Ten-seat restuarant Mini Lokanta is only open on Saturday nights. It feels like dining in someone’s house – because you are. The pint-sized diner is set in the front room of Enver Tuğrul and Gökçe Özbecene’s heritage-listed home.

Mediterranean, Balkan and Middle Eastern flavours influence dishes on their eight-course menu. The couple started their restaurant because they wanted to highlight the foods that they loved from their homeland.

The meal starts with cold appetisers, a tradition harking back to the Ottoman palace kitchens. Among them is girit ezmesi, a mix of aged feta, fresh herbs and pistachios, believed to have been introduced by Cretan Turks in the early 1900s. Other dishes include manti (Turkish dumplings), sarma (stuffed grape leaves) and Turkish round bread.