Meze restaurant brings a taste of the Mediterranean to Leeds
FORMER executive chef at The Olive Tree group, Orhan Girgin, has launched a meze restaurant at West Park in Leeds.
The Lavanta Meze Bar & Grill will serve Mediterranean cuisine at the 46-cover site. Located at the top of Otley Road, the former site of Pip’s Bistro has undergone extensive internal and external refurbishment.
Mr Girgin first started cooking at his family restaurant in the coastal town of Mersin in Southern Turkey.
He arrived in Leeds in 1995 and qualified in professional cookery at Thomas Danby College.
Mr Girgin helped The Olive Tree achieve its ‘Best Leeds Restaurant’ awards two years in a row as well as a ‘Top 4 Mediterranean Restaurant in UK’ citation from Sunday Times food critic A.A. Gill.
He emphasises personally sourcing fine quality ingredients and fresh local produce; from Dales reared lamb to pistachios grown by the Cici family in the famed Gaziantep region of Turkey, as key to the dining experience he intends to create at Lavanta.
He said: “Lavanta has been my dream since a small child, and now I am living the dream.
“Excellent food and service, a warm friendly atmosphere and happy customers who always come back for more. I want everyone to say Lavanta is the best restaurant in Leeds!”
