KID Soho opens with Sertaç Dirik's Anatolian menu

KID Soho, the Turkish restaurant from restaurateur David Carter and chef Sertaç Dirik, opened this month at 53-55 Frith Street, built around the Central Anatolian cooking of Dirik's family rather than the ocakbaşı grill that made his name.

Dirik spent years at Mangal II, the Dalston ocakbaşı his family ran, before leaving in 2023. KID is his first restaurant as an owner, made with Carter, the founder of Manteca, Smokestak, Oma and Agora.

The room splits into two dining areas plus counter seats facing the kitchen, with a separate wine room for private bookings. Dishes read closer to home cooking than restaurant plating: börek with beyaz peynir and courgette, içli köfte with aged beef and yoğurt, and çökelek cheese made in-house.

KID Soho trades the ocakbaşı grill for the dishes Dirik's family cooked at home, and the room feels calmer for it.

KID Soho's fire-cooked plates

Larger dishes come off the fire: Galata mackerel, adana köfte wrapped in lavaş, and kalamar with isot pepper. The signature dish is a whole kid goat shoulder with fig leaf and freekeh, priced at £75 for the table, alongside £14 cocktails including a black olive and black pepper martini.

The wine list leans into Turkish producers, still rare on Soho lists dominated by French and Italian names, while the open kitchen keeps the coal grill in view of most tables.

The Independent named the opening among September's most anticipated, and The Infatuation listed it among London's most exciting restaurants of 2026, both framing it as a shift from Mangal II's grill-first format toward meze and shared plates.

Prices arrive as costs keep climbing

The opening follows a run of Soho and Covent Garden sites from the Carter stable, including The Horses in Clerkenwell, which opened days earlier. KID Soho's £75 centrepiece and £14 cocktails land as UK food inflation is forecast to nearly double by 2027, adding pressure on restaurants built around affordable grilling to raise prices without losing regulars.

For Dirik, KID Soho marks a change of register: after a decade cooking to an ocakbaşı's fast, communal rhythm, the Frith Street menu leans on family recipes and a slower pace of service.