Ali Ocakbasi is a Turkish restaurant located in Leicester square, it is right in the hustle and bustle of the square somewhere we don’t usually venture all that much for food.
We arrived at Ali Ocakbasi at around 6:30PM and the restaurants tables were already filling. It was a lovely warm evening so of course as per usual we decided to dine al fresco!
We both ordered an alcoholic beverage I went for the Hendricks Gin & Tonic and my sister ordered a Peroni- the perfect drinks to enjoy on a warm sunny evening in July. We also asked for a jug of tap water.
We wanted to make sure we ordered a selection of starters so we asked the waiter what he recommended. He showed across a ‘pre-made’ board that had lots of different dips on it and explained to us what each of the starters were. We ordered a selection of cold starters and enjoyed each of them with some flat bread.
Hummus- homemade hummus of chickpea, tahini, cumin, milk and lemon juice. You just cannot beat a homemade hummus!
Kuru Cacik- Turkish yoghurt with cubes of cucumber
Absgannus – Roasted eggplants with yoghurt and garlic served with virgin olive oil on top. This was my sisters favourite dish out of all of them she loves garlic and this had a very strong garlic flavour!
Kisir- Special bulgur salad mix with Anatolian spices and vegetables
Efe- white cheese, parsley, onion, walnut served with virgin olive oil. I loved this starter the cheese was feta cheese which is just my all-time favourite!
We loved all of the starters/dips that we ordered they were all full of flavour and tasted incredibly fresh. We finished every single one of them and we even had to ask for some extra flat bread as we gobbled our first basket up and they were perfectly fine with providing us with some more.
For the main dish we ordered one of their Pides we saw a couple of photos on their Instagram before visiting and knew we had to order one! We went for the Patlicanli Pide which was a traditional Anatolian pizza with eggplant purée and topped with cheddar cheese! It was truly scrumptious and if you visit Ali Ocakbasi you should definitely order a Pide!
They had so many different types of Pide’s, we went for a meat free option as my sister is a pescatarian but the meat options also looked delish! They are huge as well we couldn’t finish all of ours so my sister took it home with her!
To go with our Pide we also ordered their Ali Salata which is the signature salad of Ali. The Ali Salata was finely chopped tomato, rocket, parsley, mint, sumac, chilli powder and pomegranate sauce on top (my fave)! We would recommend this salad it was very flavoursome and the perfect dish to accompany a Pide.
We were also advised to try something from the grill so of course we couldn’t say no! We went for the Çöp şiş which is a type of lamb shish kebab! It was finely chopped marinated lamb pieces that had been barbecued on the grill and it was served with flat bread, grilled green pepper, a side salad and bulgar rice.
I loved this dish and we liked the way it was served on a chopping board! Lamb isn’t a meat I would usually opt for but I am glad I did as it was nice to have a change!
We also tried some of their desserts, don’t ask us how we were already SO full but we always feel like we should if we are writing a review!
We ordered two dishes for dessert, the waiter recommended that we tried one of the dishes that they made fresh at the restaurant which was the Künefe we had never heard of this dish before and we were interested to know what it tasted like as the waiter said it was cheesy but also sweet!
The Künefe is oven baked kadaifi with molten served with syrup and pistachio powder on top!
We also ordered a traditional baklava as I love them! They are not made fresh onsite they order them in but that didn’t bother me as they were so delicious!
We had such a lovely evening at Ali Ocakbasi, the service was incredible and it was lovely being able to sit outside in Leicester Square watching the world go by!
If you are in central London and looking for somewhere delicious to go for dinner then we really cannot recommend Ali Ocakbasi enough!
