Eating Out in Istanbul from Local Meyhanes to Modern Turkish Restaurants

Eating out in Istanbul is a real delight, with some of the most delicious food you’ll find at this fascinating crossroads between Europe and the Middle East. Expect everything from inventive and elegant Modern Turkish fine dining restaurants, such as Mikla, to buzzy breakfast cafes, neon-lit pide salons, and lively local meyhanes.

Istanbul may not have a reputation as a great dining city in the way that Tokyo or Barcelona do, but it’s certainly a great eating city. What it might lack in the way of creativity, it makes up for in deliciousness, loads of atmosphere, and the warmth of its hospitality.

While the city might only boast a dozen or so innovative, elegant, Modern Turkish restaurants such as Mikla (a must-do!), for us the best times were mostly to be had in the simple neighbourhood eateries of Beyoğlu, Cihangir and Asmalimescit. These are our favourite dining spots from our recent two weeks eating out in Istanbul.

Eating Out in Istanbul Guide from Lively Local Meyhanes to Modern Turkish Restaurants

These are the best restaurants in Istanbul, from local meyhanes to Modern Turkish restaurants.

MIKLA

The last time we were in Istanbul, we were here to cover the opening of the W Hotel and Jean-George’s restaurant, Spice Market. Many of our restaurant tips came from the W’s local Istanbul-born staff and Jean-George, who’d been eating his way around the city during the months he’d spent setting up the restaurant and training staff.

As you’d expect we made the rounds of the latest, hippest restaurant openings. Unfortunately many were a tad disappointing. They were either innovative but inconsistent, or they were fashionable but over-priced for the quality and style of food coming out of the kitchen.

There was only one restaurant that really stood out as creative, delicious and consistent in quality, and that was Mikla, the stylish restaurant of Turkish-Finnish Chef Mehmet Gurs. In keeping with our sustainable and local travel themes of this global grand tour, we’d decided that we weren’t going to try any of the hottest restaurants this time, but we couldn’t resist returning to Mikla.

We were pleased to see that despite even more inventive dishes on the menu, some of our favourites from a few years ago had remained on the tasting menu, albeit with slight tweaks, including the North Aegean raw grouper with lemon and kalamata olives, and the cherry-wood smoked lamb loin with walnut pistou.

It seems regular customers won’t let the chef take them off. The dishes were as elegant and as refined as the dining space. Why aren’t more restaurants like this? The rooftop views are spectacular by the way too. Marmara Pera Hotel, Mesrutiyet Caddesi 167/185, Beyoğlu

VAN KAHVALTI EVI

When it comes to eating out in Istanbul, many visitors to the city are focused on lunch and dinner spots, and eat at their hotel. Yet breakfast in Istanbul (breakfast in Turkey!) is one of our favourite meals of the day, and while hotel breakfasts are often very good, nothing beats a breakfast spread at a breakfast house.

After Terence’s Turkish-inspired eggs on our Istanbul apartment terrace, this popular all-day breakfast café in Cihangir, Van Breakfast House, is my favourite spot for a Turkish breakfast in Istanbul. Much of the organic produce comes from Van in eastern Turkey and they do several scrumptious breakfast spreads made up mostly of produce from the region.

I love their Breakfast of Van Golu which consists of a big platter of cheeses – white cheese, string cheese, village cheese, new Kashkawal cheese, and herbed cheese – along with black and green olives, tomato, cucumber, and boiled eggs, and dishes of honey comb, marmalade, and heavenly clotted cream.

Terence can’t go here without ordering menemen (eggs with tomato salsa) and they do half a dozen varieties, but he’s smitten with the Sucuklu menemen with spicy Turkish sausage. Their fresh pomegranate juice is delicious too and the hipster scene also makes for some fun people watching. Defterdar Yokuşu 52A, Cihangir

KARADENİZ ŞİMŞEK PİDE SALONU

Now when it comes to late night eating out in Istanbul, pide is what you should be seeking out and many of Istanbul’s best pide salons are in Beyoğlu.

I couldn’t believe our luck when I realised that this terrific pide salon was right around the corner from our Istanbul holiday rental.

You can eat in or take away and I was secretly pleased that we were too exhausted from our flight to go out the first night we arrived, as it was a good excuse to get some take-away Turkish ‘pizza’!

I love that it’s a family-ran business and the owner, Şubemiz, who is a very sweet guy, takes his pide very seriously.

The boat-shaped Kıymalı Sade with finely-ground minced meat is my favourite while Terence likes the Karışık or ‘mixed’ pide, with sausage, fried eggs, tomatoes, and peppers, which is like a cross between a pizza and a hamburger ‘with the lot’. Taksim Cadessi 8, Beyoğlu

ZÜBEYIR OCAKBAŞı

We walked past this popular grill house on the corner of our block every day, and its three floors of dining and outdoor tables were always packed, often late into the night, with loud groups of locals tucking into plates of succulent grilled kebaps.

Foodies should try to get a table around the ocakbası, the long copper-hooded hearth, where the cook grills the meats over coals.

We devoured the tasty chilli dip (ezme), (smoky) roasted aubergine (patlican kozde), a colossal fresh ‘special salad’ (gavur dagı), ‘special’ lamb ribs (tarak), and a mixed kebap plate, which included tawk şiş (chicken shish), pirzola (lamb chops), and beyti kebap (skewered garlic minced kebab). It was far too much food!

They serve some decent Turkish wines, however, they’re too expensive for what they are and you’re better off doing what the locals do and drinking raki. Bekar Sokak 28, Beyoğlu

KREPENDEKI IMROZ

It’s impossible to not eat on Nevizade Sokak at least once on a trip and as we had two weeks of eating out in Istanbul we were lucky to get here a few times.

The narrow lane of Nevizade Sokak is lined with busy bars and meyhanes (traditional Turkish taverns), which are open well into the wee hours.

Sure, you could simply take in the scene from a pavement table at one of the pubs while you sip some beers, but you’d be missing what the street is all about. This is where groups of locals go to begin their big nights out by lingering over long meals, so the people watching is fascinating.

The best meyhane of the lot is Imroz – its outside tables are always crammed with locals and it’s the only one where the waiters don’t hassle passersby when they’re slow. Imroz is owned by a family that came from the Aegean island of Imroz (Gökçeada in Turkish), and while the cuisines are similar, this is about as Turkish as meyhanes come.

The meal starts with mezze, which you choose from the tray the waiter brings to the table. Portions are small for the price compared to Zübeyir Ocakbaşı where they’re twice the size, but they were incredibly tasty – the hamsi tursu (pickled anchovy) and patlican soslu (aubergine and tomato salad) were sublime. Nevizade Sokak 24, Beyoğlu

FICCIN

My heritage is Russian-Ukrainian so I grew up on my grandmother’s varenyki and pelmeni, boiled dumplings filled with mashed potato, cream cheese or minced meat, so I have a soft spot for this charming, family owned restaurant that specialises in the cuisine from the Caucasus, and ‘Circassian ravioli’ specifically.

Swimming in a sea of sour cream with a drizzle of chilli oil, Ficcin’s ‘ravioli’ is more like my baboushka’s Russian dumplings or Polish pierogi than Italian ravioli.

The menu, which changes daily, is long, and includes all the usual Turkish standards, but I wouldn’t come here for anything else. Other than a mixed salad, which won’t make you feel so guilty for slurping up all that sour cream.

If you’re after atmosphere, head here for lunch when it gets busy with local office workers and can sometimes be tricky to get a table.

If you want a quick dinner, drop by in the evening, but be aware that you could occasionally be eating on your own. Kallavi Sokak 13/1, Beyoğlu

SIIRT ŞEREF BÜRYAN KEBABı SALONU

We lunched here somewhat serendipitously. We were heading to see a master luthier in a neighbourhood close to Fatih (on the Sultanahmet side of Istanbul) to buy Terence a baglama, so we decided to try a restaurant I’d read about on the way.

Despite the great reviews, the restaurant was empty with several staff sitting around drinking coffee out front. By contrast, a couple of blocks away, Siirt Şeref Büryan Kebabı Salonu was crowded with tables of local businessmen and families.

The casual eatery is located near Kadinlar Pazari, a pedestrianised square known as Little Kurdistan, as residents here come from Siirt, a Kurdish city and province close to the Syrian and Iraqi borders.

While we know the cuisine in the far north-eastern corner of Syria, we didn’t know anything about the food from Siirt, so we did that “we’ll have what they’re having” thing and pointed to the other tables.

What everybody was having were the two dishes that Siirt is famous for: perde pilav and büryan kebap, which this family has famously been making for some 120 years. The büryan kebap involves lamb being cooked over a wood fire in a pit sealed by mud.

You can have it on the bone (kemikli) or boneless (kemiksiz), but either way it’s served on a thick grilled piece of bread to soak up the fat. A warning: it is very fatty.

We actually preferred the fez-shaped Perde Pilau, a delicious rice cooked with spices and almonds in filo pastry in a pot. It was sublime. After your meal, take a stroll around the square to check out the shops selling cheeses, honeycomb and spices from Siirt. Trust us, you’ll need the exercise! Kadinlar Pazari, Fatih

SOFYALI 9

Open all day, this traditional meyhane in Beyoğlu’s funky eating and drinking quarter, Asmalimescit, is a great place to stop for a bite to eat any time of the day or night and was one of my favourite spots of our two weeks eating out in Istanbul.

The interior is charmingly rustic, but the al fresco terrace is where it’s at on a fine day or weekend evening and was buzzing every time we strolled by.

The cold starters were all excellent (we loved the fursu, red pepper pickle, which was fiery) and the meat dishes are incredibly delicious (the Izgara Kofte was especially tasty).

Servings here are absolutely huge, so after a spread of meze plan on having just one main meat dish between two. Or take friends so you can try more food. A bottle of raki is a must. Sofyali Sokak 9, off Asmalimescit Cadessi, Beyoğlu

FÜRREYYA

You can’t help but notice this hip little place as you skip down the hill to Galata Bridge, not far from Galata Tower. Unless you’re fit you probably won’t see it as you’re hiking up the hill, because you’ll be too focused on catching your breath.

If the stylish, minimalist design doesn’t grab your attention, the jazz soundtrack should. The casual seafood eatery has just half a dozen tables, a small space at the bar, a compact kitchen, and a couple of friendly owners.

We have to say that the food was hit and miss when we dined, however… the fish soup was scrumptious, if a little salty; the fried anchovies and white beans were delicious; the seasonal salad of mixed lettuce greens, mint, parsley, dill, and basil, was one of the best green salads we’ve ever had; and the fried calamari was absolutely perfect. A plate of ‘fish meatballs’ were okay, but served with a very strange sauce.

Even so, of all the restaurants we sampled during our two weeks of eating out in Istanbul, this is one I wished we’d had time to return to again.

There’s no alcohol on the menu, but ask for a wine or beer and a waiter will trot off and return a few minutes later with a paper bag. Serdar-i Ekrem Sokak 2, Beyoğlu

ANTIOCHIA

I’m not sure why, but this hip little basement eatery (with tables outside that seem to attract groups) reminded me of the casual eateries we used to frequent in Sydney many years ago.

There’s a short menu, a good wine list, an open kitchen, a simple but stylish design, and casual, friendly staff dressed in black.

The food is from the south-eastern Hatay region near the border with Syria, so you can expect to see Syrian staples on the menu such as muhammara, a red pepper, walnut and pomegranate dip, though it’s not as good in Turkey as it is in Syria (not even here).

We ordered the appetiser plate, which included an assortment of tasty dips, but we regretted not getting the minced meat wrap, which our neighbours at the next table had.

Despite having left this little resto until our last night of two weeks of eating out in Istanbul and not having sampled a great deal, it was one of my favourites and definitely a dining spot I’d return to. Minare Sokak, Asmalimescit