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1 hour ago
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A Turkish-Cypriot meyhane, which translates roughly as “wine house”, has slotted in upstairs at the Globe Tavern in Borough Market, south London. Any cab driver worth his salt will bend your ear over the fact that this is “where Bridget Jones lives”, which might be a bit confusing if you’ve booked in to eat kuzu şiş (lamb neck kebabs) and to knock back a couple of rakis with a fermented turnip juice chaser.
That Bridget Jones trivia, by the way, is completely true: the upstairs space at the Globe was used as the heroine’s gaff in that famous film franchise. Now, however, when you climb the staircase up to Kismet, an old, slightly eerie and flickering TV by the restaurant entrance begins to tell a very different tale. This is chef Keiran Mustafa’s very personal tribute to his family’s homeland and the community they built in London. Mustafa was the opening head chef at BiBi, to my mind one of the best restaurants in London, and before that he worked at industry stalwarts Chez Bruce and the Harwood Arms.
Mustafa’s partner in this new venture is Dom Hamdy, the smart-cookie restaurateur behind Crispin, Bistro Freddie and Canal. The result is structured and very chic bedlam that’s lovable and edgy in equal measure. On a midweek lunchtime not long after opening, chaotic Turkish jazz gives way to Turkish techno on the speakers as the grill in the open kitchen roars and glasses of Karmen’s Diren white wine at £8 a pop slide down rather too easily for the lunchtime crowd. Mustafa tells us that our table is where the weekly live music sets up. I haven’t sat that close to a PA since I was on a cross-channel ferry eating chips beside the bingo caller, and I’m sure that Kismet in full swing will be just as choppy.
The dining space is split into two rooms, all dark wood and white tablecloths, with lace over the windows and walls the colour of a 70-a-day Rothmans smoker’s lounge. Those walls are also festooned with Mustafa’s childhood photos, including one of his mum as a waitress in a long-gone restaurant.
The menu, meanwhile, is soothing, filling and hearty, with all manner of Turkish favourites. There’s girit ezme, or white cheese with walnut, dill and mint, and sigara boregi (feta rolled up in yufka pastry and deep-fried). There’s a grill, too, of course, blasting out the fragrant smells of beef and lamb köfte and tavuk şiş (chicken thigh kebab). The cooking leans heavily, if not decadently, on lashings of strained yoghurt, chilli butter, good olive oil and tahini – six of the nine cold meze are built on one or other of them. But don’t expect a great deal of spicy heat because this is more about comfort and coddling. Kick back with a basket of warm, pillowy bread that’s begging to be pulled through some atom (strained yoghurt) in a red pool of chilli butter.
In fact, that very humble-sounding atom with bread might well be one of the best things being served anywhere in Borough Market right now. I ate two whole baskets to myself, which finally killed off my ambition to be Victoria’s Secret’s most elderly thong model. Damn it, give me warm carbs. We ate monkfish straight off the mangal, which at £30 is the most expensive dish on the menu (the meze start at £6). To begin with, I was a little concerned that we’d never finish it and it would be a huge waste of fish, but no, it’s properly great: expertly grilled, succulent, and served with yet more yoghurt and chilli butter. The lamb neck kuzu şiş was likewise incredibly juicy, and we ate it with hand-cut fried potatoes that were unmistakably shallow-fried – proper staying-at-your-gran’s-house chips. Braised green beans were soft but fibrous, beautifully seasoned and the sort of beans that make you want to sell your house and move to the sun whenever you’re on holiday. A £14 plate of fried liver with onion salad lent some iron to proceedings, with a side of velvety and not-remotely bitter braised swiss chard.
Over tiny glasses of tea and glossy, teeth-chatteringly sweet pistachio baklava, we picked at a pistachio ice-cream that was much, much less sweet than the pastries, and therefore balanced them beautifully. You must order both, and we asked for the bill without an ounce of regret for our overindulgence.
Kismet will not make my confused definition of a meyhane any easier, nor will the Turkish-Cypriot community be in full agreement over whether it’s at all like one in Istanbul, either. What’s undeniable, however, is that Mustafa and Hamdy have come up with something that’s unique in its own right: the first genuinely cool, weird thing to have happened in Borough for ages. They’re only signed up to be here for a year, so go before that telly gets turned off.
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Kismet Upstairs at The Globe Tavern, 8 Bedale Street, London SE1 (no phone). Open lunch Weds-Sun noon-2.30pm (3pm Sun); dinner Tues-Sat 5-10pm (9.30pm Tues & Weds). From about £40 a head à la carte, plus drinks and service
