David Carter has built an empire on the power of collaboration. Sister restaurants Oma and Agora, developed with Kiln's Nick Molyviatis, have grown into well-known fixtures since opening two years ago. Now Carter – who’s also behind Shoreditch’s Manteca – has teamed up with chef Sertaç Dirik (the visionary chef who, with his brother Ferhat reimagined Dalston’s Mangal II) on Kid, a cosmopolitan, Turkish-inspired restaurant that opened in Soho at the start of September.
Spanning half a block adjacent to the storied live music venue Ronnie Scott’s, Kid is unexpectedly understated. Its long, glassy exterior conceals an entrance set into a discreet stone wall. Inside, floor-to-ceiling exposed brick walls nod to the brick-lined interiors of an ocakbaşı (a traditional Turkish restaurant centred around a grill), while a softly backlit open kitchen lined with pottery lends the space an intimate atmosphere that honours craftsmanship. It’s a considered piece of design by Box 9, a studio that collaborated with Carter on restaurants like Oma and Agora. “The site feels very classic Soho, with lots of nooks and crannies within the space – it’s not just a square room," Carter tells Broadsheet. "Being in Soho means it’s a very old building and as we developed Kid we discovered more spaces: there’s a vault downstairs which we’ve made into a table of six, and found a whole other room tucked underneath the stairs. We have a private dining room that’s hidden away, too.”
Downstairs, a bustling prep kitchen does the heavy lifting, sending trays of skewered kofte and containers of freshly spun hummus upstairs throughout service. At the pass, Dirik calmly keeps service moving smoothly, fuelled by the roaring charcoal flames. For Dirik, the small-plates format isn’t simply a stylistic choice; it is intrinsic to the identity of Turkish food. “The format of eating small plates of food is Turkish culture,” he says. “Meze consists of cold dips, fried vegetables, fish [and] grilled meats … utilising seasonal produce is very much the identity of Turkish cuisine and all we're doing is honouring that tradition.”
That tradition gets a few global twists. The bluefin tuna ezme (spicy Turkish salad) trades the classic tomato-based dip for something closer to a tartare on a crisp. The shareable galata mackerel, another standout, arrives butterflied and blistered over a bed of julienned carrot and cabbage, rather than as the handheld sandwich typical of Istanbul’s bridge-side stalls. Smaller plates of meze and breads stay closer to London: its puffed flatbread owes more to Oma’s springy, Wildfarmed-flour laffa and Agora’s garlicky, pillowy pide than the sesame-crusted Turkish original. Dirik's favourite, though, is the faithful beef İçli köfte. “It’s a dish I associate heavily with my mother's cooking,” he says, “and it’s been the most humbling one to prepare. Every day we tweak it and make it a little better, though I doubt we’ll ever get them as good as hers.”
The wine list is short but sharp, and cocktails lean inventive rather than traditional, including the Incir Fizz, which blends fig, Turkish pet nat and gin.
Ultimately, Carter and Dirik are careful to frame Kid as evolution, not experiment. “We’re not reinventing the wheel, just applying those recipes and techniques through a London lens,” Dirik says. Carter agrees: for now, the focus is squarely on getting Kid right. “We have no ambition beyond making the experience as good as it can be. Everything else will come after.”
Kid
53–55 Frith Street, W1D 4SJ
Hours:
Mon to Sat midday–3pm; 5.30pm–10pm
