Chef Selin Kiazim confirms plans for second restaurant

The founders of London restaurant Oklava have confirmed they will open their long-awaited second site this year.

Chef Selin Kiazim and her business partner Laura Christie are to launch Kyseri in Fitzrovia this May. It comes after the plans were first reported in January.

While Oklava focuses on modern Turkish grills and flatbreads, the new restaurant will offer Turkish 'pastas' such as manti (similar to small dumplings) and eriste (likened to ‘broken’ tagilatelle).

The minimalist menu will be split in to four sections - snacks, starters, pastas, mains and desserts - with just three options available for each.

Dishes will include spiced beef and sour cherry manti, yoghurt sauce, tomato-chilli butter and pine nuts; roasted halibut, hamsi pilav and sivri butter; and eriste with walnuts, lemon-braised greens, sage, egg yolk and tulum cheese.

Christie will be using her ‘extensive knowledge’ of wine to curate a selection of bottles from small producers across Turkey and the Middle East. 

The team opened Oklava in Shoreditch in 2015, and it is recommended in the Michelin Guide.

Kiazim, who has Turkish-Cypriot heritage, worked for chef Peter Gordon at The Providores in Marylebone and later became head chef at Kopapa in Covent Garden.

She was one the four wining chefs on the 2017 series of Great British Menu, and served the dessert course at a banquet to celebrate 140 years of the Wimbledon tennis championships.