Kid, the Soho restaurant putting lesser-known Turkish dishes – and its namesake ingredient – on London’s table

After training in Copenhagen, London-born Turkish chef Sertac Dirik returned to the UK in 2020 to rethink his father’s restaurant, Mangal II, with his brother Ferhat. In the following years, he turned the east London institution, beloved for its no-frills grilled meats, into a ballsy, smart and inventive contemporary establishment.

It was at the family business that he met Barbados-born restaurateur David Carter, the man behind some of London’s best recent openings, from Manteca to Smokestak and the Greek-inspired Oma and Agora. When Dirik expressed an interest in starting his own project, the two teamed up to open Kid in September, in low-lit, brick-lined corner of Soho.

The restaurant’s name refers to one of Dirik’s most distinct food memories: eating roast goat during a trip with his father to Aegean town Didim. The recollection has shaped an approach that’s straightforward yet refined; bold yet crowd-pleasing. “At Mangal II, I scratched an itch to create, create, create – but I also had a tendency to overcomplicate things,” he says. “But when I ate this dish, I thought, it’s so simple, so delicious. The end product is perfect.”

Further expeditions to Istanbul followed, during which the founding duo sampled dozens of mackerel wraps along the Bosporus. “There isn’t a classic recipe that everyone follows,” says Dirik. Each has their secret sauce, their secret spice.” At Kid, the sandwich contains a pin-boned, butterflied fish. It’s juicy and slightly sour, with the skin blistered and charred. Inspiration also comes from time spent by the grill with his father, who’s from Kaiseri in Central Anatolia. The Adana kebab, for example, is deliciously reassuring. “You just don’t mess with it,” says Carter.

The parental influence extends to a seductive section of Kid’s menu that takes cues from the time-consuming, homely cooking of Dirik’s mother, who’s from central Turkish city Sivas. It includes a crispy borek filled with caramelised onion and cheese, surrounded by courgette purée and içli kofte – dumpling-like meatballs doused in chilli and crispy garlic that were Dirik’s preferred after-school snack. “In recent years, I’ve leaned more towards my mum’s cooking and asked myself, why wouldn’t this be restaurant-worthy?” he says. “It requires a lot of effort and is unconventional to most diners.” Dirik plans to explore other lesser-known sides of Turkish cuisine. More rural research is to come. “There’s a whole well of untapped foods that we haven’t seen yet.”
kid.london

Recipe: Kid with freekeh

The restaurant’s titular dish was shaped by an encounter with chef Musa Dadeviren, who runs Ciya Sofrasi in Istanbul neighbourhood Kadikoy. Dirik sings the praises of goat – which, he says, has “the worst PR” – but lamb can also be swapped in for convenience. The restaurant’s satisfying take is braised, then roasted and set on a bed of fermented cabbage, carrot and chickpeas. It’s best prepared one day before.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

For the ‘kid’:

• 2 fig leaves
• 40g salt
• 1 goat-kid shoulder (substitute for lamb if unavailable), 2-2.5kg
• 1 brown onion
• 1 carrot
• 50ml molasses
• 50g butter
• Pickles and yoghurt, for serving

For the freekeh:

• 500g freekeh
• 50g chickpeas
• 1 litre chicken stock
• 100g fermented carrot
• 100g fermented cabbage
• 70g butter
• 20ml lemon juice
• Pinch of salt

Method

1. Blend the fig leaves with the salt and rub generously over the goat shoulder. Place in the fridge and leave overnight.
2. Wash off the salt and pat the shoulder dry.
3. Add to a pot along with the brown onion and carrot. Fill pot with water up to the bottom of the shoulder.
4. Cover pot with parchment paper, then two pieces of foil. Braise at 160C for three hours.
5. Remove foil and parchment, paper, add the molasses and butter to the roasting liquid and finish roasting at 210C for 5-10 minutes, basting every few minutes.
6. Cook the freekeh and chickpeas with chicken stock for about one hour, until the grains have completely softened.
7. Fold the fermented carrot and cabbage, butter and lemon juice through the freekeh while warm. Add salt to taste.
8. Add your grains to the bottom of the pot, place the shoulder on top and pour over your basting juices. Serve hot, with pickles and yoghurt.