Category Archives: Istanbul Asian Side

Anadolu Lokantası – Istanbul

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This family owned restaurant is a big escape for the white collars from their busy work schedules. The menu changes daily and you can enjoy home style cooking, hot, delicious, flavoursome. You chose your remedy from the glass display that separates you from the colorful trays of food. Pot meals, stews, olive oil dishes, pilaf, puddings, meat and chicken dishes are all good. The portions are generous. And believe me you never feel full after all these plates.

They use the best ingredients available. When you bite through their house special köfte wrapped in phyllo dough, you taste the  veal meat, lean, spicy, tasty and sticks in your mind for the next visit. Or you order another one right away!

The restaurant is clean, the food is very good, the service is fast. What is there not to like?

Address: Değirmen Sk. Şaşmaz Sitesi C Blok, No:9/A, Kozyatağı, Istanbul

Phone: (216) 463 1872

Service Hours: Food begins to be displayed around 11:00, 11:30am – around 2:30pm daily menu finishes, so you may order from the grill till 6:00pm. They do delivery. Closed on weekends.

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    Baylan Pastanesi – Istanbul

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    One of Istanbul’s touchstones, my one and only Baylan stands bold, against all the new trends of baking,reminding us that old school is always sound. Ask any Istanbul local, they always have a story to  tell you about Baylan, and their memories from the good old days of Istanbul.

    You feel like the place has been left untouched from old times, so magical, so nostalgic. I prefer to sit inside, where most of the people enjoy the mini cosy garden at the back of the patisserie.

    They have many tastes that will please you but the signature dessert, but Kup Griye is the one!  Made with vanilla ice cream,  almonds, nuts, caramel sauce, chantilly cream and on top a lady finger, you order an espresso, then prepare to be amazed, cause the taste will take you to a sweet dream, while the hot, devil espresso tries to remind you where you are. The espresso is one of the best you can enjoy in Istanbul.

    Macaroons, ice cream desserts, cherry liqueur filled home made chocolates, and my other favorite Paskalya Çöreği, the Easter bread, made with mahaleb, mastic gum, chemically balancing each other. That is the expertise.They also bake sweet and savory cookies, cakes, petits fours and the other treats.

    Make time for this true Istanbul gem.

    Address: Muvakkithane Caddesi, No:19, Kadıköy, Istanbul

    Phone: (216) 346 6350

    Service Hours: 8:30am – 8:00pm, everyday

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      Kandilli Suna’nın Yeri – Istanbul

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      Here and there, tables scattered around the cobble-stoned pavement, under the huge plane trees. If  it is cold you enjoy the small cosy restaurant at the left side, if the weather suits you,  you take your place under the trees, while the breeze caresses your face.

      The home made mezes are cooked by Ms. Suna herself, changing seasonally like, fresh broad bean, artichoke, pickles, and couple of specialty items. Do not expect hundreds of mezes, they do a couple, and they do it very good! And do not exaggerate while ordering, just think of the fish await you.

      One portion horse mackerel, one portion anchovy, one mullet… You order them all fried knowing you can not go wrong here. The fried fish always served crackling, hot hot, never soggy, fresh, and yummy. Or you go with the grilled big catches like blue fish, bonito, bream… Whatever is in season.

      The co-star menu item of this fish restaurant is their salad. The freshest of fresh salad made with lettuce, parsley, oregano, onions, tomatoes, pepper, mint, rocket, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, garnished with lemon wedges, for you to season it to your taste. This salad is  so tempting, you finish it in a blink of an eye, then you dunk your bread in the pinkish, lemony juice that is left and you fight over for the bread pieces that are left in the bowl. All ingredients are chopped a la minute, fuss free, fresh!

      Save some space for the home made baklava prepared by one of the waiters himself.

      Address:Kandilli Iskele Caddesi, 4-17, Üsküdar

      Phone: (216) 332 3241

      Service Hours: everyday, noon till 10:00pm

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        Simit – Istanbul

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        This timeless, this traditional flavor is so simple yet so hard to forget…

        Crunchy, twisted – literally -, sesame covered, oven baked savory pastry is a street taste. Some of us like it plain, some with Turkish tea and cheese, some with ayran, some with marmalade. No matter what you decide to accompany it with, simit is always good. Simit is my excuse for a boat trip!

        Needless to say more,  if you see a simit trolley or a guy carrying all of that brown rings on top of his head, stop him, have one or two. Bite it and hear that sound and your mouth fulls with joy, and sesames all over you :)

          Çiya Sofrası – Istanbul

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          Imagine a place where you find all those beautiful regional, Anatolian ingredients cooked ingeniously that create explosions through your senses.

          The moment you lay your eyes on the small place you are surrounded by great tastes, on your  left the big hot pots and pans laying all colorful meals, and on your right you see the freshest salads and spreads on the salad bar, far from the salad bar the desert window winks at you, seduces you…

          You start your chat with the chef, asking him the dishes of the day, after you make up your mind, if you can that is!  Then you pay your visit to the salad bar, you fill you plate with dried eggplant dolma, kısır, muammara, zahter salad, Kürt köftesi, eggplant salad and many more delicacies.

          You may feel like you are dining through the lands of Anatolia, escorted by the obscure vegetables, roots and edible herbs, and you are amazed by the sour cherry dish, green plum with lamb, stuffed artichoke, casseroles made with all those different ingredients, then dishes even sometimes I do not know or pronounce the names. Every dish is delicious, just it depend on what you want to eat that day, that is how I cope with it.

          There is always some sweet or sweet sour sherbet, according to season, rhubarb, tamarind, green almond, plum, rose, cactus fruit, melon, liquorice, mulberry, bitter almond and many more, always something to learn, to taste.

          You drink your zahter tea and want to start all over again, but some other day. At Çiya there is always something new to try, and something you always want to eat again and again and again…

          Address: Güneşlibahçe Sk. No:43, Kadıköy, Istanbul

          Phone: (216) 330 3190

          Service Hours: opens noon – 10:00pm, everyday

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            Fauna – Istanbul

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            5 tables plus open kitchen plus soothing jazz music plus homemade pasta equals to this little gem in Kadıköy.

            For there you find the freshest ingredients forming tasteful plates of silky dough coated with the a la minute sauce… White surrounds you, the smell warms you and sets you up for the upcoming feast, and if you are there for the dinner you pray for if there is any porcini ravioli left to devour. Otherwise,  you will be satisfied with the other yummy pastas or raviolis, no worries.

            If you have any place left try their dessert “maylobi” or mini chocolate soufflé with a decent espresso.

            Have  I mentioned they use no cream and preserved or tinned corn!!! How innovative  for those who think pastas are made with only cream and salads with corn!

            Everyone should cook with these ingredients and eat these, that’s what they believe, so do we…

            - Note from Istanbulfood: RECENTLY FAUNA HAS CLOSED ITS DOORS DUE TO A NEW RESTAURANT PROJECT. WE ARE WAITING IMPATIENTLY…April 18,2010 -

            Address: Moda Cad. Sarrafali Sk. No:7, Caferağa, Kadıköy

            Phone: (216) 345 9954

            Service Hours: noon – last order at 7:30pm, closed Sundays. If you go there after 7:30 pm you will be leaving with an empty tummy, after being kindly rejected.

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              Köşem Karadeniz Pide Salonu – Istanbul

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              So small, but hard to miss. You can take in the teasingly good smell of meat and the butter from meters away and head to  the right direction.

              The secret is the ingredients and the cooking technique for once. The prompt and courteous service is always a plus as we all know. All the ingredients are originally from Trabzon, one of the home towns of  pide on the Black Sea coastal region. As a person who tasted lots of different pide in Trabzon,  I must say this little place in Istanbul is by far the best.

              They deliver home, but I prefer eating in the small restaurant while watching the skillful hands shape the dough and top it with my choosen ingredient and shovel it in the depths of the wood burning oven.

              Address: Tütüncü Mehmet Efendi Cad. No:10 D.5, Göztepe, Istanbul

              Phone: (216) 360 1678

              Service Hours : 11:00 am- 09:00 pm (if not finished by then, you may find it till 9:30pm) / open everyday of the week

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                Fazıl Bey’in Türk Kahvesi – Istanbul

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                Everyone has a secret hiding place, a little safe zone. I have a couple myself. This one is for Turkish coffee.

                This place offers me the scene to the rush-ness of Kadıköy Food Market with a balance of nice, piping hot, dark roasted Turkish coffee. You may sit on the little chairs for a quick fix and watch the people passing by, hear the fish mongers loud and evocative voices and sip your delicious coffee.

                Coffee is served with a mini Turkish Delight (lokum) and again a mini glass of cold water.

                If you like the coffee you may buy dark or light roasted coffee, newly grounded.

                Address: Serasker Caddesi No: 1A, Kadıköy Çarşısı

                Phone: (216) 450 2870

                Service Hours: 08:00am – 09:00pm / open everyday of the week

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