Pide Keyfi is a small Turkish fast food restaurant in the Hassani Building in Jumeirah Village. Behind the counter which separates the open kitchen from the tiny, two table dining area work two young, male Turkish cooks (sorry, but I simply cannot refer to them as chefs); one of whom is responsible for the oven, where they make fresh Pide (Turkish flatbread, also referred to as Turkish pizza), while the other works the charcoal grill, and probably also the restaurant’s single doner spit.
My natural tendency when visiting Turkish fast-food eateries such as this is, by default, to order the doner. Two things prevented me from doing this at Pide Keyfi’s: a) their vertical rotisserie was (suspiciously) still off at this lunchtime peak, with a sad looking, end of a meat cone just sitting there…neglected, and b) their delivery bikers all seemed to be sitting outside rather than out making deliveries. With hindsight, what I should have done was walk straight back out because thinking about it, everything was off – oven, charcoal grill…everything, and this is at 13:30 in the middle of the week. Hmm.
The Pide wasn’t at all bad. That said, it was not a patch on the amazing Pide I recently had at Bodrum in JLT, also a newcomer. At AED50 their mixed grill is good value for money but little else. The Kofta stood out as a particularly unkind representation of Turkish cuisine.
Not everything at Pide Keyfi was a disappointment though; I actually enjoyed their chilled, in-house made Ayran. And also, the complementary istikan of authentic Turkish tea we were served before leaving.
But this is not a restaurant I will return to, nor is it one I can recommend.
Waste NOT. Want NOT.
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