London’s Outstanding Uyghur Restaurant Etles Will Open Site Number Two

Etles, Walthamstow’s outstanding Uyghur restaurant owned by chefs Mukaddes Yadikar and her husband Ablikim Rahman, will open a second site on Finchley Road in north London this weekend.

Yadikar posted the news on Instagram earlier today, and subsequently told Eater that she and her husband had bought the recently opened Uyghur restaurant Karvon, which was reviewed early last month by blogger, Halal Girl About Town.

“We are excited to announce we will be opening a new branch of Etles Uyghur Restaurant this Saturday 7th [December]. Come & join us in our opening week to enjoy 20% off,” Yadikar wrote.

Etles, which was profiled in 2018 by Fuchsia Dunlop, has earned plaudits for its range of traditional Uyghur dishes, such as big plate chicken — prepared with fresh hand-pulled noodles, chicken pieces, Sichuan pepper, potatoes, peppers and a rich, aromatic gravy — and Chaomian, a moreish stir-fry of short, cut lengths of noodle cooked in the wok with chunks of veal, beef or lamb, celery, and tomato.

The minority Uyghur people, who are subjected to state sanctioned persecution, violence, and imprisonment in China, are historically Turkic Muslims hailing from the region of Yili in the far west of Xinjiang near the border with Kazakhstan; the cuisine is influenced by the Silk Road, where skewers of grilled lamb seasoned with cumin sit alongside manti, similar to those eaten in central Turkey and other central Asian nations.

In a brief message this afternoon, Yadikar said that the menu at the new restaurant would be the same, but that the premises would be a little bigger.

More soon.