Category Archives: Istanbul European Side

Tarihi Subaşı Lokantası – Istanbul

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All the walls are covered with black and white photographs, news from  international and local press, trophies, all memories with smiling faces… This place is the city’s history, its taste, its smell and its texture.

The dishes are prepared with the finest ingredients. The lamb stew is like any other thing, or any other place, the broth is so tasty and  so meaty, you spoon it eagerly, the lamb is so soft and delicious, and falling off the bone, you spoon more and when you finish the meat, the potatoes and carrot, then comes the bone marrow, suck it slurping, making  funny noises. At least that’s what I do! And nobody gazing at you whilst this happens.

The rice pilaf with carrots, pine nuts, topped with roasted chicken pieces, celery root with leeks cooked in olive oil, karnıyarık, deep fried whole aubergine, spilt into two and tucked with mince meat then roasted in oven, so yummy!

Kadınbudu köfte, a kind of meatball with rice and battered with egg and fried,  a traditional dish as well, which is very delicious and perfectly cooked. Big pots simmering on the hob, all you have to do is ask the daily soup. They have meat, chicken, vegetable dishes, fresh salad, soup, homemade puddings and sweets.

Either you sample as many as you can, or pick one and enjoy with a delicious crunchy green salad. But please finish it with şekerpare, a king of pastry made with semolina, baked in the oven and then sugar syrup poured on top. Just a perfect way to end your feast.

Menu changes daily, but taste stays the same. So does the hospitality, cleanliness, cosy atmosphere. If you are near Kapalı Çarşı – Grand Bazaar- or not, just stop there for a treat.

Address: Nuruosmaniye Cad No: 48, Çarşıkapı

Phone: (212) 522 4762

Service Hours: 10:30am – 4:30pm, closed on Sundays.

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Asri Turşucu – Istanbul

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Sour, salty, if you want spicy! All indispensable for me! I am talking about pickles here. Crunchy cucumbers, garlic, peppers, cabbage, okra, plum, tomato, stuffed aubergines, carrot, beet, gherkin, onion,green beans, you name it, they have it.

The  shop’s display is full of colorful jars which has a rainbow effect on us, like a pickle heaven! Approach the counter and choose your selection of pickles, mine is always a lot of garlic, cabbage, cucumber, plums, hot peppers and of course spicy pickle juice to accompany them. While waiting you can enjoy a glass of pickle juice and top it with your favorite pickle. The juices are served in beer glasses so it means a lot of cabbage pickles for me!

Istanbul’s one and only Asri Turşucu is serving its finest since 1938. They close down around June-July till September to make pickles. and in September they reunite with the neighbourhood. Every vegetable or fruit has a different way of brining and a different duration to become a perfect pickle.

Pickles are good for anything! Enjoy them with your drinks, your meals or solo and spoon some of the juice in tarhana or ezogelin soup. You will thank me later!

Address: Ağahamam Cad. No:9/A, Cihangir, Istanbul

Phone: (212) 244 4724

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Damla Dondurma-Boza – Istanbul

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One of the hottest days of Istanbul I hit the road to Kurtuluş. For some ice cream and talk. The small, white, compact shop was my stop and I stayed there for hours chatting, eating ice cream and watching the locals, the kids of all age popping in for a treat.

The kids run in, toss a lira on the glass counter, clang, they order, the ice cream scooped to the cone, dipped into the hot chocolate pool and then nut. Then another screaming kid comes in, then another one and another one…

The elders of the street stop by for some chat and a ball of their favorite. The shoppers stop to buy a kilo, couple of cones put in to the bag, there will be a very happy family tonight, tucking in the ice cream while watching their favorite show.

The tutti frutti and the plain milk, kaymak were just the right tastes for me. The ice cream is made from raw milk  obtained from dairies, so when you linger along the sweet taste, you get that milk taste you miss. All the fruit flavors are made in the house from real fruits. Fuat Brothers buy the fruits when they are in their best behaviour then they prepare fruit purees to use for the ice cream. Summer and winter their varieties are the same, during winter ice cream is still sold but not in demand like boza or salep.

Fuat Brothers have been running their business in Kurtuluş since 1994. The mini shop attracts ice cream lovers from around the city, and during winter time same is valid for boza and salep.

Every neighbourhood needs an ice cream parlor like Damla Dondurma, a sweet gem.

Address: Kurtuluş Caddesi 110, Kurtuluş

Phone: (212) 233 4925

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Tarihi Karaköy Balık Lokantası – Istanbul

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If you feel like you are lost, and this place is so wrong for a fish restaurant, it means you are in the right place. Tarihi Karaköy Balık Lokantası is located in Karaköy, in a rumble place. This place was used to be a fish tradesman restaurant, in the good old days. At this small lokanta you eat fish, the best grilled fish from a big eighty years old charcoal grill.

You enter from the mini door, with a display on your left side with the prepared fish, all beautifully lay in front of your eyes making you more hungry, shellfish on skewers, big full parchment papers, colorfully surrounded with tomatoes, peppers…

There are couple of fish served everyday, seasonally what is available. Muharrem Usta is the man, the grill master. He mostly got his fish from Büyükada. He choose the fish, cleans, prepares, cooks. I told you, he is the man! And he is the only man in İstanbul for me who can grill fish perfectly, flawlessly, dreamy. Muharrem Usta has been a master for 21 years now. Being a master, a real master is not easy, he started his way in the kitchen from washing dishes, cleaning, being a commis. He learned grilling from the real master, earning his way up to the grill.

Muharrem Usta greets you, if he is not already busy on the grill, we say his and ask for the fish, already written on a small board right in front of us. We order salad, prawn on skewer, sole again on skewer and sea bass in parchment paper. We feel safe and happy, leaving  everything to its master, we sit at our table, nearest one to him if possible.

First he put the small custom made bread on the grill, then he sends it with the simple, fresh salad, topped with olive oil from Ayvalık. So the feast begins. We tuck in the humble green, arugula and tomatoes with that bread. Oh, that bread! Then comes the big prawns with their tails on, grilled to perfection, drizzled olive oil.

Then comes the sole. Beautifully curled fillet, the sole is tender, seared on the outside, grilled fast to keep it moist and one bite it is bursting with the real flavor of the fish,  the sole is out of heaven. You never ate anything like this! For me this is the signature dish.

Followed by the silky sea bass in parchment paper, cooked on the grill, the tomatoes did not melt but only left their flavors on the fish, olive oil is the finishing touch. Melt in your mouth, you never want it to end. We ask for more bread, mopped and scraped the juices, left with the  paper and literally had to stop ourselves from licking the paper.

As fish needs its sweet, so did we, so he sliced us a thin piece of helva with pistachio, coming from Manisa. Just the right amount, the right taste, mellow with the oil of sesame.

Tarihi Karaköy Balık Lokantası is only open for lunch and close around 3.00pm, so act up, prepare to wait if busy and don’t sit at my table!

Address: Tersane Cad. Kardeşim Sok. No:45/A, Karaköy

Phone: (212) 251 1371

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Kantin – Istanbul

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Let’s see…

A couple of stairs, enter through the glass door, greeted by smiling faces, crowd is eating happily, yes again full, should I wait for a table at the terrace or anywhere, let’s see what is on the big board today… White table clothes and fresh flowers meet the eye before the feast.

You are very welcome to Kantin!

Kantin is a safe place! One of the two-three safest places to eat in the city, other than home. But for this kind of food, sorry to say, there is no opponent for Kantin.  In Kantin the food is handled with respect, getting the most out of it.

The menu changes due to availability, seasons and mood. There is “Hergün” meaning everyday and “Bugün” meaning today menu written on a big board. If you are lucky to go there at spring, artichoke season, be sure to eat enginar pate, artichoke spread, smooth, kicking, flavors bursting in your mouth, served on a garlic rubbed toasted bread,  with a little goat cheese, leaves of water cress… Bahar salatası, spring salad, is with the best mozzarella you can find in Turkey, shelled fresh broad beans, asparagus, is the answer to  what a salad should be!

Çıtır, meaning crispy, is a little thin dough cooked in wood oven, topped with varieties of artichoke or vegetables or smoked salmon is the one thing you cannot get enough of. The bream also gets its share from the wood oven and comes with its crackling skin, filled with herbs. The grilled cutlet of chicken with sage, turkey marinated with honey, artichokes with parsley, everything…

Ayran is made with herbs, lemonade is old school. Turkish coffee is served with, well, I’ll leave this as a surprise…

Dükkan is down stairs where prepared food, desserts, bread, cheese and more delicacies are sold. If you are hungry after a days work, stop there to indulge yourself and pick our poison. One thing though! If you can choose!  Desserts have a league of their own. Lemon cake, chocolate cake, carrot cake -one of my faves-, cherry jam and clotted cream filled tarts, chocolate and brandy filled mini bombs… all the remedy you need anytime of the day!

The food of Kantin is simple, clean, all about Istanbul and Aegean. Şemsa Denizsel is an indisputable kitchen goddess and one of the best chefs of Turkey.

Skillful cooking, peculiar tastes, sustainability, top notch ingredients combined with flavors comes up to clean tastes, simple, yet every bite notable, leaving you in a bliss.

Kantin not only fills your tummy, but also your soul!

Address: Akkavak sokak No.30, Nişantaşı, Istanbul

Phone: (212) 219 3114

Service Hours: Restaurant, Monday-Saturday 11.00am-8.30pm last order, Dükkan Monday-Saturday 10.30am-8.00pm

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Namlı Rumeli Köftecisi – Istanbul

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Namlı Rumeli Köftecisi has been in service for almost 30 years now. Their specialty is little balls of heaven, or generally called, köfte!

One bite, it is perfectly cooked, a little pink in the middle, moist, all meat jus is kept inside, seared on the outside. When you see the griller’s hasty moves, you once more love your köfte! Another bite, well it is so small you may not be left for your second bite but anyway, the taste of meat and fat lingers in your mouth. This köfte is made from lean veal meat and fat from brisket. The amount of fat is needed, or you will be choking on a dry meatball.

Order your piyaz, the beans literally melt in your mouth, topped with tomatoes and if you like onions.

After you are done with köfte, order irmik helvası, which is served warm, not so sweet, but a little lite on the pine kernels for my taste.

Stop by, have a bite then keep on strolling through Istanbul!

Address: Hocapaşa Sk. No:9, Sirkeci, Istanbul

Phone: (212) 511 2196

Service Hours: Open daily, around 11.00 till 5.00 or 6.00 pm, till meatballs finish. So hurry!

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Hocapaşa Pidecisi – Istanbul

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How many times you passed by and not stopped at this hidden pideci? I’ll tell, countless!

Yusuf Bey, third generation shop owner  is working rapidly to fulfil every request coming from the customers, slicing the pide, preparing packages, dealing with money. The customers are picky, all locals, some waiting beside Davud Usta, while he cracks eggs on top of kıymalı pide, gets to hear one of the old customer says, put another one on top, one is not enough! Davud Usta has been working there for almost 25 years, he keeps on smiling while opening a ball of dough tapping it with his hands, he tops it with the desired ingredients, then to the shovel and in the big brick oven.

Kıymalı pide is delicious, so is the kavurmalı pide. Munching on kıymalı pide you get the taste of onion, the meat and the spices,  all in good balance, the dough is crunchy, a little moist in the middle, love at first bite! The kavurma they use leaves the dough its flavors. The salty meat and the melted animal fat is divine.

If you want to try something different, try the one with chicken. Yusuf Usta says, the customers love it which is his creation. He blends peppers, tomatoes, chicken breast with olive oil and spices. One of the faves.

A real pide experience to win your tummy, in a place where time seems to stop!

Address: Hocapaşa Sk. No: 19, Sirkeci, Istanbul

Phone: (212) 512 0990

Service Hours: Open everyday, 11:00am – around 8:00pm

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Vefa Bozacısı – Istanbul

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A narrow street, a little away from the center of town.

A historical landmark, since 1876.

Crowded inside. People enjoying, chatting, nibbling on roasted chickpeas and sipping boza.

Boza, is a traditional drink enjoyed during winter time. This thick yellowish fermented drink, is a little sweet a little sour. A distinctive taste. Nurturing. Made from millet flour, water, sugar.

Before you end in Vefa Bozacısı, just stop at the shop across, Tarihi Vefa Leblebicisi, to buy some roasted chickpeas. 200 grams will do. Part of the ritual.

Then cross the street, the heart warming lace curtain windows await you. The glasses are filled with a special ladle, from the big marble bowl. Then sprinkled with cinnamon, placed on the counter for the hungry eyes.

Before the cold days are over, just pay a visit to this beautiful place and have  a glass of boza.

Address: Katip Çelebi Cad. No:104/1, Vefa, Istanbul

Phone: (212) 519 4922

Service Hours: Boza is served between October till April.

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