Charcoal grilling, the Ottomans way

Walk past our kitchen on Wood Street and the first thing you will notice is the smell: real charcoal, not gas. That is not an accident. An ocakbasi, a live charcoal hearth, is at the centre of Turkish grill cooking, and it is at the centre of ours too.

Charcoal burns hotter and more unevenly than gas, which sounds like a disadvantage until you understand what it does to meat. The high heat sears the outside fast, locking in juices, while fat dripping onto the coals sends smoke back up through the skewers. Gas simply cannot replicate that.

Everything we grill, from hand-skewered lamb and chicken shish to Adana kofte, lamb chops and whole racks of ribs, goes over the same live coals, and everything we serve is halal. We opened on Wood Street in June 2026, family-run from day one, cooking the way we would cook at home, just for a lot more people.

If you have never watched a charcoal grill in full swing, come and see it for yourself, dine in and watch the kitchen at work, or order ahead online and collect your food hot off the coals.