This article is part of FT Globetrotter’s guide to London
For those who grew up in cultures with Ottoman heritage, baklava, the sweet layered pastry, is the culinary embodiment of sharing joy and gratitude with our nearest and dearest. In Turkey, my home country, an occasion such as a birth, family reunions or a new job always goes hand in hand with a big tray of this sweet, sticky treat.
In London, baklava is easy to come by, quietly claiming its place among cinnamon buns and brownies at trendy cafés, on the far ends of corner-shop shelves and in specialist Mediterranean delis and supermarkets. For me, having moved to London in September of last year, being able to find it across this vast new city was the first indication that there is a fraction of Turkey in this cosmopolitan city, meaning one less thing to miss about home.
The dessert was originally created from ingredients that people could afford or find around them. A true baklava is made from about 40 layers of filo pastry, filled with a range of chopped nuts from pistachio to walnut, cashew and almond and, according to where you are in the Mediterranean or Middle East, is sweetened with sugar syrup (Turkey), rosewater (Iran) or honey (Greece). The sugar ratio and the quality of butter and nuts are critical. Each crispy layer needs to be thinly rolled, buttered and filled with nuts for you to taste its distinct flavour within the first three seconds. The sweetness of the syrup must blend with the earthy essence of top-quality nuts and not overwhelm.
Baklava also needs to be fresh. In the best places, those large trays of the pastry seducing you in the window are baked early every morning and will have run out before the end of the day. If you are buying from a bakery, they must have empty cardboard dessert boxes on their shelves waiting to be diligently prepared for customers to take to dinner parties. If you are eating in, someone should be asking whether you prefer tea or coffee with your dessert. Lastly, the best baklavas are found in family establishments. Whether it’s from a big or small company, a true baklava comes with the story of its recipe. It is a red flag if those who are serving you don’t know where the nuts come from.
The baklavas featured in this guide go above and beyond these criteria.
Mehmet Efendi 1953 (Whitechapel)
71 Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7PL
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Good for: Fans of pistachios
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Not so good for: Large, indecisive groups. The place is usually very full
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Portion of baklava (four pieces): £9.95
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Opening times: Daily, 8am — midnight
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Website; Directions
Almost any fan of baklava and traditional Turkish desserts knows of Mehmet Efendi 1953: “That baklava place in Whitechapel!” The trays in this dessert shop’s windows catch the eyes of every passer-by in the east London district’s high street.
“Which ones do we try?” my companions press me, paralysed with the array of options while the assistant on the other side of the counter hurries to serve us. There are 15 types to choose from. The pistachio baklavas stand out, so we get a mix of mussel-shaped pistachio ones, traditional pistachio, rolled pistachio and kuru (dry) baklava, which, covered with a thicker sugar syrup, has a longer shelf-life.
Mehmet Efendi is a genuine Turkish baklava-shop experience, with its buzzy interior full of waiters skilfully serving dozens of glasses of Turkish black tea to customers to go with their sweet treats. “We wanted to introduce the Turkish bakery culture to London,” says the shop manager, Yahya Tabaklar. “All of our chefs are trained in Turkey. We aspire to match the quality of the best baklava shops”.
It is the sweetness of pistachio that prevails here. My favourite is the rolled, small green-pistachio variety. It is sugary and full-bodied but not overwhelming. The other three types of pistachio baklava are more similar and syrupy.
Antepliler Baklava (Newington Green)
33 Green Lanes, London N16 9BS
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Good for: Any kind of baklava
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Not so good for: Loud groups. The Newington Green branch of Antepliler is smallish and peaceful, and I sense it likes to stay that way
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Portion of baklava (four pieces): £6.50
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Opening times: Daily, 10am — 9pm
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Website; Directions
This Newington Green baklava shop is one of five Antepliler eateries, four of which take up half a street in nearby Haringey, where its baklavas are made too. It offers delicacies from Gaziantep, a city in south-central Turkey known as the country’s culinary heaven. Everything about the shop would be immediately familiar to anyone who ever stopped by a neighbourhood bakery in Istanbul: the white walls, the colourful floor and table tiles and, of course, the mouthwatering large circular trays of baklavas on the counter. The shelves are stacked with empty boxes waiting to be filled and taken home to start festivities.
“When I go to Istanbul to visit my family, I take baklava from here,” says Nihal Ates, who started working at Antepliler after she began to feel part of the family, thanks to her frequent visits. It may seem ironic to take baklava to Turkey, but there are only a handful of bakeries in Istanbul that make it as well as Antepliler, with butter carefully processed in house.
Whether you are a pistachio or a walnut lover, there is something for you here. You can eat in with a cup of Turkish coffee or tea, or like the many regulars you can buy boxes of your favourites to take home. For a change, try the “cold” baklava, marinated in milk instead of syrup and served chilled (rather than at room temperature) with chocolate shavings.
Patisserie Patchi (Park Royal)
28 Abbey Road, London NW10 7SB
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Good for: Families and bulk-buying
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Not so good for: Those who like their baklava syrupy
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Portion of baklava (five pieces): £5.50
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Opening times: Daily, 9pm — midnight
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Website; Directions
The sweet smell of baklavas hits your nose the minute you enter this restaurant-cum-bakery in west London. Patchi’s wide interior is split into three rooms. You can settle in the large bakery, dining room or the shisha lounge and order your treats from the menu, or walk around the enormous counter a couple of times to decide what to get.
Eihab Nafa and Abdul Ghoul opened Patchi as a bakery in 1982, hoping to introduce London to high-quality Lebanese sweets. The bakery offers 35 types of baked goods ranging from date-filled cookies to at least eight kinds of baklava.
Patchi’s baklavas are bite-size, with a fudge-like consistency and a drier exterior compared to those at other places, although they are very sweet. The manager says: “Our baklavas are rich in nuts and their taste is easily distinguishable because we do not cover the baklavas with a lot of syrup.”
Pardis Restaurant (near Marble Arch)
29 Connaught Street, London W2 2AY
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Good for: Chatting to Pari, the owner
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Not so good for: Ordering baklava late — they run out
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Portion of baklava (one large piece): £7
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Opening times: Tuesday—Saturday, 11am — 11pm; Sunday—Monday, 11am — 10pm
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Website; Directions
Pari Sabzvari and her son took over what was a rundown English breakfast café just north of Hyde Park in 2006 and eventually turned it into an independent family-run Persian restaurant. There are two baklavas to choose from: homemade and Biscoff, which Sabzvari’s son convinced her to include.
Sabzvari began making baklava long before the restaurant opened. She baked her own to take to a New Year party 35 years ago, and it was such a success that she kept going. She now bakes trays of it not only for family gatherings but also for her customers, who order from as far as Kuwait. It takes at least two or three hours to make a whole tray, Sabzvari explains, and she does not shy away from using expensive ingredients such as cashew nuts and the best-quality rose water.
“I do not like cooking, but I like inventing,” she says. The baklava at Pardis is not like anything I have tasted before. You can clearly see each layer of thinly rolled filo placed on top of each other. First, you taste the very subtle flavour of butter. Then the aromatic mix of cardamom and rose water, combined with a selection of different nuts that Sabzvari keeps secret. It is sweet and fresh, crunchy and wet, and smooth rather than sticky.
“My customers call me and ask, ‘What did you put in this? It didn’t bloat our stomach at all.’ I tell them I put my love in all of my food,” says Sabzvari. I still do not know the secret of her recipe, but I leave Pardis thinking I have discovered a hidden gem for London’s baklava lovers after a hesitant recommendation from a friend who was intimidated by my standards.
Lemonia (Primrose Hill)
89 Regent’s Park Road, London NW1 8UY
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Good for: A long evening of great food and conversation
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Not so good for: Variety of baklava — there’s only one kind
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Portion of baklava (two pieces): £6.50
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Opening times: Monday—Thursday, noon — 3.30pm and 5.30pm — 10pm; Friday—Saturday, noon — 3.30pm and 5.30pm — 10.30pm; Sunday, noon — 4pm
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Website; Directions
On a warm summer’s evening in Primrose Hill, it isn’t hard to find your way to Lemonia — just look out for an animated row of pavement tables on Regent’s Park Road. The atmosphere inside and outside this family-run Greek restaurant is nothing short of Mediterranean.
Antonis Avangelou founded Lemonia in 1978, 20 years after he left Cyprus for London. He proudly turns to the airy dining area filled with cheerful groups and says: “Look at this now. After 45 years!” He tells me he has served over three generations of local families who return for both casual dinners and special occasions.
Lemonia is known for its extensive menu of traditional mezes, charcoal grills and slow-cooked mains — and all that before the dessert. It is easy to overdo it. I keep reminding myself I am there to try the baklava as I skim through the menu.
The restaurant’s honey-laced baklava heads up a varied dessert menu. Honey began as an inexpensive swap for costly sugar in the Middle Ages, and today is most commonly used in Greek baklava; Turkish varieties favour sugar syrup — indeed, I had never tasted the honey version before.
The texture of filo pastry that sandwiches the chopped almond and cashew nuts is familiar, but the flavours are new to me. Cinnamon- and honey-rich, it is almost like a crunchy carrot cake. I am pleasantly surprised about this new find but Avangelou is baffled — his customers have been eating his baklava for years without comment.
Who in your opinion does the best baklava in London? Tell us in the comments below. And follow FT Globetrotter on Instagram at @FTGlobetrotter
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