Selin Kiazim and Laura Christie closed their Anatolian restaurant Kyseri in Fitzrovia in late 2019 and flipped it into Oklava Bakery + Wine, which opened in January. As the name suggests this is an all day kind of place, open for breakfast with fresh breads and pastries, before switching to a small evening menu with wines and cocktails.
We’ve been by for both breakfast and dinner (we like to be thorough) and there’s plenty to recommend at all times of day. For our morning visit we got stuck into the likes of baharat spiced bread, simit, tahinli (tahini and sugar pastry) and hellimli (halloumi bread). We’re desperate to come back for Saturday brunch where there’s a slightly bigger menu, including ‘Turkish eggs a la Providores’, which was one our favourite dishes in all of London before Providores sadly closed down last year. Selin used to work there however so this is as close to that as you’re ever going to get.
At lunch and dinner there’s larger dishes such as THAT black sea cheese & butter pide from Oklava at Arcade, and daily changing pastas like the beef & sour cherry manti from Kyseri. For us the highlights were the grilled halloumi drenched in lemon and honey, and the potato, cheese and pastirma (cured beef). And for dessert you need to know about only one thing – the kunefe with cream and pistachio. This is one of our favourite desserts in the world and Oklava does it very well indeed.
All of that is complemented by Laura’s wine list, which features bottles from Turkey, Armenia, Lebanon, Greece and Georgia – look out for the orange wine from Georgia’s Pheasant’s Tears vineyard.
Oklava Bakery + Wine has the low key feel of a local neighbourhood restaurant right in the middle of town, so it’s great for a quick casual dinner away from some of central London’s more hectic spots. And if you work in the area, you’ll be able to grab coffee and food to go from the new takeaway section too.
Listen to Selin’s episode of the Yes Chef podcast
64 Grafton Way, London W1T 5DP
oklava.co.uk