Everything about this place is rockin'
Top on food, service and atmosphere. Small place, but unique with interesting take on middle eastern fusion. I enjoyed the squid ink flatbread with cod salt and egg yolk. Nice. *Be prepared for some good classic metal music*
Had my casual birthday dinner tonight at BAM. Tête de cochon is my new black. See you again soon, what a treat this place is!
The food + the staff + the music, you have to love this place
Absolutely banging. One of my fave places in London.
Oxtail, beef dripping and anchovy flatbread so good that we ordered another one to takeaway after our meal for breakfast the next day.
I'm not saying this lightly but black axe mangel just served me the best meal I've ever had. From the rabbit to the lamb offal flatbread but I'm so glad the pork chop came out last as I don't think anything can ever top it!
Food is fantastic. Cabbage dish is amazing. We tried a few different ones and everything was lovely. Staff are Cool and friendly and nothing seems too much trouble. These are the kinds of restaurants that real eating pleasure comes from. Congrats to the owners and Long May they continue..
Absolutely the best food/restaurant experience I've ever had - the food was phenomenal, atmosphere, music and service was amazing. I will be going there again soon, fantastic.
Finally got to eat here. Very unusual & tasty menu. My sesame flatbread was amazing. Great atmosphere, music & staff too.
Yep, tasty food. Each dish was different, we shared 1 bread and 4 mains between 4 people. Enjoyed them all! Will go back.
Kick ass, in your face, Str8 4ward, Great music, beers, ... 👌🏻🤘🎉🍻👊
#gelinaz
Good food and one of the very few places in the UK that plays decent music while you eat.
Was looking forward to going here for ages and it did not disappoint! Fantastic food! Great service and awesome music! Definitely will be coming back! Best flatbreads I've ever had for sure!
Wow! London has a fantastic mix of cultures and variety of foods but there is nothing like this place. What is it? I don't know but I like it.
Awesome place! The food, music and staff are out of this world!
Amazing food and even better staff! So many things I thought I'd never try but were so tasty!
Dope music...dope food...dope drinks...that is all
It's great. Obviously. If you don't think so, your wrong
Kebab? Flatbreads? What is this place? Black Axe Mangal is a relatively new kid on the block. And when I say block I mean roundabout. Not so new but the location seems a bit of a secret that you may miss it when going round Highbury Junction. My friend has been going on about Black Axe Mangal (BAM) for a while and we finely took him up on the request and went. A Thursday night drink and food session is always welcome. Although he was an hour late, we managed to kill time on a warm summer evening at two pubs and bars round the corner and time flew by. Patiently waiting.
Black Axe Mangal marries metal music with modern Turkish inspired food for something really quite unique in London. Lee Tiernan (ex St John Bread & Wine), and his wife and business partner Kate Mullinger Tiernan are the brains behind Black Axe Mangal and have created something that doesn’t follow the rules at all.
Really good place to come for food. Very laid back where you sit in school chairs.
The flatbreads are amazing and deffo go for the oxtail, offal and so much more
The main courses are just as good especially lamb , quail and onglet
![Zomato]( "Recensione")
All five of us had the same goal, to try everything on the menu, unless certain things are too similar or are on the common side of food in the restaurant. We only chose two of the flatbread option, going easy on the carbohydrates, and had all the mains except for the falafel and curd.
The drinks menu is a small selection of cocktails, beer, wine, prosecco and non-alcoholic ones.
lamb offal £6.00 – a lovely spice and a cooling yoghurt but I would have liked chunkier pieces of the offal. It was very finely minced and lacked the deep reddish offal taste. The bread, lovely.
squid ink with smoked mackarel £6.50 – the dirty black, the colourful gold dust and THAT egg yolk. Of course it was meant to be photogenic but there was not much taste to the actual flatbread and luckily for the smoked mackarel otherwise, it was just boring.
grilled ox heart, camone tomatoes and hash browns £8.50 – amazing hash browns and the whole dish makes a perfect salad plate. I love it but other foodies felt this was slightly out of place in the whole concept.
buttermilk fried quail with mission spice £9.50 – seriously crispy, beautiful cumin aroma, and the meat was moist. Knowing that it was quail it did not have much meat on and so for someone who loves gnawing on bones, it was just right for me. That pale, one coloured slaw next to it, was just amazing!
asparagus and smoked cod roe's roe butter £7.50 – just by looking at those thick asparagus I thought it was going to be bitter and woody but oh wow, it was just downright tasty. The cod roe butter was rich but not too oily. It had a very well balanced and rounded flavour.
saddleback, scallop and chilli £17.00 – my favourite! I was worried that the pork looked undercooked but it was just perfect! The crackling, still attached to the meat, was so crunchy and made me wonder how did they get the perfect crunchy crackling with the meat so moist and juicy? The salad with scallop and chilli was good but with that extra dash of fish sauce was just clever.
mutton chops and kidney sizzler £16.00 – the meat was cooked to medium rare and I am going to say again, it was delicious. You have to pick up and nibble on those bones! The lentils were tasty but it felt like it was another dish on it's own.
BAM reuben £16.00 – delicious beef in a cheesy sauce, topped with red cabbage and served in a flatbread wrap, a nice bite!
Service was good and friendly. The place seemed grubby but it was not. They care about serving on warm plates, but not for the long term effects on your eardrums. A few dishes that were over the £15.00 price was a little pricey for their portion sizes. On the other hand when you take into account how the meats were precisely cooked and how wholesome the flavours were, it felt worth paying for.
Irrespective of whether you like it or not, Black Axe Mangal is what it is. I would not say that it was Turkish food but it was Turkish style food smartly paired with Oriental ingredients. It really works! Now, this is what I call a fusion done rightly.
![Zomato]( "Recensione")
Black Axe Mangal is a rowdly little spot on Highbury Corner which needs a bit of back story.
Chef Lee Tiernan (ex-St.John Bread & Wine) spent the summer serving up Mangal-style bread, meat and kebabs in a Copenhagen club called Bakken, with lots of help from guest chefs. Look out for an entertaining Vice video that explains all.
With his wife Kate, Lee has now brought his metal and mangal concept (see Kiss oven pics) back to London, a few doors down from popular Islington eateries Le Coq and Trullo. With quick turnover, and limited space, no reservations makes sense here. If you can face being bumped in to a fair amount, standing in front of the open kitchen is great fun.
There are 12 or so items on the menu, so you could tackle the whole thing easily with a group of four, but you should really focus on the Tartine Bakery-influenced flatbreads, especially the signature Lamb Offal bread which is a filthy work of foodporn art, and a steal at £5.50. In contrast, a delicious bowl of Broad Bean Falafel, Curd, and Squash is curiously priced too high at £9.
The other must-order dish is the Bakken special - a comforting bowl of slow smoked lamb shoulder, roasted peppers, onions, and puy lentils that set us back £14 when we visited. It easily stretched to three when sharing a range of plates.
On the booze front, a couple of canned beers do the job, and there's an unexpected list of £6 cocktails created with bartender-of-the-moment Mr.Lyan. If you want a more leisurely drink, I'd recommend heading over to the cosy Taproom down the road for a beer or two.
Black Axe Mangal advertises itself as an avant-garde kebab house drawing influences from around the world, not just from Turkey. But while the chargrilled meat dishes take centre stage on Black Axe’s ever-changing menu, the skill of the kitchen expresses itself in ways not confined to the meaty arts.
Black Axe Mangal is a tiny kebab shop (sort of) on Highbury Corner. After a long stint at St John Bread and Wine and a successful pop up in Copenhagen, Lee Tiernan (chef and owner) creates dishes using often forgotten parts of the animal. They don’t take reservations and as it’s so small, the tightly packed tables, topped with brightly coloured PVC table cloths, soon fill up. Get there early I’d say.
I came here with my partner for our aniversary, and while it isn’t the cheapest place for a student my god does it deliver on everything. Especially since I only heard about this place because the owner came axe throwing at my work place.
I ate the regular menu and my other half ate the veggie menu and both of us had an amazing time. We couldn’t stop smiling at how cool the food looked half the time, and it all tasted amazing too. Our waiter Sam was a legend, there just enough that you never felt like you were waiting, but without bearing over the table. Not to mention we had a couple of laughs with him.
The experience is perfect for anyone looking for intimate, friendly fine dining without the pressure traditional fine dining restaurants put on customers to be something they aren’t.
It was a perfect anniversary dinner.
Nothing too much trouble for fantastic waiting staff. Don’t expect fine dining - it’s better than that. Borscht back will change your life (& I don’t like vodka). Sea bream, crab, ox heart, Adana, asparagus - all fantastic.
![4]( "Recensione")
Have been wanting to go to this place for so long! Although it started with a bémol by us having to wait outside beyond our reservation time, the staff quickly made the situation better by saying sorry many times and offering them free drinks.
Going inside, we realised quickly that it is not a conventional place. The seating and table set is different and kind of “boho-chic”. There was very loud metal music playing which was bothering us at the beginning but soon after it stopped everything was better.
The food was the big shock though. It is a fixed menu, that has a vegetarian option. All dishes were very interesting but what definitely stood out was 3 dishes. First the squid ink flatbread is definitely worth trying with beautiful bread and great “tarama”. Secondly the smoked chicken over rice was my favorite dish. Finally, the deep fried apple pie was out of this world. The extra lamb flatbread was interesting but not something I would re-order.
Conclusion, this is a great address with an interesting take on Middle Eastern cuisine, working with ingredients that you wouldn’t find there. Definitely go there on an empty stomach because.
I quite liked the rock and roll atmosphere and the general vibe. The price-fixed menu was quite good, although if you come really hungry you might want to order some of the bolt on dishes. We had ox heart on hash browns which was great. The problem for me is the price. A meal for two with a few drinks can reach £150. And to be honest, you can eat better in London for half that. Still had a ball.
Overall: this place is cool. Expect really flavorful food. You'll love this place if you're cool with whatever and down to just go with the flow. If you're not chill and cool. You'll hate this place, but I really enjoyed it.
Food: everything was delicious, but there was no cohesive theme to how the menu of the day. One dish could be Mediterranean and the next an asian soup. It's just a bunch of yummy food thrown together.
Drinks: only canned beers to my knowledge. My friend ordered a cocktail and she didn't enjoy it all that much.
Service: everyone who works here is lovely.
Great service and a really neat menu. The pork belly and the trifle were definitely winner dishes. Atmosphere is really cosy and welcoming and the staff is just a gem.
Amazing tasting menu for dinner. Stand out was the squid ink bread with yolk woooooweeee. Super interesting/quirky menu that makes you try stuff you wouldn’t normally on a London menu. Would return!
One of three place I made reservations at while in London for a few quick days. I was excited to come here and it was by far the best meal we had. Our server was great and the room was rad. I’d definitely go out of my way to come back here.
A couple of weeks ago, my friend and I had an incredible meal at Black Axe Mangal. We were able to get a walk-in table and sat at the front by the kitchen. The meal (off a prix fixe menu) was much different (in a good way) than what I would normally order and challenged me to try new dishes. The owner, Katie, also went out of her way to make sure we were welcome and had a memorable experience.
Reviews have said the music can be loud, and as someone sensitive to loud noises, I did not find that. I also dug the old school beats they were playing.
Highly recommend trying this spot.
F.K.A.B.A.M has been on my bucket list for some time now. So I was glad to get a chance to cross it off my list recently. That week’s set menu began with a nice raw beef starter. Then a spicy rabbit salad, and a flatbread that was out of the world. The main course was a little bit of a let down because it was a tofu milanese. To be fair, it wasn’t bad. But I personally didn’t go to FKABAM to eat tofu. Dessert made up for it by being one of the best tiramisus I have ever tasted.
The staff were all incredibly friendly. Just FYI: since the restaurant is deservedly popular and has very few tables, walk-ins might have to wait for some time even on weekday nights.
The new set menu worked well and was adapted for me and my fellow diner who is allergic to fish.
The set menu was very oriented around fried food, flat breads and had an enjoyable Turkish flavour profile on some dishes.
The ox marrow with ox tail gratin and ox heart salad was exquisite. But more memorable was the black forest gateau which was well presented and tasted like tootsie pop with its use of maraschino cherries.
Music is played very loudly and diners are packed in very densely. I sat at 6pm pre match with one other diner so this atmosphere was well appreciated but may not be of taste to those in search of a quieter romantic meal.
Amazingly friendly staff, absolutely fantastic food, top vibes. We took foodie friends from the US and they had it as their best meal over things that cost 2x as much. Highly recommend.
Outstanding! The food was sublime, the pig head sizzler is out of this world. The restaurant itself was buzzing, great atmosphere. 100% must visit.
Been waiting a long time to go here and it was worth the wait!
I think the menu we had for set menu was perfect (often changes every 2 weeks), but could be restricted if you’re a fussy eater.
Dishes were creative and despite other reviews, left with a very full stomach (we did go for a bolt on dish). As someone who struggled to master many of the dishes in cookbook, the food is great value for money based on the effort involved and depth of flavour combinations. Only fault would have been better beer options (with draft beers), and could have done with an extra flatbread - we would have been happy to pay extra for this as there was a lot of meat vs bread.
Worked out £75 each (inc 2 cocktails and service). Yes you can get a decent kebab for £6-10 in North London but this is more than just a greasy kebab!
Lively and fun. Great flavours and awesome drinks. Another great young team showing some unreal talent.
An error has occurred! Please try again in a few minutes