Iconic east London Turkish restaurant Mangal II is launching limited edition trainers

Happy 30th birthday to longtime Time Out fave Mangal II. 

The east London Turkish restaurant is celebrating its landmark anniversary not with a big old cake, but with a special, limited edition merch drop – 300 pairs of trainers made in collaboration with Puma. 

The blue suede shoes have launched with a campaign video that sees Ferhat and Sertaç Dirik – sons of the restaurant’s founder Ali Dirik – visiting Anatolia in Turkey to discover their roots (and eat some delicious looking food while they’re at it). The trainer costs £120 and will be available to buy on Friday December 6 at endclothing.com.

Mangal II is a mainstay of Kingsland Road in Dalston and features in Time Out’s list of the 50 best restaurants in London. In 2020 Ferhat and Sertaç took over running the restaurant from their father, with head chef Sertaç using his years of experience at some of Copenhagen’s best restaurants to tweak the classic Turkish menu into a fine-dining take on traditional mangal cooking. Sertaç left the restaurant in 2023, and plans to open his own venture.

The Puma trainer collab features the Mangal II name on the shoe, as well as the year ’94 on the heel to mark the restaurant’s founding date. Speaking about the trip to Türkiye for a promotional video to launch the collab, Ferhat said: ‘Coming back to Anatolia for the first time in 19 years has reinforced, personally, my identity, my roots, experiencing the regional cooking and dishes that we grew up with at home, It made me feel very complete. It felt like a very personal mission, and I’ll leave here feeling very fulfilled and sure of myself and my family’s roots.’

Mangal II isn’t the only east London institution to launch limited edition anniversary merch. Last month Brick Lane’s Beigel Bake celebrated 50 years with a special football shirt. 

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