Antepliler

The tongue-twister of a name refers to Antep, a town in south-eastern Anatolia, near the Turkish border with Syria; 'Antepliler' means someone from that town. Antep is famous throughout Turkey for its excellent cooking, particularly kebabs and baklava.

Most of the staff here hail from the Antep area but have been in London for a while, working in Newington Green, where their first business (also called Antepliler) has been getting rave reviews from Time Out since opening in 1992.

The original pâtisserie, offering baklava and own-made ice-cream, was such a success that Antepliler now runs a low-key café and a restaurant across four shop-fronts.

This Upper Street venture is pitched far more upmarket, aimed at a wider (non-Turkish) audience, and is supposedly more 'Ottoman' - though to the uninformed eye (such as mine), the pinpoints of light and reclining women motifs make it look more like an Istanbul nightclub.

Yet the dishes are true to the flavours of south-eastern Anatolia. A mixed plate of mezze will include good versions of the more familiar dishes, from tabule or grilled aubergines to beans cooked various ways, but also more unusual dishes such as mercimek kofte - spiced lentil koftes. They all had the vibrant flavours of fresh herbs and freshly ground spices.

'Gaziantep' ('Glorious Antep') specialities are helpfully marked on the menu.

We tried the diced lamb filled with spiced butter, which was rich and tender. The sogan kebabs - ground lamb with chargrilled shallots topped with pomegranate sauce - had the pleasingly sour-sweet flavours which you can find along the Silk Road from Anatolia to Central Asia.

Upper Street has many other Turkish restaurants, a few of them pretty good - but excellent service and first-class cooking make Antepliler the Ottoman prince among them.