Chinatown, Turkish Restaurant Guide

Following success in Istanbul, London-trained chef, Civan Er opened this stylish if fairly straightforward Soho operation in 2019. The focus is using British produce to create Turkish-influenced dishes cooked over open fire: “super-tasty food at a very reasonable price”. Many dishes are to share, and ‘Manti’ (a type of filled dumpling) are a menu feature.

Aiming to “disrupt the conventional norms of what it means to fine dine” is the stated mission of Le Bab’s weird, no-longer-secret 10-seater in the basement of their Covent Garden branch. The concept includes no cutlery or plates for your £110 menu (the wine flight is £65 per person): instead you grab each of the nine courses with your fingers after it’s been dolloped onto a custom-designed heated counter. This entry is for completeness: yes it has 27K Instagram followers, but it provokes little feedback in our annual diners’ poll.

“Middle Eastern (Istanbul) dishes that are a little different” and can be “very good” win fans for this ambitious Soho three-year-old, which had to cope with the passing in August 2023 of co-founder and chef Esra Muslu. It has the same downsides that it has always had though – for some reporters “value just isn’t there and while it may be delicious it’s far too expensive”. Top Tip – go as a couple and sit in the “stunning, central tiled bar downstairs” (“groups often sit upstairs and/or in a dull mezzanine area”).

This “hidden gem” on a Soho roof terrace close to Piccadilly Circus, “accessed via a very discreet entrance at 1 Warwick Street and then lift to the 6th floor”, serves a “very concise” menu of Turkish small plates from chef Tom Cenci (who also runs Nessa on the ground floor) – and “every one we had was exceptional in taste and quality”. Still relatively unknown as a yearling, its ratings could well rise if it finds an enthusiastic audience.

“Fantastic Greek and Turkish dishes, including unusual items, create a memorable meal” (buoyed up by wine from Turkey, Greece Georgia and Armenia) at this “very popular and buzzy (if also crowded and noisy)” two-year-old ocakbasi near the top of the Portobello Road from chef Kemal Demirasal. In April 2024, he opened a sequel in Soho’s Kingly Street (with an ‘Under the Counter’ basement bar), where a variety of cuisines from around the Eastern Mediterranean are the inspiration.