Chef Selin Kiazim returns to the London food scene next week with the opening of Turkish restaurant Leydi in the new Hyde hotel near the Old Bailey in Farringdon – 18 months after the closure of her Shoreditch spot Oklava. Selin has vowed to “put Turkish food on the map” with the new venture, saying that […]
Former Ottolenghi head chef Esra Muslu opens her first London restaurant next week, based on Istanbulite home cooking including recipes and traditional methods handed down by her mother. Zahter, named after a wild herb in the thyme family that grows in southern Turkey, is conceived as Esra’s “love letter” to her native country. It occupies […]
Celebrated Turkish chef Civan Er is to open Yeni in Soho on January 28. Yeni will launch on Beak Street, an announcement said, and will “introduce London to the flavours and culinary traditions of Istanbul”. The modern Istanbul restaurant – called Yeni Lokanta – features in the World’s 50 Best and has long been a […]
From the folks behind Marylebone’s Yosma comes a new Chinatown restaurant serving a mixture of Turkish and Greek dishes. Hovarda, a new Aegean-inspired bar and restaurant, will open on Rupert Street on Friday 17 November. The bar will serve cocktails and wines, as well as a signature Horvada (Yeni Raki, cinnamon, yoghurt, brown sugar, Turkish honey, cardamom […]
⦿ AA Gill of the Sunday Times opened his review of The Magpie Café 5/5 in Whitby with the bombshell that he has cancer, an announcement that – uniquely perhaps for a restaurant review – was trailed by a front-page report. “I’ve got an embarrassment of cancer, the full English,” he wrote, promising to let his readers know […]
⦿ Jay Rayner of The Observer reviewed Margot in Covent Garden, a “fancy Italian” where dinner-jacketed waiters have “that easy, relaxed style around food which really pisses off the French because they haven’t a clue how to do it.” “At Margot they can offer you a special of tagliatelle with white truffles for £55 and not even raise their […]