Restaurants

You’ll find Sedir on a parade of restaurants that spills over from Upper Street. In good weather, staff put tables on the relatively narrow pavement outside. Inside, the dark red walls are dominated by enormous prints of European paintings of the Ottoman bazaars and harems. Recently, Sedir’s menu has consciously become less exclusively Turkish and more generically Mediterranean, with several pasta choices. Even many Turkish dishes are now offered with chips or mashed potato. The core of the list, though, is still Turkish, and the dishes we ordered were first rate. We started with a spinach pancake (rolled thickly, in a rich tomato sauce), and delicately fried albanian liver. To follow, sea bass was grilled in a traditional Turkish manner yet came with mashed potato, broccoli and runner beans which, while not traditional, went well. Mengen (delicious pan-fried chicken with mushrooms and rice) is named after one of Turkey’s most famous culinary towns by the Black Sea. Our dining experience was enjoyable, but would have been improved by more space between tables.

Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2009