The new Hyde London City hotel has a knockout restaurant
The Hyde hotel group has opened its first UK outpost inside the historic Spiers & Pond building in Farringdon and a big shiny new hotel needs a big shiny restaurant, which is why Selin Kiazim was drafted in to oversee the menu at Leydi. It’s a beautiful space, all dusky pinks, cloud-like lamps and gallery walls, giving it shades of the old Sketch Gallery room, and the food is just as attractive.
Eat This
Leydi takes inspo from the eating culture of Istanbul, with a menu that moves from Turkish breakfast right through to kebabs from the mangal in the evening, and there are few better to design such a menu than Selin.
She’s kept it fairly concise, which means it’s only filled with the hits – and yes, this does make ordering rather difficult, so come hungry and ideally, with some reinforcements too. The crisps, heavily seasoned with baharat spices, sumac and parsley and served with an intensely garlicky yoghurt, are practically obligatory. It’s hard not to overload on dips; both the cacik and tarama are solid, and the atom, garlic yoghurt laced with spicy urfa chilli oil, is a standout.
The börek, supersized for sharing, filled with leek and feta, and drizzled with honey is one of Leydi’s bestsellers and it’s not hard to see why. But the dolma, onions and tomatoes stuffed with rich tomatoey rice, is a great counterpoint to the cheesy pastry.
You can’t skip the mangal section and the lamb shish, cooked medium so it’s lovely and tender, served with grilled ezme, onion salad and pide underneath to soak up all those meat juices, is a fine kebab. With crisps and bread on offer at the start of the meal, you may think you don’t need the hand-cut chips cooked in beef dripping to go with your kebabs but you absolutely do. This kitchen knows its way around a potato because these are some of the best chips in town right now.
If you do manage to save room for pud – not an easy feat – the pistachio katmer, hot crisp pastry sandwiched around a great goat’s milk ice cream and dusted with pistachio, is a winner.
Drink This
Kevin Patnode, twice named the best bartender in Turkey, has created Leydi’s drinks list and the cocktails are really creative. The Pembe Fizz, a tall pink combo of strawberry-infused Stoli, pink peppercorn Campari, Noilly Prat, rose, hibiscus, sumac and tonic, and the short green Yasemin, made with Bacardi Carta Blanca, Muyu Jasmine, lemon, grape and Pet Nat, show his skill in balancing a number of flavours and make for great aperitifs. Turkish, Lebanese and Greek wines are represented on the list – the Kara Sevda from Chamlija is a full-bodied red that pairs perfectly with the lamb.
Why Go
If you’ve been missing Selin’s take on elevated but not fussy Turkish food, Leydi is a must-visit. And you really don’t want to miss those mega chips. Gather up a group, go and order as much as you can.
Key Information
Address | 6 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2AE
For more information | leydilondon.com