Oklava

"A very enjoyable meal food wise but it was so noisy in the restaurant- it was hard to keep up a conversation even with person beside me"

"It was great to be back inside the restaurant after our last visit where we enjoyed a fabulous al fresco dining experience back in April. I also have to say that the turkish food we enjoyed on saturday was probably the best we’ve ever had. This was matched with fabulous cocktails , good wine and fantastic service. So you can understand why Oklava is clearly one of our favourite restaurants to visit. So yes this led us to saturday and a truly amazing visit once again. The restaurant is nicely tucked away on the corner of Luke Street in Shoreditch and literally less than ten minutes from Liverpool Street station. When we arrived general manager Conall remembered us from earlier in the year and was delighted to see us back before showing us to our table. In fact he couldn’t have looked after us any better throughout our entire lunch. We started to look at the menu when one of the chefs came over to ask if we had any questions and also to inform us of the two specials on offer. We then ordered a cocktail each a Cherry Spritz and a Beet Negroni which were both absolutely fabulous. Now it was time to order the food to which we managed to have all dishes that we’d never tried before including the specials of the day. These were mackerel which is my wife’s favourite and hake which is one of my favourites. So now let’s get started and of course you have to begin with the amazing Baharat Bread & Medjool Date Butter it’s simply to die for. We followed this with Crispy Fried Aubergine with greengage ketchup & kyseri spice that was heaven. Our palate was slightly refreshed by a delightful salad of Fava , grilled summer salad , kale ezme & black cypriot olive oil. Now it was Pide time and in my opinion their best yet. The Black Truffle Pide with feta & pickled hen of the woods was an absolute flavour sensation. This was followed by the Pekemez glazed grilled Quail with fragola grapes & rosemary brown butter. The dish was accompanied by the Tomato Salad with lemon braised greens & sherry caramel which complimented the quail perfectly. We now moved onto the two Specials of the Day. My wife had the Mackerel which when you looked at her face you could tell how good it was. For myself I had the Hake which was topped with apple and in a light buttery sauce. It was truly amazing and you would have to go along way to try and beat this. So all credit to head chef Dawid for not only these two specials but for every dish that we had the pleasure of eating today. Now after a nice little rest it was time to finish with desserts and these were not for the feint hearted. The Spiced Rice Pudding with fig leaf oil , mahlep ice cream & hazelnut crumble was absolutely delicious. The Malt Custard with caramel ice cream , summer fruits & pecan wafer was lighter than the rice pudding but equally fabulous. These desserts were a fantastic way to finish a truly amazing Turkish lunch. This brought to an end yet another amazing visit to Oklava and a restaurant that I would highly recommend visiting yourself. The food was absolutely amazing so thanks to head chef Dawid and the team. The service led by Conall was excellent. So when you put this all together you can see why already looking forward to a return visit. Thank You Selin , Dawid , Conall and all the team for an amazing lunch and hope to see you all again soon"