Turkish home cooking in London: lokanta canteens, mantı, stews and tava dishes
Kebabs are only half of Turkish food. This is a guide to the stews, dumplings, stuffed vegetables and tray bakes that Turkish families eat at home, and the eleven London places that cook them properly.
Last updated November 2026
Turkish home cooking in London is harder to find than a charcoal grill, but it is there if you know the words. In Turkey the everyday restaurant is the lokanta, and the most basic kind is the esnaf lokantası, the tradesmen’s canteen, where a dozen dishes sit in trays on a steam counter and you point at what you want: a soup, a stew, a vegetable dish cooked in olive oil, rice and bread. Lokanta cooking is slow, saucy and mostly done before the doors open.
London has one true counter lokanta on this list and a cluster of restaurants that keep home-style dishes on the menu beside their kebabs: mantı pinched by hand, tandır lamb cooked for hours, içli köfte, stuffed aubergine and the tray-baked tava dishes of the south-east. Here is what to look for and where. The home cooking and lokanta category has the full list.
Quick picks
- Best true lokanta: Esnaf Lokantası, Enfield
- Best mantı: Hanımeli, Dalston
- Best tava dishes: 27 Lahmacun, Tottenham
- Best slow-cooked lamb: TANDIR, Palmers Green
- Best Ottoman classics: Iznik, Highbury
The dishes to know
- Mantı: tiny dumplings filled with spiced lamb, boiled and covered in garlic yoghurt and paprika butter. The Kayseri version is the smallest.
- İçli köfte: a crisp shell of bulgur filled with spiced minced lamb, nuts and herbs, fried or boiled.
- Karnıyarık and imam bayıldı: aubergine split and stuffed, with minced meat in the first and onion, tomato and olive oil in the second.
- Güveç: a slow-cooked casserole in a clay pot, usually lamb with vegetables.
- Tandır: lamb cooked for hours until it falls off the bone, named after the pit oven it was once cooked in.
- Tava and sac tava: tray or pan dishes of meat with tomato, peppers and onion, baked or cooked on an iron plate.
- Hünkar beğendi: lamb stew on a purée of smoked aubergine and cheese. The name means “the sultan liked it”.
- Kuru fasulye: white beans stewed with tomato, eaten with rice and pickles. The national comfort dish.
- Sarma and dolma: vine leaves rolled around rice, and vegetables stuffed with it.
- Çorba: soup. Mercimek (red lentil) is the everyday one; kelle paça is a rich lamb broth for the brave.
North London
Esnaf Lokantası, Enfield
The real thing. A family-run canteen on Green Street, off Hertford Road, where the day’s soups, meat, chicken and vegetable dishes sit on the counter and the menu is whatever was cooked that morning. A chef’s plate gives you several at once. Halal, no alcohol, outdoor seating, open 7am to 10pm every day. Ask what is meat-free on the day, because the counter changes.
TANDIR, Palmers Green
Named after the slow-cooking method, and the tandır lamb is the dish to order, followed by pide from the oven. Kelle paça çorbası is on the menu for anyone who wants the traditional lamb soup. A bright, family-friendly room on Green Lanes in Palmers Green with Turkish breakfast from 9am most days (noon on Tuesdays).
27 Lahmacun, Tottenham
The number 27 is Gaziantep’s plate code, and the menu leans that way. Beyond the lahmacun there is a homemade tava section with dishes rarely seen on London menus: Kilis tava (minced lamb and beef baked with tomato, peppers and herbs), kasap içli karnıyarık and potato kebab, plus mantı and içli köfte. Katmer with pistachio to finish. Open 8.30am to 10pm, with menemen for breakfast.
Köfteci Metin London, Harringay
A köfteci does one thing: grilled meatballs. Metin’s short menu is built around them, with piyaz (white bean salad in a sharp dressing), çoban salatası and chips for the table. It is the kind of plain, well-seasoned food Turkish families eat on a weeknight, in a calmer room than most of Green Lanes.
Iznik, Highbury
A dining room of Ottoman fabrics, lamps and painted brick on Highbury Park that feels more like a family home than a restaurant. Hünkar beğendi and the house İznik köfte are the dishes, with smaller portions available. Halal, with high chairs and plenty of vegetarian and vegan dishes; busiest on Sunday afternoons and Arsenal match days.
Beyti Ocakbaşı, Newington Green
A grill from the pavement, but the menu runs to well over a hundred dishes and the home-style ones are worth seeking out: sac tava of lamb with onions and tomatoes, Akçaabat köfte from the Black Sea, mantı among the specials and ıspanak tarator (spinach in garlic yoghurt) from the cold meze. Open 11am to 11pm daily.
Hanımeli, Dalston
Dough rolled by hand each morning, stews started before opening and the restaurant’s own certified halal meat. Mantı here are hand-pinched and served with yoghurt and paprika butter; gözleme are filled to order, and there are içli köfte and hand-rolled vine-leaf sarma. Open 7am to 7pm, so this is lunch rather than dinner.
Central and south London
Pide & Co, Holborn
A Kayseri pide specialist on Kingsway, but look past the pide to the Turkish classics: mantı with garlic yoghurt and tomato sauce, kuru fasulye with rice, turşu (pickles) and flatbread, and lamb tandır. Fully halal and alcohol-free, around 50 seats, closed Sundays.
Pitted Olive, Bloomsbury
Lunch here is home-style mains such as musakka, biber dolması (stuffed peppers) and roast chicken, served with dips and vegetables from the counter. A small, cosy café near King’s Cross, open 9am to 5pm Monday to Saturday.
Sefa Restaurant, Greenwich
Homemade mantı, incik (slow-cooked lamb shank with carrots on mashed potato) and a Black Sea breakfast with mıhlama, a stretchy cornmeal and cheese dish, put Sefa on this list. Meals come with complimentary salad, olives and bread, and there is a weekday set lunch.
Payiz, Lewisham
Five minutes from Lewisham station, Payiz keeps kuzu incik (lamb shank braised in tomato sauce), a veggie güveç of aubergine, peppers and mushroom, musakka and imam bayıldı on the menu alongside its grill. Cocktails and outdoor seating make it the most evening-friendly place here.
Frequently asked questions
What is a lokanta?
A lokanta is an everyday Turkish restaurant serving cooked dishes rather than grilled meat. An esnaf lokantası is the simplest version, a canteen where the food is displayed in trays and you choose at the counter. Esnaf Lokantası in Enfield works exactly this way.
Where can I eat mantı in London?
Hanımeli in Dalston pinches its mantı by hand, and you will also find it at 27 Lahmacun in Tottenham, Pide & Co in Holborn, Sefa in Greenwich and Beyti Ocakbaşı in Newington Green. Grand Bazaar in Marylebone serves a Kayseri-style version, and Kibele Restaurant on Great Portland Street has it with garlic yoghurt and chilli butter.
Is Turkish home cooking vegetarian-friendly?
Much of it is. Imam bayıldı, kuru fasulye, vegetable güveç, sarma, musakka and most olive-oil vegetable dishes are meat-free, and lokanta counters usually have several. Ask on the day, because trays change and some stews use meat stock.
What should I order if I do not want a kebab?
Start with mercimek çorbası, then a tava or güveç with rice and bread, or mantı. For a lighter meal, have içli köfte and two or three cold meze. Finish with sütlaç, the baked rice pudding.
