Iznik Restaurant

The Iznik Restaurant is a traditional Turkish establishment that is - it's unavoidable - a delight. Its name is derived from the city of Iznik in Turkey; a city famous for the ceramic tiles and mosaic decorative style that adorns the walls of the restaurant, delivering a lovely flash of blue and augmenting an authentic atmosphere for diners to enjoy. With a menu based on cuisine that has been pleasing Ottoman royalty for centuries, us mere London-based diners should certainly find something to delight us.

Situated on the bustling and ever cosmopolitan Highbury Park Road in Islington, the Iznik Restaurant attracts a wildly diverse clientele not only thanks to its location - although that certainly helps - but also because its interior is enticing, its staff is exceptionally warm and welcoming, and the aromas emanating from within are sure to lead anybody with a keen sense of smell the restaurant's way. Iznik is open from 10.30am each morning, seven days a week, closing its kitchen at 11pm each evening, with diners free to linger and finish off their drinks and meals, often with the staff joining you if you've got along, which is highly likely.

Meals at the Iznik Restaurant are exquisite in every sense. As ever, the ingredients used are as fresh and fine as possible, creating some wonderful dishes that will please all palates. The cold mezes comprise humus, fava, kisir and dolma, or stuffed vine leaves to you and me; while hot mezes include falafel, Hellim, Iznik kofte and sucuk - grilled spicy sausages. Additional a la carte options are equally impressive and include Cipura (grilled seabream), lamb or chicken skewers, sheesh kebabs, kofte kebabs, oven-baked meatballs and the filling mixed grill. The Iznik also has an exhaustive range of vegetarian dishes, salads, desserts, wines, spirits and beers, while the staff will be extremely eager for all diners to try the Turkish firewater.