Opened in 1966, Kıyı (“coast” in Turkish) is an iconic fish and seafood restaurant located right on the water. It’s the place to try classic seafood dishes like tarama (a spread made with fish roe, olive oil, and lemon), lakerda (salt-preserved bonito), midye dolma (spicy rice-stuffed mussels), fried calamari, and octopus salad. With immaculate service and seasonal fish cooked delicately, Kıyı is still the best fish restaurant in Istanbul.

After the popular Müzedechanga closed, the restaurant’s chef, Pınar Taşdemir, opened her own simple, eloquent restaurant at the end of 2018. Araka was a hit from day one thanks to Taşdemir’s contemporary, refreshing cooking, both in her a la carte and tasting menus. She shows off her skills in signature vegetable dishes (“araka” translates to “pea” in Turkish) like beetroots braised in olive oil topped with cheese mousse, or purslane salad with mashed fava beans. She also has a knack for building complementary flavors across different dishes, like sea bass ceviche, smoked bonito with collard greens, and lamb with onions. Dining here is like visiting a peaceful, tasteful home full of amazing food and ambiance.

What began as a neighborhood bistro has become a destination for Sunday breakfast, killer cocktails in the evening, and farm-to-table dishes all the time. Murat Kazdal runs the operation while his sister Burçak leads the kitchen. Chef Kazdal is obsessed with sourcing quality ingredients, which she uses to apply subtle flourishes to classic Istanbul recipes. Specials change by the season, the week, and even daily, but whatever is on the menu, know you can’t go wrong. It’s difficult to stop eating the balık basma, a fish rillette with tahini and currant — until you see chef Kazdal’s steak tartare with ponzu and wasabi truffle dressing, the smoked anchovy salad with bergamot dressing, fava with ginger, or the rack of lamb with lemon balm pesto. With the restaurant’s good food and cool vibes, it’s easy to become a regular, like everyone else who dines there. 

Some establishments give off a clear attitude. In the case of Aman da Bravo, owned by Melis Korkud and chef İnanç Çelengil, that attitude is stylish, chic, modern, and relaxing, all wrapped up in a quiet oasis away from the city center. The food made with seasonal ingredients is as compelling as the restaurant itself. Surrender to bottarga capellini, grilled Yedikule lettuce with Caesar dressing, spinach roots with beluga lentils, harissa lamb shank with orzo and duxelles, or grilled baby calamari baby potatoes and tarragon. Never miss the desserts and cocktails.

Petra Coffee Roasting is a big player in the coffee business in Istanbul. The cool, buzzy Gayrettepe HQ — which also operates as a production space for the coffee brand — is the perfect place to hang with drinks, amazing pastries, sourdough bread varieties, and a hip all-day dining menu: eggs, tartines, steak and fries, an awesome chicken schnitzel, Waldorf salad, and a diner burger. Sit awhile to enjoy the music and the people-watching, then visit their General Store in the back for hip clothing, home goods, and other designer items (and stop by the other Petra branches in the city as well).

Every single detail is important at this fine dining restaurant from chef Fatih Tutak, whose passion is reflected in his choice of ingredients and the techniques he uses to make the most of them. Chef Tutak only serves a tasting menu and changes it often, but you might see mackerel with Tire eggplant and caviar; milk-fed lamb with okra and girolle mushrooms and sweetbreads; heirloom tomato with Kargı tulum cheese and Tokat sour cherry. After dinner, guests are invited to the kitchen to admire the jars full of sauces, condiments, and other experiments, which reveal the serious research and development behind every dish. The wine and cocktails are impeccable and the service is top-notch.

In the buzzy business district of Şişli, Mahir Lokantası is a humble locals’ hangout that serves food inspired by eastern Turkey, the home of owner Mahir Nazlıcan. Born to a family of restaurateurs, Nazlıcan is always on the premises making sure customers enjoy their meals. The menu offers specials each day of the week, and regulars show up on certain days to enjoy their favorite plates, like kuru dolma (stuffed dried vegetables), içli köfte (meat-stuffed bulgur balls), kuzu incik (lamb shank), vegetable stew cooked in the brick oven, rice dishes, hearty soups, and one of the best lahmacuns (meat-covered flatbread) in town. Don’t miss kadayıf and semolina for dessert, along with some tea.

Every meal at Tatbak starts with their famous lahmacun. The flatbread comes topped with a mincemeat mixture of tomatoes, parsley, and garlic. Add additional parsley, a gentle squeeze of lemon, roll it into a wrap, and dig in. Then explore the restaurant’s kebab offerings, a favorite of locals, including yoğurtlu kebab (meat kebabs with yogurt and tomato sauce served over cubes of pide bread) and kuzu şiş (marinated lamb skewer served with bulgur pilaf, roasted pepper, and tomatoes). The restaurant has been open since 1960 in the posh Nişantaşı district and has maintained a steady following of regulars ever since.

From legendary cherry liqueur-filled chocolates to old-school cakes and cookies, Üstün Palmie is like an ambassador from another era in the old Kurtuluş neighborhood. The patisserie is known for its Paskalya çöreği (Easter bun) with mahlep (pounded wild cherry pit) and mastic from Greece, ay çöreği (a crescent moon-shaped pastry filled with chocolate cake, preserved fruit, and nuts), ice cream-based desserts, and cold lemonade in summer.

Everyone has a favorite flavor at this old-school ice cream parlor. Since 1989, the Tufan brothers have served up strawberry, lemon, caramel, tutti frutti, and sour cherry all year long. They use sahleb (orchid root) for consistency and taste across the flavors, and have bought their milk from the same dairy for many years. Order by the scoop or take some home by the kilo. People line up for a taste of childhood, especially if the sun is shining, so be prepared to wait.

Visitors can’t leave Istanbul without trying a proper döner, and Karadeniz Döner does right by the big rotating luscious hunk of meat. Owner Asım Usta personally slices his famous döner thinly with a big döner knife and tucks it into house-made pide (you can also order it plain or in a wrap) starting around 11 a.m. (get there early, the meat hardly lasts into the afternoon). Prepare to wait in line — it’s worth it.

Head to the bustling Beyoğlu Balık Pazarı, one of the city’s busiest areas, to try this nostalgic confectionery. Since 1926, the shop has tempted locals with colorful jars full of akide şekeri (hard candy), trays of fruit jellies, varieties of lokum (Turkish delight), tahini halva, and almond marzipan you should not plan to share. Delicious jams made from rose petal, quince, strawberry, fig, orange, and sour cherry are sold from old copper cauldrons, and the mastic Turkish delight melts in your mouth. It’s a delightful shop for picking up boxes of treats to bring home.

Everything gets pickled in Turkey: cucumbers, green tomatoes, chiles, cabbage, beets, carrots, okra, garlic, plums — the list goes on. The pickles are paired with meat, stews, and fish, while the pickle juice makes a refreshing drink. Petek Turşuları excels at both: Alternate sips of your preferred pickle juice with bites of the shop’s crunchy, salty, sour pickles while admiring the colorful jars that surround you. Bottoms up!

This restaurant displays its daily specialties in a brightly lit case at the back of the dining room. Take a look and you’ll likely see a big tray of the trademark dish, karnıyarık: eggplant stuffed with mincemeat, onions, and spices, best enjoyed with pilaf and cacık (a refreshing yogurt dish with diced cucumber and mint). The eggplants are almost always gone by early afternoon. Save room for the kadayıf, shredded dough as thin as angel hair pasta that’s cooked until golden with a crunchy top, soft interior, and a layer of walnuts in the middle.

The quintessential Turkish dining experience consists of a long night at a meyhane, sitting around a table with friends, ordering all sorts of meze with lots of rakı (anise-scented alcohol), and having long conversations for hours. The fantastic mezes at Asmalı Cavit include eggplant salad, tarama, fava beans, marinated sea bass, lakerda (salt-preserved bonito), samphire salad, and şakşuka (mixed fried vegetables with yogurt and tomato sauce). After cold mezes, continue with yaprak ciğer (thin slices of liver served with onion), and save some space for their famous köfte (meatballs). Meze is a way of life and you can live well at Asmalı Cavit.

Yeni’s simple and amicable decor can transport you away from the noise of Istiklal Avenue just outside, especially when the waiter brings burnt butter and sourdough bread to the table, offering a sneak peek of the meal to come. Chef-owner Civan Er skillfully incorporates local ingredients into modern Turkish cooking on both the tasting menu and a la carte offerings. Aubergine with sour cherry wine-poached figs is a genius plate, and smoked tomato and watermelon is a mouthful of summer with sumac and isot (Urfa pepper). None of the plates are shy, and there’s a glass of wine made from local grapes to go with everything.

Simit, a sesame-coated ring of dough, is the most common all-day street food in Istanbul, and buying one directly from a simit bakery guarantees it will be crispy and fresh. Although it can be found in every corner of the city, few are as delicious as the version at Galata Simitçisi. In addition to a simit, try a çatal, a semi-savory cookie that crumbles in the mouth (çatal means fork, which it resembles in shape). Both are great with Turkish tea.

Mürver’s open fire touches much of the restaurant’s surf and turf menu, though a brick oven, curing, and smoking also help bring flavor to the variety of fish, seafood, meat, and vegetables. Chef Mevlüt Özkaya and his team serve the restaurant’s classic ash-grilled octopus and succulent Thracian lamb all year round, while the rest changes seasonally. Whether you dine at the chef’s table looking at the fires or with the view of the magnificent historical peninsula, the drippings, cracklings, and smoky flavors come together nicely with an excellent wine and cocktails menu.

Esnaf lokantası are tradesmen’s restaurants where working people can enjoy a traditional Turkish homestyle meal away from home. One of the best examples is Nato, which has been serving the Karaköy neighborhood since 1952. The menu of vegetable stews, soups, pilafs, and meat dishes changes daily. Everything is displayed on hot plates at one end of the restaurant; just order with your eyes before finding a spot at the shared tables to wait for your chosen dishes to be served. The kuzu haşlama (braised lamb with light lemon sauce) is not to be missed, nor is the half portion of döner on pilaf.

A modern tradesmen restaurant by day and a meyhane (tavern) by night, Karaköy is popular among white-collar workers, artists, writers, and lovers of good food from Istanbul and abroad. At lunch, diners choose from a daily menu, while at night they line up to choose mezes from a display case. Options often include olive oil-braised artichokes, fried liver, spinach roots cooked with olive oil, kidney bean salad, crispy fried zucchini, calamari, octopus, and seasonal fish. Reservations are only offered for dinner and tables can be hard to come by, so reserve a week in advance or try your luck walking in for lunch.

If the first bite of baklava at Karaköy Güllüoğlu doesn’t mesmerize you, nothing will. Run by the sixth generation of the same family, the shop is the place to try all kinds of baklava at their finest. Early harvested pistachios give the treats that distinctive emerald color, the clarified butter adds a creamy texture and stunning smell, and the sheets of dough handmade by the ustas provide that perfect crispy crunchy texture. Be sure to try the baklava ice cream while you’re there.

You’ll find the best grilled fish in town on a side street lined with hardware shops. A display set in the restaurant’s small windowsill shows off the most appetizing fish, some of which will soon be your lunch. Start with skewered shrimp and a crunchy salad, but be sure to order the sea bass en papillote, cooked in parchment paper with tomatoes on the charcoal grill. Lunch only.

The Spice Bazaar, also known as the Egyptian Bazaar, is more than just a tourist destination. Locals come for Cankurtaran Gıda, a market stall famous for high-quality goods since 1946. Wares include cheeses from all around Turkey, plus the best pastırma (salt and spiced cured meat), sucuk (Turkish sausage), honey, and kaymak (clotted cream) in town. Do not leave without tulum, pungent, earthy ewe’s milk cheese ripened in a goatskin casing from Erzincan in the southeastern part of the country. Their packaging travels well.

Cağ kebabı is like the ancestor of döner. The lamb meat is sliced thicker than döner and cooked horizontally on a big skewer over hot charcoal, before it’s cut and served on small skewers called cağ. The dish made its way to Istanbul years ago from Erzurum, a city in eastern Turkey, and Şehzade is the best place to try it. The succulent lamb is best devoured with thin lavash bread, onion, ezme (spicy tomato and herb salad), and yogurt. For dessert, try the kadayıf dolması, a fried sweet filled with nuts and soaked in simple syrup.

Since 1964 this small shop has served humble, delicious pide to residents of the Sirkeci neighborhood. The flatbread is prepared to order and topped with kıyma (ground meat, spices, tomato), kavurma (confit of meat), and peynir (cheese). The usta (master cook) will prepare your pide right before your eyes, shaping the dough, topping it, and placing it in the wood-burning oven. The kavurmalı pide is especially good, the fat of the meat melting into the dough in the oven. Sip a cold ayran alongside and alternate with bites of pickles.

One of the oldest pastry shops in the city, classic charmer Baylan Pastanesi is famous for Kup Griye, an ice cream dessert made with vanilla ice cream, caramel sauce, whipped cream, and almond brittle. It goes especially well with an espresso. If that sounds like too much, Baylan’s petit fours, ice cream cakes, and homemade chocolates will satisfy any sweet tooth. If you spend your visit on the European side, Baylan is the perfect reason to visit the Asian side of town.

Take the ferry to the Asian side of Istanbul for a true taste of Anatolia. Çiya Sofrası acts as a memorial kitchen, serving the forgotten dishes of what chef-owner Musa Dağdeviren calls “peasant food.” Start with the salads and meze, then move to the seasonal stews. Don’t forget to save some room for the rich lamb kebabs cooked over charcoal. The food at Çiya delivers bold, vibrant, uplifting flavors in one of the city’s most diverse dining experiences.

Although far from the city center, Beyti is an institution that has served meat lovers since 1945. Housed within a modern Ottoman Turkish-style building, the restaurant offers prime cuts hand-picked by owner Beyti Güler. Start with zeytinyağlı (vegetable dishes braised in olive oil) then move on to su böreği (börek pastry made with phyllo dough and cheese) and a mixed grill plate. Then enjoy the Beyti kebab or a rack of lamb. This Istanbul classic is popular for lunch and dinner.