Mangal II chef Sertaç Dirik teams up with Manteca co-founder to open Soho restaurant

Former Mangal II head chef Sertaç Dirik and Manteca co-founder David Carter are to open Soho restaurant Kid in September.

At Kid, Dirik will draw on his Turkish heritage along with skills he has refined while working in London and Copenhagen.

The chef learned his trade at his family ocakbaşı Mangal II in east London, before cooking in restaurants around Copenhagen. On his return to London he and his brother took the reigns of Mangal II transforming it into a contemporary Turkish restaurant to great acclaim. Dirik announced his departure from Mangal II in 2023. 

Dirik says, “It’s with massive excitement we’re opening the doors to Kid in Soho. 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.”

To open Kid, Dirik will team up with Carter who also founded London restaurants Oma, Agora and Smokestak.

Carter said: “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. 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.”

Kid’s menu will reflect the dishes Dirik grew up with, honouring techniques passed down through his family and the flavours of Central Anatolia, where Dirik’s family hail from.

Starters will include içli köfte prepared with a slow braise of aged ex-dairy beef, roasted onions and grape molasses, wrapped inside a delicately worked bulgur shell as well as XL scallops from Cornwall shucked, grilled over coals and served on a bed of wood roasted horoz beans braised in a rich sauce of scallop roe, white wine and dried pepper paste from Hatay.

Larger sharing dishes will be cooked over charcoal and include Cornish lamb saddle, rolled and grilled before being served with an ezme of roast garlic and sivri peppers.

Meanwhile braised goat kid will be cooked overnight in the wood oven.

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.