Izmir Turkish Restaurant, Farnham Common

Turkish Cooking in the Berkshire Commuter Belt

The village high street is an unlikely place to find Turkish regional cooking, yet Farnham Common's Broadway, a modest strip of independent shops and takeaways between Beaconsfield and Slough, does exactly that. At number six, Izmir Turkish Restaurant occupies the kind of shopfront that most market towns in the South East would recognise: a modest facade, a small dining room, and a menu that operates without the theatre of a London grill house. That absence of theatre is, in its own way, the point. The Turkish restaurant trade outside London has historically settled into two modes, the high-volume döner operation and the sit-down grill house, and Izmir sits in the latter category, bringing Anatolian grill traditions to a suburban audience that would otherwise drive to Slough or further afield.

The Ingredient Logic of Turkish Grilling

Turkish cuisine, particularly in its grilled-meat and meze forms, is one of the more ingredient-honest traditions in the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern repertoire. The discipline of the ocakbasi, the open charcoal grill, leaves little room to hide inferior produce. Lamb shoulder cut for shish, minced meat formed into adana, chicken thigh threaded onto skewers: these are preparations where the quality of the raw material is not masked by complex saucing but amplified by fire and a short resting period. The meze table functions similarly. Dishes such as cacik, hummus, and the various aubergine preparations that appear across Turkish menus derive their character from the freshness of the dairy and the quality of the olive oil used. In the Turkish culinary tradition, sourcing decisions made before cooking begins determine the result more than technique applied during service.

For a neighbourhood restaurant in Berkshire, operating without the wholesale infrastructure that London Turkish restaurants can access, this creates a genuine challenge. The better suburban Turkish operators compensate by keeping their sourcing local where protein is concerned, using UK-reared lamb, which in Berkshire and the surrounding counties is reliably available, while importing key pantry staples, particularly olive oil, dried spices, and the sour pomegranate molasses that appears in marinades and salad dressings across Anatolian cooking.

Context: What Turkish Restaurants Outside London Look Like

The comparison set for a restaurant like Izmir is not CORE by Clare Smyth or the tasting-menu tier occupied by places like Waterside Inn in Bray, Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, or L'Enclume in Cartmel. These restaurants tend to share a format: long menus structured around meze starters and charcoal-grilled mains, with baklava and Turkish tea completing the meal. Pricing in this segment sits below the average for the region's modern European restaurants but above the fast-casual tier. That positioning makes the Turkish grill house one of the more accessible options in towns like Farnham Common for a sit-down meal with multiple courses.

The broader UK Turkish restaurant scene has, since the early 2010s, split between operators who have pushed toward more refined ocakbasi formats, some attracting media attention in London's Dalston and Stoke Newington corridors, and those maintaining the traditional approach. Venues like Moor Hall in Aughton, Gidleigh Park in Chagford, and Hand and Flowers in Marlow operate in an entirely different register, each with Michelin recognition, ingredient-led menus, and considerable critical infrastructure behind them. Restaurants operating in commuter villages have no such infrastructure. Their measure is simpler: does the food represent the tradition it claims, and is it consistently executed?

Planning a Visit

Izmir Turkish Restaurant is at 6 The Broadway, Farnham Common, Slough SL2 3PQ. Farnham Common sits on the A355, approximately four miles north of Slough town centre and accessible from junction 6 of the M40. For those travelling from London, the nearest train access runs to Slough via the Elizabeth line (from Paddington) or to Gerrards Cross on the Chiltern Main Line, with Farnham Common reachable by taxi or a short bus connection from either. For context on the wider Slough dining scene and what else the area has to offer, see our full Slough restaurants guide. For reference points at the formal end of the UK restaurant spectrum, hide and fox in Saltwood, Midsummer House in Cambridge, Opheem in Birmingham, and Restaurant Andrew Fairlie in Auchterarder represent the credentialled end of the British regional dining scene, alongside Restaurant Sat Bains in Nottingham, The Glenturret Lalique in Crieff, Ynyshir Hall in Machynlleth, and 33 The Homend in Ledbury. Further afield, Le Bernardin in New York City and Atomix in New York City illustrate the standard-setting end of global restaurant culture.