Gallipoli

We were over in North London yesterday and, having not done very much research on places to go for lunch, we ended up at Gallipoli on Upper Street. There are two branches not very far apart but the cafe is less formal and has a menu that reflects that, lots of little dishes and grilled meats rather than the tagines and baked dishes found at Gallipoli Bazaar. We’ve eaten here a couple of times before but not for a long time so this was a good excuse to return.

As there were three of us, we decided on a selection of the small dishes so that we could taste as many things as possible. In retrospect, we probably should have tried some more new dishes rather than sticking mostly to old favourites but that can go on the list of reasons to return.

The sucuk izgara (grilled Turkish sausage) was highly seasoned and generally thought to be good, I found the texture a little off-putting though: a little squeaky and chewy, like over-cooked chorizo.

The halloumi (or hellim as they call it) was just as halloumi should be, salty and squeaky and served on top of some grilled, Turkish bread with some salad alongside. The char-grilled flavour came across really strongly, much more so than when we’ve cooked it on a griddle pan or barbecue at home.

The broad bean dish (Zeytinyagli Bakla) came with a dill-yoghurt sauce which was sharp and fresh, it was good on it’s own but went particularly well the salty halloumi and spiced sausage.

The hummus was much smoother than hummus we’ve eaten before and usually we prefer a coarser texture but this was very good, full of flavour and another great contrast to the spicier foods we ordered – a happy accident really because we just picked a bunch of dishes that we like rather than thinking about what would go with what.

The kisir was the closest dish we could find to tabbouleh on the menu and was a lot like tabbouleh except with the addition of a tomato sauce and hazelnuts. I enjoyed the crunch of the nuts but wasn’t particularly keen on the tomato sauce.

We also had falafel but we don’t seem to have a picture of those. These were excellent and a much better example than those we made earlier in the week. These included carrot and broad beans which ours didn’t, not that I’m claiming that as the difference but I was surprised by the addition of broad beans.

This was the perfect amount for three of us for lunch but I’d like to go back and explore the grill menu, if the smoky halloumi is anything to go by then I imagine it’s all very good.