Ocakbaşı restaurants near me
Ocakbaşı grill houses near you: restaurants built around an open charcoal grill, where you sit at the counter and watch the cook. The best Turkish grilled meat in the country is made this way.
Find them near you
Search by postcode or use your location to find results near you.
What an ocakbaşı is
An ocakbaşı is a restaurant with a charcoal grill set into an open counter, with seats around it. The cook turns skewers by hand over real charcoal a few feet from your table, and the menu is built around what comes off that grill: shish, adana, köfte, chicken wings and thighs, lamb chops, quail, and grilled vegetables, on bread that has been warmed over the coals. Bread, salads and cold meze come first; the meat arrives when the cook says it is ready. It is a North London tradition that started in the 1980s and has spread to most large UK cities.
How to spot a real one
The grill must be charcoal, visibly glowing, not a gas grill with a charcoal flavour. The meat should be cut and skewered in house, with trays of marinating lamb in view. There should be counter seats, and the room should smell of smoke. Our list matches restaurants whose name signals ocakbaşı or mangal, which catches most of them, though a few of the best call themselves simply 'restaurant'.
How to order
Sit at the counter. Order bread and two or three cold meze, then a mixed grill for the table rather than individual mains, and let the cook set the pace. Ask for lamb 'orta' for medium. Chicken wings and lamb chops are the insider orders. Tea comes at the end. Many ocakbaşı houses are unlicensed and let you bring your own drinks; check when you book.
What it costs
Less than a comparable steak restaurant and usually more food. A mixed grill for two with meze and bread at a North London ocakbaşı is a fair evening out; the same in central London costs more for the postcode, not the food.
Where to find them
UK councils with the most matches in our directory.
Related dishes
- 01Ocakbasi
Ocakbaşı is not a dish but a kind of restaurant: a charcoal grill built into an open counter in the middle of the room, with seats around it so you watch the cook. The word means 'by the hearth'. In the UK the ocakbaşı houses of North London are where Turkish grilled meat is at its best, and the format has spread to most large cities. Knowing what an ocakbaşı is, and how to order in one, is the key to eating well in a Turkish restaurant.
- 02Adana Kebab
Adana kebab is hand-minced lamb mixed with tail fat and red pepper, pressed along a wide flat skewer and grilled over charcoal. It comes from the city of Adana in southern Turkey, where the name is legally protected and the recipe is strict: lamb, fat, pepper, salt, nothing else. The UK version is spicier and more varied than the original, and it is the dish to order when you want heat and smoke rather than a clean cut of meat.
- 03Kofte
Köfte are Turkish meatballs, but the word covers dozens of regional shapes and seasonings: grilled lamb köfte from the charcoal, the flat spiced patties of Inegöl and Akçaabat, kadınbudu fried in egg, and the vegetarian mercimek köftesi of red lentil and bulgur. In UK restaurants köfte almost always means the grilled kind, served with rice, grilled pepper and onion, and it is the safest order on any ocakbaşı menu.
- 04Meze
Meze are the small cold and hot dishes that open a Turkish meal: hummus, cacık, haydari, ezme, stuffed vine leaves, aubergine in several forms, fried liver, halloumi and a dozen more. A meze table is meant to be shared slowly with bread and rakı, and in the UK a spread of six or eight is a full meal for two. Meze is also the best way to eat well in a Turkish restaurant on a budget, and the clearest test of a kitchen's care.