LEYDI

It’s eighteen months since Selin Kiazim closed Oklava, but it’s not curtains just yet for Kiazim’s cooking in London. Set within the new Hyde City Hotel, just across from the Old Bailey, Leydi is poised to lead a new wave of restaurants pitching up in the financial district. By day, it’s a lokanta style cafe, serving breakfast pastries and the kind of coffee best described as Turkish rocket fuel. As evening falls, Leydi gently transforms into more of a meyhane; the warm, affable Turkish tavernas that embrace everyone from travel-worn visitors to city slickers with meaty appetites.

There are visible Byzantine and Ottoman influences, toned down for the City crowd. That said, Leydi doesn’t compromise on soul. There are amber banquettes separated by bolster pillows, bentwood chairs, and pretty peach walls studded with contemporary art. It’s a sizeable dining room, with a scalloped archway to shield a smaller, more intimate dining room where larger tables sip on Turkish wine and share fresh bread, tarama, lahmacun, and mammoth desserts.

The mezze choices are vast and include a wonderful nutty and smokey-sweet muhammara, which we eagerly parcel up into still-warm lavash wraps. Elsewhere, a salad of seasonal tomatoes, clearly in their prime, comes with a bolshy Urfa dressing. Iskender kebab arrives splattered with crimson tomato sauce and tempered by a blob of thick yoghurt. A £16 doner kebab might seem expensive, but it's large and absolutely worth it.

It’s powerful stuff, but Leydi leaves plenty room for finesse. Mangal-grilled lamb chops are tender, pink, and so disarming you want to close your eyes and revel in them. Service is polished and warm, the kind where likeable waiters might jokingly tell you off for not waiting to let them carve up your dessert tableside.

Leydi doesn’t buy into frustratingly small portions and there’s little danger you’ll leave hungry. This is proper Turkish food, paired with inspired cocktails from Kevin Pantode - the ‘Ayran to You’ is particularly good. It’s early days, but if Leydi really is a lady she’s a leading one.

An unapologetically abundant all-day dining concept from renowned Turkish-Cypriot chef Selin Kiazim, Leydi aims to bring the spirited culinary culture of Istanbul to London.

Located in the first UK branch of the Hyde hotel brand (known for its luxury properties in Miami, Ibiza, Dubai, and Bodrum), Leydi will offer Kiazim’s take on Turkish breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. In the spirit of Istanbul’s frenetic markets and casual lokanta restaurants serving weary students and office workers, Leydi promises to be a diverse culinary offering and welcoming space catering for tourists, city workers, and Londoners alike. 

Start your day with an elevated Turkish breakfast intended to be feasted on - think caramelised tahini spirals, menemen (Turkish scrambled eggs with tomatoes), and a range of pastries baked in-house such as boreks and lavash rolls. Lunch offerings are diverse, featuring former Oklava Shoreditch head chef Kiazim’s signature lahmacuns and pides, the Islak (literally ‘wet’) burger drenched in garlic tomato sauce and ubiquitous in Istanbul street markets, and fresh seafood fried in semolina.

For a true Turkish feasting experience, indulge in Leydi’s evening transformation into an intimate meyhane, or traditional taverna. The menu centres around the mangal (wood-fired grill), with a range of meats and inventive marinades on offer, alongside essential meze options like muhammara (red pepper and walnut dip). 

Larger groups can order an XL stuffed kadayif pastry to finish off their meals, and guests can wash their meals down with raki, Turkiye’s aniseed-flavoured national drink, or wines from across the Eastern Mediterranean. There’s also a bespoke cocktail list from Turkish mixologist Kevin Patnode which promises imaginative takes on Turkish flavours - his Lion milk spritz, for example, combines raki with coriander, elderflower liqueur and sparkling wine.