What is meze?
Meze are small dishes you share, all on the table at once. Not a starter and not a side: together they are the meal.
All at once, not one after another
What separates it from a Western dinner is the order, or really the absence of one. A meze table arrives in one go and stays there. You take a little of this, dip bread in that, and keep eating for two hours while the conversation carries on. Nobody waits for a next course, because there is not one.
Cold, warm, creamy and crisp
A good meze table is a table with contrast. Put down something creamy, such as hummus or havuç tarator, something spicy such as atom, something smoky such as baba ganoush or muhammara, and something fresh to eat in between. Put out only dips and you miss the crunch; put out only salads and you miss something to dip bread into. See every meze we make.
How much do you need?
Count on four to six different bowls for four people, and one more bowl for every two guests above that. More kinds beats more of the same almost every time: the table gets more interesting and less goes to waste. Bread is not an afterthought, since half the dishes are eaten with it.
Where meze comes from
Meze belongs to no single country. You find the habit from Greece to Iran, with different dishes in each kitchen and the same way of eating. Our menu leans Turkish, with a few Levantine dishes beside them, because they belong on the same table.
Setting your own meze table?
We make every meze fresh to order. The meze table guide tells you how many bowls to plan for and how to combine them.
How to build a meze table View the menu