TimeOut Istanbul | February 2004 Best Restaurant and Best Restaurant Design WINNER LOFT Two different awards go to Loft which is an aberration in Istanbul's culinary university. A cooking school graduate chef operates out of a well-designed large dining room with a sweeping view of modern architectural gem. Inspired by the large, spacious restaurants in New York, Loft is a bit of New York in the center of Istanbul. Head chef Umut Ozkanca, graduate of the French Culinary Institute in downtown Manhattan, has taken the space owned by his family's Borsa Restaurant, and with the able hands of Nazl? Gonensay, graduate of the prestigious School of Architecture in Columbia University in New York, turned it into a genuinely cosmopolitan eating experience worthy of the Big Apple itself. Ozkanca's cooking style seeks to lighten and update Turk?sh favourites and achieves its best success in the seafood selections like a grilled sea bass. As for Loft's interior, Gonensay's design and decoration choices have made the cavernous space into a well- organized grouping of bar, lounge and dining room. The dark background tones are balanced by bright circular chandeliers and large wall panels depicting the painter Botero's famous 'fat' women. Loft (0212) 219 63 84 Lutfi Kirdar Exhibition Hall,Harbiye.