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Please note, Sedir has now closed. Time Out Food Editors, December 2018.
You’ll find Sedir in a row of cheek-by-jowl restaurants of various nationalities just off Upper Street. During the day and on summer evenings, one of the attractions is sun-trap outdoor tables. Indoors, the decor plays up the sultry with ox-blood coloured walls hung with copies of Victorian orientalist paintings, taking hammams and harems as an excuse to depict lightly-clad bathing beauties – the soft porn of its day. Cooking is less opulent than the surroundings (if not the prices) might suggest. Meze was a mixed success: tarama was that all-too-frequent, unappetisingly artificial shade of pink, houmous nothing special and the kısır tasted oddly of coconut. Cacik was satisfyingly thick, however, and good mücver came with a rewarding oak leaf lettuce salad. Fried peppers with yoghurt needed seasoning. All this was a tight fit on our tiny table. For those with enough appetite to move on to mains, the usual roster of grills is available, some with a nod to the west, so chicken schnitzel comes with chips, grilled seafood with mashed potato. Service is attentive.