Gilak

As an Iranian with knowlage of food and having twice food from this resturant I rate the food ok but nothing special , usual stuff , not enough chicken or meet in the main meal. Odered Xmas meal over the phone to take away for six + Starters and salads + other bits , totald over £100 and was collected by cab , no knoife and fork was supplied ( was mess to eat as we could not get any near us ), price was the same as eating in the resturant , they have 20% off promotion for Xmas on the main meal was never discounts ! Phoned them up for these points, no refund given and not even an apology given ! My experience with this restaurant was extremely poor. I cannot believe the posetive reviews for this resturant .

Being half-Iranian, I have eaten in most of London's Persian restaurants and visit Iran itself annually, so feel well-placed to judge Persian cuisine. I think Gilak is very very good - the food is great quality and very good value. The service is great too. The best thing is the ice-cream - make sure you sample it!

Food very aromatic and very true to Persian cuisine I had in Iran. Aubergine dip the best I've ever had, portions are good and service friendly. Not expensive either. Hard to find fault with it.

We were new to the Persian cuisine, and we got the best introduction in this new Highgate place. The flavours are so different than any other food we've had before. Aubergine heaven. So delicate. The service was very good and friendly. We will come back!

I just stopped in because I was hungry and wanted to get out of the rain, and was blown away by one of the best meals I have had in a long time. the variety of reviews on here is astounding - did we go to different restaurants?

Went saturday night and quite disappointed. Ordered a vegetarian dish which sounded like lots of vegetables, but instead it turned out to be like a bowl of pesto with too much of a mint taste. I thought the staff didn't take feedback seriously which is a shame as it was extremely quiet and could be good with a bit more effort.

One of those meals when you are relieved that the kitchen has ignored the McDonalds fan who left the last review.
Gilak remains a hidden jewel in unlovely Holloway, whose staff, food and pricing deserve more attention.
The lamb with a sour pomegranate sauce is beautiful and ask for the sumac spice (not the salt cellar) that transforms it.
The impeccably sourced Prosecco is well-priced and the service is unobtrusive but charming.
I'm a local, and apart from St John's, Gilak has no competition.

Some comments on here are harsh, some are too OTT in favour of the place. Went there last night and it was mediocre.

The interior isn't like a shack at all. The atmosphere is nice (albeit cold by the door) and the staff friendly.

The food though, was incredibly bland apart from the rice, which was delicious, absolutely sublime. But the lamb I had with it, whilst being tender, had very subtle flavour and was far too bland.

I needed to use salt and pepper to pep up my meal and was gutted I didn't bring my bottle of tabasco out with me.

My wife had a vegetarian stew which was also extremely bland and seemed to taste of just basil and garlic, accompainied by a morsel of chewy smoked fish, so hard roast garlic (even that had little taste) and some olives in tasteless grey sludge.

The food was inoffensive but overall uninspiring. I thought that there should be more starters on offer than just a variety of dips, too.

They took our starter plates away whilst I was finishing mine, but it was so dull I didn't mind. The menu described a tsatsiki sort of thing, it came with the consistency of peanut butter and not much taste to it at all. The main course came less than a minute later, which explained their haste with the starters. Ironic that after the main our plates sat in front of us for 10 minutes.

For all the excitement surrounding this place we left there rather underwhelmed. Such a shame as the people were lovely and a bit of spice and seasoning on the food and it could have been so much different.

I feel compelled to write. My experience at this restaurant was extremely poor. I cannot believe the reviews that this place has had. Who is writing them? On the two occasions that I attempted to eat. The staff had lost my booking and asked me to come back later. I persisted the second time and after wandering around a supermarket for 25mins finally got a table. The food was bland, late and overrated. Any one familiar with Persian quisine would give this place max 2-3 stars. The place was virtually a shack, odd glasses was the norm. I could forgive if the food was good but sadly not. Check it out why not - its cheap and BYO but come back and post your findings here. I would be surprised if they were different to mine. There are better Persian cheap eats out there.

I had gone Gilak with my partner on 26/09/2010,it was really really nice persian restaurant we've ever gone,I'm not agree with (apc'comment) and it's not fair,just for his comment Gilak has lost one star,in fact it's not important they lost star because the quality and taste are more important,the food is soooooooo tasty and absolutely delicious,staff were so polite and friendly and atmosphere was so romantic,it was so bussy but service was very well.I also recommend if you want to eat fresh and real food,go Gilak and try.I 'll be back Gilak definitely.

Three of us had a delightful late lunch today at Gilak. The service was attentive and friendly and the food was lovely. Everything we had was very fresh and well flavoured.

Went to Gilak after reading rave reviews. Firstly, we phoned to make a reservation and when we got to the restaurant, they did not have our booking. Restaurant was full, so we were told to come back in 15 mins, which we did reluctantly. A couple who arrived shortly after us made a booking through Top table, which the proprietors were not aware of, so they had to wait as well. We were kept waiting for a further 15 mins, Meanwhile, quite a few people who had reservations, were waiting for tables as well. To our dismay, the waitor gave the first available table to a couple who came after us.
By this stage, my partner was livid with the stuff-up of the bookings, and ignorance of the staff. If it was not for the reviews we read, we would have walked out and gone somewhere else. However, I was keen to try the food as we are avid eaters and like trying out new restaurants. We took a bottle of champagne, and asked for an ice bucket, which they did not have. Sadly, we should have followed our instincts and left. The food did not meet our expectations. It's difficult to reconcile the food that arrived as compared to the reviews we read. Additionally, the staff were in-attentive, although friendly when they did serve us.
The only thing going for the restaurant is that it's BYO.
We have a similar restaurant called Tandis near where we live, The food is much, much better and the service is very good as well.
We won't be going back to Gilak. I recommend Tandis to people reading this review if they want to try similar cuisine. I would find it very hard to describe Gilak as the best local restaurant, whilst there are so many other restaurants to choose from.

Unfortunately the food was tasteless, despite of all the good comments everyone has made. The music was loud and wasn't good music at all. The service was alright but not very professional.The traditional Persian tea wasn't the tasty traditional one that you will get in any other restaurant. To sum everything up, it wasn't value for money at all and to be honest it was expensive comparing to other Iranian Restaurants with the same atmosphere and food.

It was a tremendous and sumptuous meal, a real treat, very fresh lamb, with strong salmon which perfectly balanced the Mirza Ghasemi.. you gotta try the desserts, a mix of icecream and sorbet, you're in for a surprise with the addition of rice noodles in the sorbet. Strong flavours, absolutely delicious. Thanks to TimeOut.. with Gilak's upmarket appearance, i wouldn't have thought i'd be able to afford it if it wasn't for the recommendation!

wow after 28years of being in London and eating in every single Iranian restaurant and feeling when someone is going to get it right, now these people have got it. The starters were so fresh and delicious and the bargh (lamb Fillet )kabab was so succulant and well cooked and seasoned with saffron. The rice so fluffy and well presented. The whole restaurant seems cosy and clean and the servise is the best of any Iranian restaurants I have ever been. As a very fussy eater and a good traditional cook myself, I highly recommend it. I am sure me and my family will be going there from now on to try more of their traditional food.
Good luck for the owners and thank you for introducing north Iranian food to Londoners.

I've been to Gilak restaurant few times and I can highly recommend it. The food was absolutely delicisous and the service was great too. They offer large selection of kebabs but my favourite has to be Mirza Ghasemi (smoked augergines, egg, tomato and garlic with rice).
If you want to experience authentic north iranian food this is the place to go.

The restaurant is very nice but there is only one vegetarian main which has aubergine and egg. All the vegetarian starters seem to feature aubergine except the pickle and yoghurt one. This does limit things and being a grill, if you are put off by meat it's not the best choice.

I was lucky, I like egg and aubergine so thought it delicious.