’m afraid I didn’t make much of a dent in my mound of rice either.

KOFTE ISKENDER

ID’s main course was one of the dishes named Iskender. Since our visit, I’ve learned that Iskender is a speciality of the Bursa region of Turkey. It’s traditionally made with doner meat. And I mean the proper stuff: thinly sliced lamb cooked on a vertical skewer (not the inferior paste that passes for doner in most of Britain). It’s served in a tomato sauce over bread, with grilled vegetables and yogurt.

At Mokissos restaurant you can have the sliced meat version (Lamb Shish Iskender £23.50, Chicken Iskender £22.50) or Kofte Iskender (£22.50) with minced lamb balls. ID chose the latter. This dish, which also came with rice, turned out to be another that prompted a ‘wow!’ when it arrived.

A chunky, oblong dish was almost filled with tender kofte in a rich tomato sauce. On top were well-charred vegetables: tomatoes, onion and a long green pepper. Digging in, ID discovered cubes of bread that had been grilled but were now softening in that delicious sauce. He thought it was great and, from a taste I had, I have to agree.

MOKISSOS RESTAURANT: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

After the generosity of the portions, we couldn’t find room for a dessert. Or even, another sign of the great hospitality we’d enjoyed, the offer of complimentary tea and baklava. But it certainly hadn’t been a case of quantity over quality. My guest and I both loved everything we ate.

From seemingly simple vegetable meze with great flavour, to visually exciting main courses that introduced us to some new Turkish dishes, I couldn’t fault a thing. Our food bill came to £64.25 which, considering this included two lamb main courses which always bump up the price, I think isn’t bad at all.

The service was excellent. Admittedly, we were there in the early evening when it wasn’t that busy. However, staff seemed to genuinely want us to enjoy our meal, making us feel like nothing would be too much trouble.

Having been open barely a month, it’s early days for Mokissos restaurant. But I think they’re off to an impressive start. If you already love Greek/Turkish food or want to try some less familiar dishes from this wonderful cuisine, I hope you’ll go along soon and support a great addition to the Staffordshire Moorlands food scene.

Mokissos: 220 Buxton Road, Leek ST13 7LN. To reserve a table call 01538 262537 / 07979 962053

Mokissos on Facebook and Instagram

PRICES AND MENUS CORRECT AT TIME OF WRITING