NEW Turkish restaurant Kai opened its doors before Christmas but officially launches on Thursday, January. When ToM popped into the old Prezzo site on Deansgate some last minute structural tweaks were going on and the final food menu still had to be rubber-stamped.
What was definitely a fixture was the elaborate canopy of artificial flowers in the central dining space. “It’s on a service contract, so we don’t have to worry about maintaining its beautiful appearance,” Kai owner Tayub Amjad told us.
Tayub co-founded Zouk with his brother Mudassar, but a city centre Turkish restaurant is a bold new direction, though as at their Pakistani/Indian establishment off Oxford Road the charcoal grill is the centrepiece of their culinary ethos.
The inspiration for Kai (named after the first tribe that started the Ottoman empire) came from Tayub’s visit to Istanbul, where he was entranced by food, culture and hospitality of Turkey. This idea of a tribe apparently mirrors the sharing style of food, a place where people can come together and eat different types of dish.
That involves a good deal of meat to be shared such as Tomahawk steak and whole lamb ribs, carved at the table.
There'll is also slow-cooked lamb shank, traditional pide flatbreads with various toppings, kebabs, vegetarian options, fresh salads, soups, and the famous Turkish 'balloon' bread, which is a large flatbread which inflates with hot air as it cooks.
All the breads will be cooked in the Prezzo pizza oven which has been kept in the kitchen.
The dishes are designed to be shared and range from £6 to £14.
The 140-cover restaurant is split into three sections. Firstly, the bar at the front of the restaurant will have lively music, cocktails, Turkish beers and bar food. Outside there will be seating where guests can enjoy shisha pipes. Inside in the bar area there are dark leather booths.
The middle section of the restaurant is supposed to recreate the al fresco dining culture, hence those colourful flowers in Turkey, contrasting with the black and white tiled floor and dark blue leather chairs.
The back of the restaurant by the open kitchen is the 'chef's table' area, where the chefs will come out and finish off the dishes at the table or carve it up in front of you. Our favourite dishes during our visit where the cold meze and baby shrimp and kofte from the hot meze.
All the chefs are Turkish as well as the general manager who Tayub has worked with for over five years. Like Zouk, Kai has strong sustainability practices with 100 per cent of waste to be recycled.
Kai, 82-84 Deansgate, Manchester M3 2ER. 0161 832 3431.