David Carter and Sertaç Dirik announce KID

Chef Sertaç Dirik and restaurateur David Carter have announced a new restaurant partnership, with the duo opening KID in Soho this September.

Following the success of his family’s ocakbaşı restaurant Mangal II, KID marks Dirik's first solo restaurant.

KID sees Sertaç pairing up with restaurateur Carter, founder of the dcco. restaurant group, which includes OMA, AGORA and SMOKESTAK. Carter is also co-founder of manteca in Shoreditch.

Located on the corner of Frith Street and Bateman Street, KID will transform a Victorian corner building into a contemporary restaurant.

"It’s with massive excitement we’re opening the doors to KID in Soho," says Dirik. "At its core, KID is a restaurant that aims to show the vastness of Turkish cooking, expressed with the warmth you’d come to expect from someone’s home. Utilising the techniques I grew up learning from my parents, I feel it is an absolute privilege to serve you this summer in London’s most distinctive neighbourhood."

What's on the menu?

The menu at KID will reflect the food Dirik grew up with. While a Turkish influence runs throughout, the menu also features the flavours of Central Anatolia, where his family hails from and where many of these dishes find their origin. 

Starters include dishes like içli köfte - often reserved for family gatherings - prepared with a slow braise of aged ex-dairy beef, roasted onions and grape molasses, wrapped inside a bulgur shell. XL scallops from Cornwall are grilled over coals and served on a bed of wood roasted horoz beans, which are braised in a sauce of scallop roe, white wine and dried pepper paste from Hatay.

Larger sharing dishes are cooked over charcoal. From the grill, Cornish lamb saddle - rolled and grilled, served with an ezme of roast garlic and sivri peppers. From the wood oven, using traditional clay pot tandır cooking, comes braised goat kid, cooked overnight in the wood oven with stock and white wine.

To finish, KID will serve traditional turkish coffee and tea, alongside Turkish delights and baklavas that will play with seasonal British flavours such as cherry and pecan.

"I have been a long-term supporter of Mangal II, both in its OG days and then in its reincarnation in 2020 when Sertaç boldly reinvented what Turkish cooking meant for London," adds Carter. "What started off as a friendship, has now grown into a partnership and I’m super excited to be joining Sertaç in developing and unravelling KID. Soho represents a new challenge for us and very much looking to be bringing this project to fruition."

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