Rutin began as a small café founded by Gizem Yavuz, a tiny bistro tucked away on a quiet street in Beyoğlu, Istanbul. After chef Kaan Demirci joined, it evolved into a restaurant known for its warm atmosphere and thoughtful cooking, with Sacha Grunberg later joining the team.

Kaan and Sacha’s backgrounds in classical French cuisine naturally influenced the food, while the restaurant remained relaxed, welcoming and centred around genuine hospitality. Today, their cooking is inspired by family recipes, immigrant food and the flavours that shaped their lives, drawing from Greek family cooking, recipes carried by Jewish immigrant families and the food of Istanbul. Many of these dishes have survived only through handwritten notebooks and family memory, and their aim is not to recreate them exactly as they were, but to honour them by cooking with exceptional seasonal produce.

For this dinner at Mangal II, the menu brings that philosophy together with the very best British ingredients.