Turkish restaurants · UKnearme

Ocakbaşı

Also spelled: ocakbasi, ocakbaşi

A restaurant built around an open charcoal grill set into a counter, with seats around it so you watch the cook. Literally 'by the hearth'.

The ocakbaşı format came to London with Turkish and Kurdish families in the 1980s and is now the standard for grilled meat in the UK. The grill is a long trough of charcoal; skewers of shish, adana, köfte, chicken and lamb chops are turned by hand and served on bread warmed over the coals. Sit at the counter if you can, order a mixed grill for the table, and let the cook set the pace.