Kismet, a Turkish-Cypriot meyhane – roughly translating as “wine house” – has opened upstairs at the Globe Tavern in Borough Market, south London. The space was famously used as Bridget Jones’s flat in the film franchise, but now an old, slightly eerie flickering TV by the entrance tells a different tale.
The restaurant is chef Keiran Mustafa’s personal tribute to his family’s homeland and the community they built in London. Mustafa was the opening head chef at BiBi, described by the reviewer as one of the best restaurants in London, and previously worked at Chez Bruce and the Harwood Arms. His partner is Dom Hamdy, the restaurateur behind Crispin, Bistro Freddie and Canal.
Chic bedlam and a roaring grill
The result is structured and very chic bedlam, lovable and edgy in equal measure. On a midweek lunchtime not long after opening, chaotic Turkish jazz gives way to Turkish techno as the grill in the open kitchen roars and glasses of Karmen’s Diren white wine at £8 a pop slide down rather too easily. Mustafa told the reviewer that their table was where the weekly live music sets up.
The dining space is split into two rooms, all dark wood and white tablecloths, with lace over the windows and walls the colour of a 70-a-day Rothmans smoker’s lounge. The walls are festooned with Mustafa’s childhood photos, including one of his mum as a waitress in a long-gone restaurant.
Soothing, filling and hearty cooking
The menu is soothing, filling and hearty, with Turkish favourites such as girit ezme (white cheese with walnut, dill and mint) and sigara boregi (feta rolled in yufka pastry and deep-fried). The grill blasts out beef and lamb köfte and tavuk şiş (chicken thigh kebab). The cooking leans heavily on strained yoghurt, chilli butter, good olive oil and tahini – six of the nine cold meze are built on one or other of them. Don’t expect a great deal of spicy heat; this is more about comfort and coddling.
The humble-sounding atom (strained yoghurt) with warm, pillowy bread might well be one of the best things being served anywhere in Borough Market right now, the reviewer said, admitting to eating two whole baskets. Monkfish straight off the mangal is the most expensive dish at £30 (meze start at £6), expertly grilled, succulent, and served with yet more yoghurt and chilli butter. The lamb neck kuzu şiş was incredibly juicy, eaten with hand-cut fried potatoes that were unmistakably shallow-fried. Braised green beans were soft but fibrous, beautifully seasoned. A £14 plate of fried liver with onion salad lent some iron to proceedings, with a side of velvety and not-remotely bitter braised swiss chard.
Sweet finish and a limited run
Over tiny glasses of tea and glossy, teeth-chatteringly sweet pistachio baklava, the reviewer picked at a pistachio ice-cream that was much less sweet than the pastries, balancing them beautifully. The bill was requested without an ounce of regret for the overindulgence.
Kismet will not make the reviewer’s confused definition of a meyhane any easier, nor will the Turkish-Cypriot community be in full agreement over whether it’s at all like one in Istanbul. What’s undeniable is that Mustafa and Hamdy have come up with something unique: the first genuinely cool, weird thing to have happened in Borough for ages. They’re only signed up to be here for a year, so go before that telly gets turned off.
