The Best Places to Eat in Istanbul – A Simply Sublime Guide to the City’s Most Delicious Food

There are cities you visit for the museums.

Cities you visit for the beaches.

And then there is Istanbul, where I would happily plan an entire holiday around the question:

What are we eating next?

Because Istanbul doesn’t merely feed you.

It seduces you.

The smell of bread drifting from a bakery. Meat sizzling over charcoal. Tiny glasses of dark Turkish tea appearing almost magically at the table. Mountains of pistachio baklava gleaming behind glass counters. Fresh fish beside the Bosphorus and breakfasts so enormous they make your usual piece of toast look rather tragic.

This is a city where Europe meets Asia, but it is also where countless regional Turkish food traditions meet on one enormous, delicious table.

And the wonderful thing is that some of your most memorable meals won’t necessarily involve white tablecloths or reservations made months in advance.

Sometimes perfection is a warm simit bought on the street.

Sometimes it is kebab straight from the grill.

Sometimes it is an extravagant dinner overlooking the city.

The only real mistake is arriving in Istanbul without an appetite.

These are some of the places — and dishes — I would put firmly on my Istanbul food list.

1. Çiya Sofrası – Taste Your Way Around Turkey

If I could send a food lover to only one neighbourhood in Istanbul, Kadıköy would be very difficult to beat.

And Çiya Sofrası is exactly the sort of place that makes crossing to Istanbul’s Asian side worthwhile.

This isn’t about putting a fancy modern twist on Turkish food.

It is about celebrating the astonishing variety of dishes found across Turkey.

Expect regional recipes, stews, vegetables, meze and flavours that may be completely unfamiliar even if you think you already know Turkish cuisine. Çiya has become particularly associated with chef Musa Dağdeviren’s work preserving and serving regional Anatolian dishes.

My approach here would be simple:

Order things you don’t recognise.

This is not the moment to play safe.

Share several dishes, taste everything and let lunch turn into an education.

Simply Sublime for: discovering how much more there is to Turkish cuisine than kebab.

2. Karaköy Lokantası – A Proper Istanbul Lunch

There is something deeply satisfying about a restaurant that doesn’t need to shout for your attention.

Karaköy Lokantası has become one of Istanbul’s much-loved addresses for classic Turkish cooking, and it is currently included in the Michelin Guide’s Istanbul selection.

Come for a leisurely lunch rather than treating it as another stop to squeeze between sightseeing.

Order meze.

Order something slowly cooked.

Order another plate because somebody at the next table has something that looks better than what you chose.

That is how holidays are supposed to work.

Karaköy itself is also wonderful territory for wandering afterwards, which brings me rather conveniently to dessert.

3. Karaköy Güllüoğlu – Because You Cannot Leave Without Baklava

Istanbul and baklava have a relationship I strongly recommend becoming involved in.

And Karaköy Güllüoğlu is one of the city’s famous names for it.

We’re talking layers of impossibly delicate pastry, nuts and syrup combining into something crisp, sticky and completely destructive to any suggestion that you’ll have “just one”.

Pistachio would be my first choice.

Have it with Turkish tea or coffee.

Then spend the rest of the afternoon pretending you aren’t considering going back for another piece.

The establishment has been associated with Karaköy since 1949, and the city’s official tourism guide also highlights it for pistachio baklava.

Simply Sublime rule: calories consumed while travelling for cultural research are none of our business.

4. Tatbak – Lahmacun Without the Fuss

Some meals need a spectacular view.

Others need excellent dough and a very hot oven.

Tatbak falls beautifully into the second category.

The Nişantaşı restaurant is known for Turkish classics including lahmacun and pide and is also part of Michelin’s current Istanbul selection.

Lahmacun is sometimes described as Turkish pizza, although that doesn’t quite do it justice.

It is thin, crisp and topped with seasoned minced meat, herbs and vegetables. Add parsley and a generous squeeze of lemon, roll it up and eat it with absolutely no concern for elegance.

Delicious food rarely requires good table manners.

5. Adana Ocakbaşı – Come Hungry

Vegetarians may wish to skip gracefully ahead.

Meat lovers, however, should pay attention.

An ocakbaşı is built around the grill, and this is one of those Istanbul experiences where the smell alone can destroy whatever sensible eating plans you had for the evening.

At Adana Ocakbaşı, think lamb, kebabs, grilled vegetables and smoky flavours coming directly from the fire.

The experience is wonderfully uncomplicated.

Good ingredients.

Hot charcoal.

Big flavours.

Current travel recommendations continue to single it out for flame-grilled meats, with dishes such as lamb chops, ribs and liver cooked over the grill.

Sit close enough to watch the action if you can.

And wear something forgiving around the waist.

6. Pandeli – Lunch Inside a Piece of Istanbul History

Some restaurants are about food.

Others are about atmosphere.

Pandeli gives you both.

Hidden above the entrance to the Spice Bazaar, its beautiful blue-tiled interior feels like another little discovery inside a city already overflowing with them.

Pandeli dates back more than a century and remains part of Michelin’s Istanbul restaurant selection today.

This is where I would stop for lunch after wandering through the Spice Bazaar.

Not because it is convenient.

Because sitting down somewhere with history after spending the morning exploring old Istanbul feels exactly right.

Then return downstairs and buy spices you absolutely do not need.

Obviously.

7. Eat Breakfast in Beşiktaş

Turkish breakfast deserves its own holiday.

Forget grabbing a croissant and running out the door.

A proper kahvaltı can arrive as a table covered with small dishes: cheeses, olives, tomatoes, cucumber, eggs, preserves, honey, breads, butter and endless glasses of tea.

And then there is menemen — eggs cooked with tomatoes and peppers — which has a remarkable ability to make breakfast feel like the most important meal of your entire trip.

Beşiktaş is particularly famous for breakfast, with streets where numerous breakfast cafés sit practically side by side.

My advice?

Don’t schedule anything immediately afterwards.

Breakfast in Istanbul should not have a deadline.

8. Eat a Döner Where the Locals Queue

Forget everything a sad late-night takeaway may have taught you about döner.

Good Turkish döner is something else entirely.

Beautifully seasoned meat turns slowly on the vertical spit, the outside caramelising before being shaved into thin slices.

Eat it in bread.

Eat it on a plate.

Eat it standing on the pavement if necessary.

One name that regularly comes up among Istanbul food lovers is Karadeniz Döner Asım Usta in Beşiktaş. Recent local recommendations continue to describe it as a classic Beşiktaş food stop.

But Istanbul is full of good döner.

Look for somewhere busy.

If locals are waiting, there is usually a reason.

9. Have Fish Beside the Bosphorus

You cannot spend your entire Istanbul trip eating meat and pastry.

Well, technically you probably can.

But you shouldn’t.

Istanbul is defined by water, and seafood deserves at least one proper meal.

Choose a fish restaurant, start with cold meze and then see what is fresh that day.

Sea bass, turbot, bonito and other seasonal catches appear across Istanbul’s fish restaurants, and the experience is particularly lovely when the Bosphorus is right outside the window.

For something more polished, Park Fora is included in Michelin’s current Istanbul selection for fish and seafood.

But don’t become obsessed with famous names.

A simple fish meal with good meze, bread, conversation and a view of boats sliding past can be every bit as memorable.

10. TURK Fatih Tutak – The Splurge

And then there are nights when dinner is the evening.

For that, there is TURK Fatih Tutak.

Chef Fatih Tutak’s restaurant sits at the ambitious end of Istanbul dining, using modern techniques to reinterpret flavours and food memories from Turkey.

It currently holds two Michelin stars, making it Istanbul’s only two-star restaurant in Michelin’s current selection.

This is not where you pop in because you’re feeling peckish after sightseeing.

This is an occasion.

A reservation.

An outfit.

An evening you deliberately leave open.

And while I adore Istanbul’s street food, there is something exciting about experiencing Turkish ingredients through an entirely different lens.

Travel should have room for both.

A döner one afternoon.

Two Michelin stars the next evening.

Balance.

11. Don’t Ignore the Street Food

Some of Istanbul’s most delicious food comes without a reservation at all.

Buy simit, the sesame-covered bread rings you will see everywhere.

Try balık ekmek, the city’s famous fish sandwich.

Order midye dolma — mussels stuffed with seasoned rice and finished with lemon.

Try kumpir, the gloriously overloaded baked potatoes particularly associated with Ortaköy.

Have kestane, roasted chestnuts, when the weather is cool.

And if you’re feeling adventurous, there is kokoreç, a strongly seasoned speciality made from lamb intestines.

Istanbul’s official visitor guide specifically highlights street foods as an essential part of experiencing the city’s cuisine.

You don’t need to eat everything.

Although I see no compelling reason not to try.

12. Finish With Künefe

Baklava may receive most of the international attention, but please leave some room in your life for künefe.

This warm dessert combines fine shredded pastry with cheese, syrup and usually pistachios.

Cheese and syrup may sound like two ingredients that should exchange polite greetings and then remain on opposite sides of the room.

They should not.

Together they are magnificent.

The contrast between crisp pastry, melted cheese and sweet syrup is exactly the sort of excessive behaviour I want from dessert.

Order one to share.

Then quietly regret sharing it.

13. Drink Turkish Coffee Slowly

Turkish coffee isn’t something you order because you need caffeine before rushing somewhere else.

It is a ritual.

Strong, dark and served in a tiny cup, it practically demands that you sit for a while.

Turkish coffee culture is recognised by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage, and coffee has been part of Istanbul life for centuries.

Drink slowly.

Do not enthusiastically swallow the grounds at the bottom.

And if somebody offers to read your fortune from the cup afterwards, suddenly you have nowhere else you need to be.

Istanbul Is a City You Taste

The problem with writing about the best places to eat in Istanbul is that eventually you have to stop.

And Istanbul doesn’t.

There is another bakery.

Another kebab grill.

Another market.

Another tiny lokanta serving something somebody’s grandmother has been making for generations.

Another ferry ride to another neighbourhood where somebody will insist their place makes the best lahmacun in the city.

And perhaps that is exactly the point.

Don’t visit Istanbul determined only to tick famous restaurants off a list.

Eat the city.

Have the ridiculous breakfast.

Buy the simit.

Cross the Bosphorus for lunch.

Order too much meze.

Try the dish you cannot pronounce.

Drink the tea.

Have the baklava.

Then have the künefe too.

Because years after you return home, you may remember the Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazaar and that first extraordinary glimpse of the Bosphorus.

But somewhere among those memories will be a little table in Istanbul.

A plate placed in front of you.

That first bite.

And the immediate thought:

Oh my goodness.

Now this is delicious.

And that, for me, is simply sublime.