Shoreditch, Turkish Restaurant Guide

2022 Review: With its swish, spacious metropolitan styling, this 100-seater brasserie on one of Shoreditch’s main drags does little to advertise the fact that it’s part of the Hart Shoreditch Hotel London (part of the Curio Collection by Hilton), which opened in early 2020. Knowing this helps explain the slightly over-plush styling – at odds with the strenuously hip neighbourhood – and also the wilfully un-corporate menu: inspired by the flavours of Levantine coastal towns (Levantine weekend brunch is a feature). Early reports are too limited for a rating, but all-round very good.

“A reliable chain – mainly in the City” – these big, affordable Turks are popular “especially for lunch” and provide a relatively comfortable environment for a sit-down meal that’s a little different. Cynical reports were more in evidence this year though: critics feel “they know they will get the office trade and don’t really try” (“downhill since I visited a few years ago” with some “bland and unseasoned” dishes).

2022 Review: In a quiet, pedestrianised square in the City’s sprawling Broadgate development – near Broadgate Circle – this January 2020 arrival occupies a swishly decorated unit, and has a large terrace outside for a warm day. The rustic Anatolian cuisine – much of it on the open-flame mangal – is cosily at odds with all the surrounding modernity, and is washed down with a more metropolitan selection of cocktails.