Turkish breakfast near me
Where to get a Turkish breakfast near you: kahvaltı houses, Turkish cafés and bakeries that serve the full spread, menemen and simit. Weekend queues start early.
Find them near you
Search by postcode or use your location to find results near you.
What you are looking for
A Turkish breakfast, kahvaltı, is a table of small plates: white cheese, olives, tomato and cucumber, honey with clotted cream, jams, simit and bread, and hot eggs with sucuk or as menemen, with tea refilled endlessly. In the UK it is served as a 'serpme' spread per person and has become a weekend event. The places that do it are kahvaltı houses, Turkish cafés and some bakeries; grill restaurants rarely serve it. Our list matches restaurants and cafés whose name signals breakfast, café, bakery or kahvaltı.
When to go
Weekend mornings from nine to about two are the kahvaltı hours, and the best places in North London have queues from ten. Go before ten, or go on a weekday, when the same spread is served to an empty room. Most kahvaltı houses do not take bookings for weekend breakfast; a few of the larger ones do for groups.
What to order
One serpme spread between two people, then add hot dishes: menemen, sucuklu yumurta (eggs with sausage), sigara böreği. Tea comes in tulip glasses and in most places is unlimited. Ask for the menemen without onion if you prefer it plain, and for simit rather than sliced bread. A spread for two feeds three; do not order one each.
How to judge a kahvaltı house
Three or more cheeses on the plate, real kaymak rather than the supermarket kind, menemen that arrives in the pan it was cooked in, and simit that was baked that morning. The tea should come from a double teapot, not a bag. A queue of Turkish families on a Sunday is the surest sign.
Where to find them
UK councils with the most matches in our directory.
Related dishes
- 01Turkish Breakfast
Turkish breakfast, kahvaltı, is a spread of small plates rather than one dish: white cheese, olives, tomato, cucumber, honey with clotted cream, jams, eggs cooked with sucuk or as menemen, simit and fresh bread, and endless tea in small glasses. In UK restaurants it is sold per person as a 'serpme' spread and has become a weekend event, especially in North London and Manchester, with queues from ten in the morning.
- 02Menemen
Menemen is eggs cooked slowly with tomatoes and green peppers in olive oil and butter, served in the pan it was made in with bread for scooping. It is the standard Turkish breakfast dish and the subject of a national argument about whether onion belongs in it. In the UK it has spread beyond Turkish cafés to brunch menus everywhere, and the difference between good menemen and scrambled eggs with tomato is how long the tomato is cooked before the eggs go in.
- 03Simit
Simit is a ring of bread dipped in grape molasses and coated in sesame seeds, baked until crisp outside and chewy inside. It is the street bread of Istanbul, sold from carts and eaten with cheese and tea, and it is thinner, crisper and less doughy than a bagel, which it is often compared to. In the UK, Turkish bakeries bake it fresh every morning and it appears on every breakfast spread.
- 04Borek
Börek is layered filo pastry filled with cheese, spinach, minced meat or potato, baked or fried, and eaten hot at breakfast, as a snack or as a meze. It comes in dozens of shapes: rolled cigars, coiled spirals, flat trays cut into squares, and the pleated water börek that is boiled before baking. In the UK it is sold by the slice from Turkish bakeries and as sigara böreği, the fried cigars, on almost every restaurant menu.