Oklava

You’ll eat a killer roast cauliflower with chilli and pistachios, an incredible lamb sausage, and the best hellim (halloumi) of your life here.

If you happened to be terribly smug and decided to prove the irritating depths of your London restaurant knowledge by coming up with a place that ticked every box marked cliché, it would look like Oklava.

There are plenty of small touches which add extra flourish — from a decadently tiled pizza oven (or should that be pide oven?) to fresh flowers in the toilets — while a wall-dominating wine rack signals a seriousness when it comes to drinks.

The streets east of Old Street are paved with cheap kebab shops, but Oklava is something quite different. Firstly, the look is contemporary chic (in this part of EC2, one man’s ‘Shoreditch’ is another man’s ‘City fringes’), with an open kitchen, sleek designer furnishings and posh scented candles in the loos.

Modern Turkish chef du jour (which is restaurant speak for “chef of the day”) – is now deeply embedded within her restaurant Oklava, an intimate, inconspicuous, delightful (and Turkish) eatery tucked away on the corner of two unassuming East London side streets.