Restaurants in Istanbul – When the way to your heart is through your stomach

Attention I warn you, you should not read this blog post if you are hungry… Istanbul was a stunner in every way and since love goes through my stomach, I was absolutely addicted to the city after the first meal. I have mainly tried my way through the specialties of Ottoman cuisine and present you my highlights here:

To restaurants for dinner:

Faros Restaurant Sultanahmet

This lovely two-storey restaurant is located at Divanyolu Caddesi No. 76 and I am an absolute fan of this delicious vegetarian stew that was served to me there:

Amedros Café & Restaurant

Also a small restaurant in the Sultanahmet district (Divan Yolu Caddesi Hoca Rustem Sokak No 7). We ordered a mixed meze platter with 7 different appetizers “mezes” – humus, haydari, kısır, şakşuka, acılı ezme, patlican salata, and dolma – which are eaten together with flatbread. Highly recommended! Afterwards I had a Şehzade Chicken.

Rami Restaurant

This restaurant (Cankurtaran Mh. Utangaç Sk No. 6) probably offers the best view of the Blue Mosque and is very nicely decorated. The entrance is a bit inconspicuous and that makes it particularly likeable. For starters I chose an eggplant soup (really delicious!) and a kebab dish, which didn’t quite convince me.

Please note: in this restaurant you can only pay with cash (Euros are accepted).

Another restaurant tip that I would like to pass on is the Karaköy Lokantesi (Kemankeş Karamustafa Paşa Mh. Kemankeş Cd Nr. 37). Since we hadn’t made a reservation, there was unfortunately no free place left for us.

For a dinner we paid between 100 and 150 Turkish lira for two people including drinks (no wine), with starter and main course each.

For in between:

Trip

This café/restaurant is located at Taksim Square in the Beyoğlu district (Gümüşsuyu Mh.). You can sit there both indoors and outdoors and their sandwiches are absolutely great. After the sandwich, we enjoyed a special Gezi coffee and fine, homemade pralines.

Cafe Magnaura

This café is located in the Sultanahmet district (No. 27 Akbiyik Avenue) and is spread over three floors. At the top you have a view over the Bosphorus to Üsküdar. The view has recently been somewhat limited, as a neighbor has converted his attic. However, the owner assures every customer that he ;) to file a complaint. We enjoyed delicious calamari and a somewhat special dish, which consists of “pureed” chicken. If you like humus and tuna, you can roughly imagine what the dish tastes like. I thought it was delicious.

Beverages:

Turkey has a lot of traditional drinks that you should definitely try. First and foremost, of course, is tea, which is drunk always and everywhere (and non-stop).

The preparation of Turkish coffee (also known as mocha) is one of the oldest known methods of coffee preparation. For this purpose, a long-stemmed jug called Ibrik is used. Mocha can be ordered in three ways: sade (unsweetened) – orta (medium-sweet) – sekerli (sweet).

Saleph is a milk drink that is mainly drunk in the cold winter months. The special thing about it is the saleph powder, which is extracted from orchids and gives the milk a thick consistency. Sounds a bit strange, but tastes super delicious.