Hackney Ocakbasi Grill Dinner Picker for Families With Kids

Families with small children tend to skip charcoal grills, assuming they are loud, hot rooms built for adults, yet a Hackney ocakbasi at teatime is one of the easiest meals out you can give a seven-year-old. This ocakbasi grill dinner picker follows Lena and Marcus, who live off Mare Street and have spent a year trying to find a Sunday dinner their two children, Noah and Ada, will both sit through without a meltdown.

The food at an ocakbasi happens to be exactly what many children like. Plain grilled chicken, white rice or bulgur, warm bread, cucumber and tomato, yoghurt. None of it is hidden under sauce, and kids can pick things up with their hands. Ada, who is four and suspicious of anything mixed together, eats chicken off a skewer the way she would eat a lolly. Noah tears the bread into strips and dips everything.

The other advantage is speed. Grilled food comes quickly, often in less time than a pizza takes elsewhere, and the bread usually arrives before you have finished ordering. For a family, that early bread is a gift. It buys ten quiet minutes while the grown-ups read the menu, and it means no child is staring at an empty table while the adults work out what everyone wants.

Lena's main rule is to go early. Around five in the afternoon, most Hackney grills are calm, with a few families and a handful of takeaway customers. By eight they fill with adult groups, the music goes up and a child crawling under the table becomes a problem for everyone. Sunday teatime is ideal, and a weekday straight after school also works if you can manage the rush.

Ask for a table away from the grill. The hearth is the most exciting thing in the room for a curious child, and also the hottest. A table near the window or toward the back keeps small hands well clear of the coals while still letting them watch from a safe distance. If you need a high chair, ask on the way in; many family-run grills keep one but do not always have it out. A booth or a corner table also helps, because a wall on one side means one less direction for a toddler to wander off in.

They used to order four separate plates and waste half. Now they order to share. One chicken shish plate for the children, which comes with rice and salad, one lahmacun cut into strips, which kids treat like a thin pizza, and one mixed plate for the two of them. They add a bowl of cacik, the cool yoghurt and cucumber dip, which takes the edge off anything a little spicy.

Ask the kitchen to go easy on chilli for the children's plate. Adana kofte is spiced with red pepper and is usually too hot for young kids, so leave it for the adults. Honest advice: skip ordering a separate children's portion of chips. The bread, rice and grilled chicken do the same filling job, and once chips appear on the table, nobody touches the salad again.

Marcus brings a small bag with crayons and a paper pad, and it stays in the bag until the food is ordered. Once plates land, the children eat. When they slow down, the crayons come back out. Staff at these grills are usually kind to children, and some will bring a little extra bread or a slice of fruit without being asked, which goes down very well with Ada. That rhythm of eat, draw, eat again keeps the whole table moving at the same pace.

Ayran, the salty yoghurt drink, divides children. Noah loves it, Ada pulls a face. Order one to share and see. If the kids are getting restless before the adults have finished, one parent takes them to the window to watch the grill master from a safe distance. Watching skewers being turned over glowing coals is enough to hold a seven-year-old's attention for a surprisingly long time.

The family's Sunday routine starts in St John-at-Hackney churchyard gardens, a wide green space just off Mare Street. Old trees, curved paths and a play area give children room to burn off energy before sitting down. Nearby stands St Augustine's Tower, the lone medieval tower left behind when its church was taken down, which Noah insists on calling the castle every single time.

If they want a longer outing, they walk down toward London Fields, where the park has a big playground and wide grass for kicking a ball. On a Saturday, Broadway Market at its southern edge is busy with stalls. Either route ends with a gentle walk back up toward Mare Street, past the grand Victorian front of the Hackney Empire, so that everyone arrives at the grill hungry but not exhausted.

Kunefe and baklava are both delicious and both very sweet, which is not ideal an hour before bath time. Lena orders one portion of kunefe for the four of them, and the children get a few forkfuls each. Sharing keeps the treat small and makes it feel special. Some grills bring out sliced orange or a little Turkish delight with the bill, and that is usually enough for the kids.

The adults take a glass of Turkish tea, strong and black in a small tulip glass. It is the moment the parents actually sit back. If the children are flagging, there is no shame in paying up and letting them have their dessert at home. Hackney grills are relaxed places, and nobody will raise an eyebrow at a family leaving early with a sleepy toddler on a shoulder.

Sometimes the chosen grill is full, or one child has simply had enough by the time you reach the door. Their fallback is takeaway. Ocakbasi food travels well, and a wrapped chicken shish with rice and bread eaten at the kitchen table is still a treat. Ask for sauces and salad on the side so the children's portions stay plain and nothing ends up soggy on the walk home.

When they want somewhere new, Marcus asks the Karpo APP for family-friendly ocakbasi grills around Hackney that have space for an early dinner. It gives them a short list of nearby options to look at before they leave the house, which matters when you have two small people to move. The aim is always the same: a calm room, simple food and everyone home before bedtime.