Liman Restaurant

You're walking down Penton Street in Islington, past the usual King's Cross chaos, and suddenly you've got a warm, lively room full of people eating seriously good Turkish food. Liman does the classics brilliantly: charred halloumi, smoky aubergine dips, lamb that's been treated with actual respect. The seafood's the real draw though—sea bass, prawns, scallops cooked simply so you taste what you're actually eating. It's the kind of place where tables of regulars know what they want before they sit down, and the staff move with the kind of ease that comes from knowing what they're doing.