Did you know that there are more than 23,000 restaurants in Istanbul? With so many places to visit, it can be hard to figure out questions like Which area in Istanbul is best for foodies? or perhaps Where do the locals eat in Istanbul?
And, of course, there’s always the question of where to find the best restaurants (instead of those annoying tourist traps!). This is one of the most common problems, as more than 15 million people visit Istanbul every year and unfortunately many restaurants take advantage of this by serving mediocre, overpriced, or just blah food!
After so many people asked us “Where’s a good place to eat in Istanbul?” we decided to create this blog post and let everyone know our secrets — so you too can find some awesome places. 🙂
We’ll talk about how to dine in Istanbul like a local, what to watch out for, our method of finding the best restaurants and cafes, types of eatery establishments and street food in Istanbul, and tons more.
Rev up your appetite and Afiyet olsun! (bon appetit!)
How to Find the Best Restaurants in Istanbul: Tips From a Local
If you’re wondering how we find the fantastic restaurants, cafes, and other interesting places noted in our blog posts (and when we travel abroad too!), keep reading — we’ll tell you all of our secrets. 🙂
Our #1 source for finding the best restaurants in Istanbul is the mighty yet humble Google Maps. Yes, you read that right — this amazing app doubles as a GPS and as a powerful tool to find some excellent eateries!
First, we think of the cuisine or dish we want to eat (i.e. Indonesian, bubble tea, lahmacun, etc) and type it into Google Maps’ search bar. From there, we look for places that have at least a 4.3 out of 5 rating and start our process:
- Go to the Reviews tab and sort by ‘Newest’ first. This is to see how well the restaurant is doing the past few days.
- After reading the first five to ten newest reviews, go back and sort by ‘Lowest.’ This step helps us identify if there are any concerning issues (i.e. someone wrote that they got food poisoning or they noticed the restaurant had cockroaches). Of course, it also helps to have a rational outlook when reading the reviews, since some people like to complain about anything — we once encountered a 1-star review from someone who was mad because the waiter didn’t smile (lol)
- When going through the reviews, see if a particular dish is mentioned more than once (i.e. “this is the best baklava I had during my trip!”) or if the restaurant got special praise (“we ate here 3 times during our 2-day trip”).
- After reading the reviews, go to the Photos tab and check out the menu, if there’s anything that piques your interest, and the price. Be sure to check the timestamp of the photo (on the bottom), as prices change quickly due to inflation!
- Voila! If the restaurant/cafe/establishment passes the ‘Google Maps review check,’ be sure to save it and move onto the next place. 🙂
If you’re an ardent foodie, we highly recommend saving all the places you want to go to on the Google Maps app. There are a few benefits: it’s visually easier to see where they’re located, you won’t need to remember everything (no need to spam your Notes app with a bunch of memos!), and your icons will be saved for offline use.
Other Platforms to Find Restaurant Recommendations
Of course, don’t just stick to Google Maps – there are plenty of excellent resources to help you fill out your itinerary and find the best places to eat in Istanbul. Here are our thoughts:
Travel blogs — Surprise, surprise 😉 Travel blogs are an excellent way to find enthusiastic recommendations and honest reviews, especially since they’ve done the ‘heavy lifting’ (research) and ate there already. They’ve literally paved the path to delicious food! 😋 Our personal favorite is Dig In Istanbul, which is a food blog run by a Turkish food editor (!) that originally created the site to recommend his favorite places to friends.
Some tips to get you started: Search for a neighborhood (i.e. “best restaurants in Kadikoy”), dish (“best pizza in Istanbul”), or establishment type (“best cafes in Istanbul” or “best lokanta in Istanbul”). If you get a lot of Tripadvisor results, add ‘blog’ to the end of your search keyword.
Social Media — This is an especially great trip if you’re looking for new restaurants and trendy places. In fact, this is how we found our favorite Korean cafe in Istanbul! Our favorite social media channels are Instagram, Tik Tok, and (to a lesser extent) Pinterest. You can start by searching for hashtags like #Istanbulfood or #Istanbulrestaurant and going from there. You might even stumble on an account that talks exclusively about amazing restaurants in Istanbul!
Locals — If you’re staying at a hotel, ask your concierge for recommendations (or your Airbnb host). We recommend asking “where do you usually eat?” instead of “where’s the best place to eat?” for the best local places (otherwise, they’ll point you to a tourist spot 😉). If you’re especially extroverted, you can even ask the barista at the cafe or the waitress for their favorite recommendations.
Other Reviewers — Going off the above point, there are some people on Google Maps that treat their reviews like it’s a full-time job (and we mean that in the nicest way possible). If you see a really cool Google review (i.e. the person wrote a detailed wall of text about the food, restaurant, chef, … ), why not give them a follow and check out their other reviews? This is our favorite way of finding ‘underground’ restaurants that we may have overlooked during our initial research.
Tripadvisor & Guide Books — Last but certainly not least, we have our frenemy: Tripadvisor. We don’t recommend relying too heavily on Tripadvisor for a few reasons: it’s easy to game the system, those reviews are written by tourists (and not locals), and top-rated restaurants are usually overpriced tourist traps.
Guidebooks have a similar caveat called the ‘Lonely Plant Effect’: when a place is mentioned in a guidebook, tourists start flocking to the place and the price goes up while the quality goes down. The hotel/restaurant/establishment literally turns into a tourist trap thanks to its popularity.
While we’re not telling you to throw away the guidebook, we’re just gently warning you to take those recommendations with a grain of salt. 🙂
Other Helpful Restaurant Travel Hacks
Now that you know our basic process for finding the best restaurants, we’d like to impart some other nuggets of knowledge:
📍 For super local recommendations (i.e. you want to get as far away from tourist traps as possible), write your desired dish in *Turkish* when searching through Google Maps — for example, instead of writing fish sandwich, write Balık ekmek. If you’re craving ice cream, write dondurma. Coffee? Type in kahve instead.
📍 If you want to try as many delicious dishes as possible on your trip, do the ‘food tour trick’ and spread out your meals across different restaurants. For example, try appetizers in a meyhane, then walk over to another restaurant for your main course, and finish off with dessert at a cafe. You’ll triple or even quadruple your experience this way!
📍 Have a mix of ‘close by’ places — If you tend to lose track of time and become hungry after sightseeing, this is an awesome travel tip. After booking your hotel or accommodation, open Google Maps and find a few backup options. That way, you’ll have two lists: places that are close to your hotel (in case you don’t want to walk too far / are too hungry) and those that are in other neighborhoods (that you still want to try).
📍 Avoid restaurants in Sultanahmet — If there’s one thing you take away from this blog post, please let it be this one 🙂 Although Sultanahmet is convenient because it’s the main tourist zone (and there are thousands of hotels), most restaurants are overrated, overpriced, and the quality is so-so. The majority of locals tend to avoid Sultanahmet and the Old Town exactly for those reasons — and because you can find much better food elsewhere!
📍 Now you’re probably wondering, where are the best food neighborhoods in Istanbul? – and we’re glad you asked! We recommend Kadikoy for street food and local restaurants; Şişli for upscale and boutique bistros; Cihangir for cafes and hipster-style restaurants; Galataport for cocktails, steak, and fine dining; and Beşiktaş for budget-friendly eats and breakfast (breakfast is so fancy that there’s even an official Breakfast Street – Kahvaltıcılar Sokağı!)
📍 Aways cross-check Google Maps! Even if you don’t follow our step-by-step instructions above, at least check the reviews before you go inside and order food. The only time we got food poisoning in Turkey was when we ate Iskender kebab and forgot to check the restaurant’s reviews (spoiler: the place had 2.6 stars on Google Maps and plenty of other reviewers who had upset stomachs :’) )
This is especially important because not everyone has the Tripadvisor app on their phone, but almost everyone has Google Maps!
Types of Restaurants in Istanbul
Besides the standard restaurants and cafes, there are many different types of eating establishments in Istanbul. Here’s a quick rundown:
- Lokanta — Simple, delicious, and budget-friendly are the three basic principles of these establishments. Lokanta are a type of tradesmen restaurants where locals go to eat home-style cooking. These are typically self-serve cafeteria-style places, where you point to the dishes you want and the staff will put it on your plate. If you want to try local Turkish food, this is the place.
- Meyhane — A sort of Turkish pub or tavern, the main hallmarks of a meyhane are live music, alcoholic beverages, and tasty appetizers (called meze).
- Street food — Istanbulites are always on the go, so having plenty of quick and cheap street food stalls is an absolute must! The most common street food in Istanbul are simit (a thin round bagel), balik ekmek (fish sandwich), kumpir (a baked potato with toppings), midye (mussels), and roasted chestnuts (especially during colder months!).
You can find simit and balik ekmek sellers around Eminonu pier; kumpir around Ortakoy Mosque; and midye stalls along Istiklal Caddesi. Simit sellers are practically in every neighborhood and can be identified by their striped red kiosks!
- Turkish Breakfast — Locally known as Türk kahvaltı, we think everyone should order this breakfast at least once during their trip! 😉 Turkish breakfasts are legendary because there are so many components all on one tray: cheeses, slices of meat and ham, honey, cream, various sauces and spreads, jams, bread, vegetables, pastries, and so much more.
- Tea Gardens — These çay bahçesi have been an integral part of Turkish life and culture for hundreds of years, and thankfully many are still around today. Tea gardens are (usually) unpretentious places with plenty of outdoor seating, a basic menu, and a chance to catch up with friends. We recommend Moda Çay Bahçesi (Kadikoy), Çengelköy Çinaraltı (open 24/7!!), and Çapa Aile Çay Bahçesi. Sarayburnu Aile Çay bahçesi has beautiful views, but it’s a tourist trap (we recommend only going for the tea!)
- Book Cafes — Is there a more perfect combination than books and coffee? (That’s a rhetorical question — only Istanbul + cats are better) 🙂
Although the kitap kafe, as they’re called, go back more than hundreds of years, they’ve gotten quite a resurgence over the past few years. Visitors can browse shelves while waiting for their coffee, enjoy a cozy atmosphere, or find new reads. Many book cafes in Turkey have at least one shelf with foreign language books (such as English). - Ice Cream — Dondurmacı, which translates to ice cream seller or ice cream parlor, is a staple in Istanbul’s hot summer days. Turkey has its own type of ice cream (called Maraş dondurması), which is made from goat milk and has a soft, velvety texture — be sure to try it!
In case you’re wondering, there are also plenty of Turkish chain restaurants and cafes that can be found across Istanbul and around the country. The most famous names are MADO, Big Chefs, Tavuk Dunyasi, and Pidem for restaurants, and Espressolab, Kahve Dunyasi, and Simit Sarayi for cafes.
What to Look For (+ What to Avoid!) at Restaurants
The Google Map reviews trick — Although we love Google Maps (as you can probably tell), it does have a drawback. If you’re looking for restaurants and notice a place with a 4.9 (out of 5) rating and thousands of reviews, it’s probably a fraud and you should be suspicious. Some restaurant owners buy hundreds of positive fake reviews to inflate their average score.
This dirty trick is typically found in restaurants around Sultanahmet (the Old Town), but thankfully there’s an easy way to figure it out: if you see a bunch of reviewers who only have 1 or 2 other reviews, no photo, and the review doesn’t go into detail, it’s probably a fake review.
The Google Map reviews trick #2 — Another variant of the trick above is bribery. Some restaurant owners will ask diners to leave a 5-star review in exchange for a complimentary gift, such as a cup of tea or free dessert.
Buyrun! — You’ve probably heard this phrase hundreds of times if you’ve walked around Sultanahmet or the Grand Bazaar. (It means come in!) If you stop and think about it, the restaurant or cafe probably isn’t very good if you need a person to stand outside and constantly try to lure in visitors, is it? 🙂
Don’t give into the temptation (or feel bad about walking past these guys), as it’s a very common sales tactic.
If the menu is translated into 10 different languages… Run away! It’s definitely a tourist trap 🙂
Local restaurants will usually only have a menu in Turkish, although many are starting to offer an English version as well. In any case, if there are more than 3 or 4 translated menus, think twice before eating there.
A note about menus — Turkey has been experiencing crazy inflation over the past few years, and prices change every few months. Don’t be alarmed if your menu has a bunch of stickers with new prices, as it’s normal (unfortunately) to bump up the price in accordance with the exchange rate.
Don’t be afraid of smaller places — Oftentimes, those hole in the wall restaurants or street food kiosks have some of the best food! Just be sure to check their reviews ahead of time.
The golden rule: never look for a restaurant when you’re already hungry! It’s kind of like going to the grocery store on an empty stomach — you’ll end up with a basket full of regret 🙂
Common restaurant scams in Istanbul — Unfortunately, there are a few unscrupulous restaurants in Istanbul. The most common scam is called the menu switch, where the waiter gives you a menu with lower prices (i.e. lahmacun for 70 TL) and when the bill comes, the price of the dish magically changes (lahmacun becomes 200 TL). They hope you won’t notice.
On the other hand… another popular scam is where the waiter gives you a menu with no prices at all!
If you want to read about other restaurant scams (plus common taxi, hotel, and tour scams), we recommend checking out our blog post 20 Common Tourist Scams in Istanbul & Turkey (And How to Avoid Them!)
Other Useful Tips
Finally, we have a collection of notes and tips that didn’t fit elsewhere:
- Many restaurants are split, meaning they have inside seating and outside seating. If you don’t like the smell of smoke, we recommend choosing a seat inside, as the outside area is usually a smoker’s zone.
- Usually there’s no need to make reservations, unless it’s a very upscale place. You can easily tell by the reviews, or if the restaurant’s website has a ‘Reserve’ phone number or function.
- Alcohol isn’t cheap in Turkey! Although it’s not outright banned, alcohol is heavily taxed, which makes it relatively expensive compared to other countries. The only exception is local beer, like Efes.
- Tipping in Turkey: Surprisingly, there’s no widespread tipping culture in Turkey. Don’t feel obliged to tip, unless you really liked the service — then you can round up the price or tip 10% of the total. Likewise, check the small print at the bottom of the menu, as the tip is sometimes already included in the bill.
The Best Food Tours in Istanbul
One of the best ways to learn more about the city’s cuisine is by going on a guided tour with a professional foodie — and thankfully, there are plenty of food tours in Istanbul!
We’ve compiled a list of some of our favorite food tours below so that you can enjoy learning more about the city’s culinary history, taste delicious dishes, and have an unforgettable experience. 🙂
Istanbul: Taste of Two Continents Food Tour — Hands down, this is the most popular food tour in Istanbul, and for good reason — the company behind the tour has been conducting tours since 2013 and knows all the best places! 😉 Like the title says, this tour features a total of 9 stops across two continents (starting in Europe and ending in Asia!), and includes a stop at a 150-year old family restaurant, authentic Turkish coffee, and delicious dondurma. Check prices & book here →
Istanbul: Guided Food Tour of Street Food and Markets — If you prefer street food instead, then you’ll love this tour! During the 6-hour tour, you’ll sample the finest food from cafes, markets, street food vendors, and more — along with a stop at a local market, a trip to Kadikoy on the ferry, and (the highlight!) trying balik ekmek at an authentic stall. Check prices & book here →
Learn Turkish Cuisine from a Local Mom —What could be more authentic than delving into the intricacies of Turkish cuisine under the guidance of someone who knows it best? You’ll be treated like family after stepping inside Baver’s home and learn to cook some of the most popular home-style dishes. Check prices & book here →
4-Hour Evening Walk & Light Food Tasting Tour — This is the perfect choice if your mornings are blocked off with sightseeing and walking tours around Istanbul. The tour starts at 6 pm and covers some of the best local dishes (as well as some interesting tidbits about Istanbul’s cuisine!) over a period of 4 hours. Check prices & book here →
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