Etles

Mukaddes Yadikar learned to cook at seven in Yili, out where Xinjiang meets Kazakhstan, and opened London's first Uyghur restaurant on Hoe Street in April 2017 with her husband, whom she taught.

Why go

The split in the kitchen tells you who this place belongs to. She handles the dumplings and the noodles, he handles the stir-fries, and she taught him the food (Fuchsia Dunlop, Eater). Yadikar left Yili in 1998, took a degree in Uyghur linguistics in Beijing and a Masters in Turkish linguistics in Istanbul, and moved to London for one reason: "We chose London because there are so many Chinese people here, and they love Uyghur food."

Uyghur cooking is worth crossing London for because of where it sits. Dunlop, who is the authority on Chinese food in English, describes it as a "bridge between China and Central Asia, a fascinating mix of dumplings and noodles similar to those found across northern China, with versions of pilav, samosas and kebabs that show the region's westward leanings." You get both halves in one meal. Boiled lamb dumplings that look like jiaozi arrive next to cumin lamb skewers and a rice pilav studded with carrot and sultanas.

The noodles are pulled by hand, which is the whole argument for the big plate chicken. Jake Missing, giving it 8.5 at The Infatuation, found the belt noodles under the stew "simultaneously soft and bouncy" (ref).

The restaurant is named for Etles, the multi-coloured Atlas silk of Xinjiang, and the room is hung with the same pattern. Jonathan Nunn, writing in Vittles in 2024, credits this address and Dilara in Finsbury Park with starting "a pattern" of Uyghur-run restaurants that now reaches central London (ref).

Order this / avoid

• Order: da pan ji, the big plate chicken, spicy chicken and potato over broad hand-pulled noodles, with the medium plate as the two-person size. Tugur, lamb and onion dumplings, through the chili oil on the table. Laghman with the sauce served alongside. A lamb skewer, cumin and chili, pink in the middle. Ququre in a tomato and chili broth.
• Avoid: Mondays, when it is shut. Reading only the printed menu, since a longer one exists and regulars order off it. The big plate for two, unless you want it for breakfast as well. Arriving at peak with somewhere to be.

What locals & experts say

• Fuchsia Dunlop, Eater London, 22 February 2018, opening her series on Chinese cooking in the city: "Etles, which opened in April 2017, is a rare London gem: a genuine mom-and-pop restaurant run by a skilled and enthusiastic cook." She reports it halal throughout, and passes on the tip that matters: "There is another, more extensive menu that has frustratingly been left on the shelf, but some regular customers seem to order from it anyway, which is why it's worth keeping an eye on what's going out under your nose to other tables." ref
• The critical line, from the same piece: "Service can be chaotic when the restaurant's busy, but with food this delicious and cooked with so much heart, who cares?" ref
• Jake Missing, The Infatuation, 15 March 2023, 8.5 out of 10: the big plate chicken is "sloppy and spicy, generous and moreish. A dish that's made for everyone and, like Etles as a whole, has home in mind." On the skewer: "It's mercilessly marinated in a tingly cumin and chilli rub and is cooked perfectly pink." ref
• Jonathan Nunn, Vittles, 26 April 2024, on London's Xinjiang restaurants: many "are run by Uyghurs, a pattern that started with Etles in Walthamstow and Dilara in Finsbury Park, and has continued with new central London restaurants like Turpan." This is context rather than a recommendation, and it is recorded as such. ref

Good to know

• Where: 235 Hoe Street, E17 9PP, a few minutes from Walthamstow Central.
• Timing: Tuesday to Sunday, 11.30am to 9.30pm straight through. Closed Mondays.
• Booking: a reservation form on the venue's site. Walk-ins work outside peak.
• Diet: halal throughout, per Dunlop's 2018 account. The current site makes no dietary statement, so that flag is running on an eight-year-old source. The laghman sauce can be made vegetarian on request, which is one dish rather than a vegetarian menu.
• Hygiene: FSA rating 3, Waltham Forest, inspected 19 July 2025, FHRSID 965071. A 3 reads "generally satisfactory". ref
• Sites: one. The hygiene register holds a single Etles in England, and there are no siblings to confuse it with.
• Kit, unconfirmed: in 2018 Yadikar was looking to buy a tandoor for the back yard so the nan could be baked traditionally. Whether it ever arrived is unestablished, so nothing here claims it.
• Names: Jeff's saved-places export lists this as "Etles Uyghur Restaurant". The master list says "Etles", and that is the name this entry carries, because it is the key everything else joins on.

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: none. His export carries an empty note for this row. The master list's line about hand-pulled laghman came from a later enrichment pass, not from him.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

should-visit — Go, and go with enough people to justify the big plate. Mukaddes Yadikar grew up cooking in Yili, out near the Kazakh border, took linguistics degrees in Beijing and Istanbul, and then opened the first Uyghur restaurant London had, in April 2017, on Hoe Street. She taught her husband Ablikim Rahman to cook her food and split the kitchen: he does the stir-fries, she does the dumplings and the noodles, which are pulled by hand. Fuchsia Dunlop wrote the first real account of it and called it a rare London gem run by a skilled and enthusiastic cook, and six years later Jake Missing gave it 8.5 at The Infatuation on the same evidence, the belt noodles under the big plate chicken 'simultaneously soft and bouncy'. Jonathan Nunn credits this room and Dilara with starting the pattern that gave London its Uyghur restaurants. The cooking is a genuine bridge between Chinese and Central Asian technique, which is Dunlop's own framing, and you can taste both halves in one meal: jiaozi-shaped dumplings on one plate, cumin lamb skewers and pilav on the next. It holds at should-visit rather than higher because the last serious verdict on the cooking is from 2023, Dunlop herself recorded that service falls apart when the room is full, and Uyghur food in London is no longer rare, which is partly what this kitchen did.