Of the major ethnic food groups, Anatolian cuisine remains under-represented in Warsaw, at least that is if you look beyond the immediate scope of the many sub-standard kebab joints that advertise themselves as Turkish.

Yeah, let’s discount those altogether and instead look to Nar, a place that on very first glance is instantly likeable. Opened earlier in the year, find it occupying a large corner unit straddling Żurawia and Poznańska. Allowing plenty of light to seep in through its floor-to-ceiling windows, it lifts any seasonal blues through a design that embraces breezy creams and soft tan colours. Lacking in any overt exotica, it’s free from cliché and is all the better for it. 

As for the menu, it’s a banger. Served with a pillowy pide bread, the ezme salad is a rich, silky mass of diced peppers and tomatoes, and as a starter it’s the ideal way to slide into the meal. Eating it, the mouth feels alive.

Mains, they cover the bases you’d expect and include an Adana minced beef kebab served under lashings of yoghurt and tomato sauce. You imagine its good in all conditions, but under Warsaw’s bleak January skies it feels all the better – it’s a mood enhancer. The same, however, goes for the dishes marked ‘chef specialities’. For us, that meant the Beyti, minced beef rolled in thin slices of lavash and, like the kebab, smothered in sauce.

There is nothing clever about Nar, but that’s possibly its biggest strength. It doesn’t seek to over-embellish or add needless frills, instead it focuses on what matters: providing quality food and drinks in an atmosphere that engages. With so many venues over-thinking their style and offer, Nar does the opposite – as a strategy, that can’t be commended enough.