Noa Restaurant

There’s Turkish cuisine, then there’s Anatolian cuisine. Geographically, the regions are more or less synonymous, but when a restaurant has the confidence to describe the cuisine it creates as Anatolian, what is implied is a kitchen staff with a deep understanding of the complex, ancient culinary traditions that have always been an important aspect of life in the part of the world we now know as Turkey. Noa Restaurant, down Upper Street in London’s St Mary's, is one such eatery, and its confidence is entirely justified. There are many of the familiar dishes that any convert to Turkish food knows and loves, but also a selection of traditional Anatolian dishes that beg to be explored.

Beginning a meal at St Mary’s Noa Restaurant with a selection of cold and hot starters is almost mandatory. As always, Turkish food is best shared in a group, so bring friends and family and dig into the chef’s special karisik soguk meze or karisik sicak meze, a selection of six cold or hot meze dishes. Any connoisseur of Turkish (or Balkan, southeastern European, or Middle Eastern) cuisine should turn to the traditional Anatolian dishes that are the backbone of this special London restaurant. Watch as the expert chefs in this Upper Street open kitchen prepare dishes such as the ezmeli kebab, a specialty of the southeastern Anatolian city of Gaziantep, which finds Adana kofte on a bed of ezme, a traditional Turkish salsa of finely chopped tomatoes, onions, parsley and Anatolian herbs. This is just a teaser of the less well-known delights on offer at Noa. Book now and take a gastronomic journey through Anatolia.