Leydi is the new venture of Turkish-Cypriot chef Selin Kiazim, formerly of the much-loved Oklava. It’s an all-day Turkish restaurant in the Hyde hotel next door to the Old Bailey, so it’s handy if you’re a judge or celebrating winning a trial.
On the surface, Leydi combines two things that, together, I tend to find ominous: a dining space in a hotel and a chef with reputation and talent. Long experience tells me that these things are not natural bedfellows. Fine food, yes, but also tourists with their pull-along suitcases. Fancy menus, yes, but more often than not served to the jet-lagged, who really wanted only a club sandwich. Worst-case scenario: sometimes, the posh, name-chef hotel restaurants barely even exist at all – Marco Pierre White is rarely spotted behind a vat of meatballs at the Holiday Inn in Blackpool, after all.
