Istanbul Travel Guide
What to Eat in Istanbul
A food lover's guide to Istanbul: the great Turkish breakfast, street food from simit to fish sandwiches, kebabs and home-style lokanta cooking, meyhane nights of meze and raki, baklava and Turkish delight, coffee and tea, and the neighborhoods to eat in.
Istanbul is one of the great food cities of the world, the meeting point of the cuisines of Anatolia, the Balkans, the Aegean, the Black Sea and the Middle East, refined for centuries in the palace kitchens of Topkapi and kept alive today in tiny canteens, busy markets and long tavern dinners. You can eat superbly at every price, and some of the best meals cost very little. Here is how to eat your way through the city.
Breakfast, the Turkish way. A proper Turkish breakfast, kahvalti, is a feast: white cheese and aged cheeses, black and green olives, tomatoes and cucumbers, eggs cooked with sucuk sausage or in menemen, a soft scramble with tomatoes and peppers, honey with clotted cream called kaymak, jams, butter, fresh bread and endless glasses of tea. Weekend breakfast is a social event that can last all morning. Cafes in Balat, Karakoy, Cihangir and Besiktas specialize in it, and the riverside-style breakfast streets of Besiktas are a local favorite.
Street food. Start with simit, the sesame-crusted bread ring sold from red carts all over the city, eaten with tea. Try midye dolma, mussels stuffed with spiced rice and squeezed with lemon, sold by vendors in Beyoglu and Karakoy at night; kokorec, grilled seasoned lamb intestines, for the adventurous; roasted chestnuts and corn on the cob from street carts; and the famous fish sandwiches, balik ekmek, grilled mackerel in bread with onion and salad, sold by the boats and stalls by the Galata Bridge at Eminonu. Late at night near Taksim, the soft, garlicky wet burgers are a rite of passage.
Kebabs and grills. Turkish kebab is a vast family. Doner, carved from a vertical spit, is the everyday classic, best in bread or on rice; iskender is doner over bread with tomato sauce, browned butter and yogurt; adana is a spicy minced-lamb kebab grilled on a wide skewer; and kofte, grilled meatballs, are served everywhere, with the old-fashioned kofte restaurants around Sultanahmet a long-standing tradition. Pide, the boat-shaped Turkish flatbread baked with cheese, minced meat or egg, and lahmacun, a thin crisp flatbread with spiced minced meat, rolled up with parsley and lemon, are cheap, filling lunches.
Lokanta: home cooking. For many locals, the best food in the city is at the lokanta, the tradesmen's canteens where a counter of steaming trays offers the day's dishes: stews of lamb and vegetables, stuffed peppers and vine leaves, beans in olive oil, pilaf, soups and puddings. You point, they serve, and you pay very little. Look for them around the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Bazaar, in Karakoy, and in Kadikoy. By the Suleymaniye Mosque, a row of old canteens serves the classic Istanbul white beans with rice.
Meyhane nights. The meyhane, the Istanbul tavern, is the city's great social ritual: a long evening at a crowded table of cold meze, such as white cheese and melon, eggplant salads, stuffed vine leaves, fava puree, marinated anchovies and seaweed, followed by hot starters like fried calamari and borek, and then grilled fish or meat, all washed down with raki, the anise spirit that turns milky white when mixed with water. The lanes of Nevizade and Asmalimescit in Beyoglu, the fish market area of Kumkapi in the old city, and Kadikoy are the classic places. Order meze slowly, a few at a time, and check prices for fish, which are usually by weight.
Fish and the sea. Istanbul eats with the seasons of the Bosphorus. Autumn and winter bring the great migrations of bluefish, bonito and, in the depth of winter, hamsi, Black Sea anchovies, fried, baked with rice or cooked into bread. Fish restaurants line the Bosphorus villages, Kumkapi and the Karakoy waterfront, and the fish markets at Besiktas and Kadikoy show what is in season.
Sweets. Baklava, layers of thin pastry with pistachio or walnut soaked in syrup, is best fresh from a specialist shop, and Karakoy's famous baklava houses are a pilgrimage. Kunefe, warm shredded pastry with melted cheese and syrup, is a dessert to share. Turkish delight, lokum, in rose, pistachio and pomegranate, is sold by weight at the Spice Bazaar and the old confectioners nearby. Milk puddings, including sutlac, rice pudding, and the curious tavuk gogsu, a pudding made with chicken breast, are old Ottoman specialties found at pudding shops across the city. In winter, look for salep, a hot drink thickened with orchid root, and boza, a fermented millet drink served with cinnamon and chickpeas.
Tea and coffee. Tea, cay, is drunk all day in tulip-shaped glasses, and you will be offered it in shops, offices and homes. Turkish coffee, finely ground and boiled in a small pot, comes thick and strong with a glass of water and sometimes a piece of Turkish delight; order it plain, medium or sweet. The coffee roaster beside the Spice Bazaar has been grinding it for generations, and its queue is part of the street.
Where to eat by neighborhood. In the old city, eat around the Spice Bazaar and the Grand Bazaar at lunch rather than on the main tourist streets of Sultanahmet. In Karakoy, find breakfast, baklava and fish; in Beyoglu, meze and meyhane nights; in Besiktas, breakfast streets and fish; and on the Asian side, Kadikoy's market streets, the best food neighborhood in the city for many Istanbullus, with produce, delis, fishmongers and restaurants packed together.
Practical tips. Ramadan changes the rhythm: many restaurants stay open for visitors, but at sunset the city breaks its fast together in a joyful rush, and booking is wise. Tipping of around ten percent is customary. Tap water is treated but most people drink bottled. And always say yes to the tea.