What to Eat in Istanbul: Dishes Worth Ordering

The dishes most worth ordering in Istanbul are a full Turkish breakfast, a fish sandwich by the water, lahmacun and pide from a wood oven, home-style stews from an esnaf lokantası, an evening of meze, and baklava or künefe for dessert. Eat where locals queue, order what the place is known for, and leave room for tea.

How eating in Istanbul works

Istanbul's food is not one cuisine but the sum of a whole country's regional cooking, plus Ottoman palace dishes and centuries of Greek, Armenian, Jewish and Balkan influence. Most good places specialise: a köfte shop does köfte, a pide salon does pide, a baklava shop does baklava. The best meal is rarely at a restaurant that offers everything on a laminated photo menu.

A useful rule: the busier the counter with Turkish customers, the better. Lunch is often the best-value meal, and many traditional places close early in the evening.

Breakfast: kahvaltı

A Turkish breakfast is a spread rather than a plate: white cheese and aged cheeses, black and green olives, tomatoes and cucumbers, honey with kaymak (clotted cream), jams, eggs, and fresh bread, with tea refilled throughout. Order menemen, eggs scrambled with tomatoes and peppers, or sucuklu yumurta, fried eggs with spicy sausage. Weekend breakfast is a social event, so expect cafés to be full late morning.

On the go, the simit, a sesame-crusted bread ring sold from carts, is the city's everyday breakfast.

Street food

• Balık ekmek — grilled mackerel in bread with onion and salad, sold near the Galata Bridge and Eminönü piers.
• Midye dolma — mussels stuffed with spiced rice, eaten standing up with a squeeze of lemon. Buy from a busy stall.
• Kokoreç — seasoned lamb intestines grilled on a spit and chopped with herbs. Better than it sounds and a late-night favourite.
• Döner — in bread or as a dürüm wrap. Look for a spit that is clearly turning over fast.
• Kumpir — huge baked potatoes loaded with toppings, associated with Ortaköy on the Bosphorus.
• Roasted chestnuts and corn — from street carts, especially in autumn and winter.

From the oven: lahmacun and pide

Lahmacun is a very thin flatbread topped with minced meat, onion and spices. You squeeze lemon over it, add parsley, roll it up and eat it with your hands. Pide is the boat-shaped Turkish flatbread, filled with cheese, minced meat, egg or pastırma. Both are cheap, filling and best straight from a wood-fired oven.

Meat dishes worth trying

• Köfte — grilled meatballs, often served with white bean salad and piyaz. Sultanahmet has long been known for them.
• Adana and Urfa kebab — minced lamb kebabs on flat skewers; Adana is spicy, Urfa is mild.
• İskender — döner slices over bread with tomato sauce, melted butter and yoghurt, originally from Bursa.
• Hünkar beğendi — slow-cooked lamb on a smoky aubergine and cheese purée, an Ottoman palace classic.
• Mantı — tiny meat dumplings with garlic yoghurt and red pepper butter.

Esnaf lokantası: home cooking

For an everyday lunch, look for an esnaf lokantası, a tradesmen's restaurant with trays of ready-cooked food behind glass. You point at what you want: kuru fasulye (white beans in tomato sauce) with rice, stuffed vegetables, vegetables cooked in olive oil (zeytinyağlı), lentil soup, and stews of the day. It is quick, inexpensive and much closer to what Istanbul eats at home than a kebab restaurant.

Meze and fish: the meyhane evening

A meyhane is a tavern where dinner stretches over hours. A waiter brings a tray of cold meze to choose from: haydari (thick yoghurt with herbs), ezme (spicy tomato and pepper dip), fava, stuffed vine leaves, marinated anchovies, white cheese with melon. Then come hot starters like fried calamari or börek, and finally grilled fish chosen from what is in season. The traditional drink is rakı, an anise spirit mixed with water, though nobody minds if you drink something else.

Fish is seasonal. Anchovies (hamsi) are a winter favourite; bluefish and bonito appear in autumn. Ask what is fresh rather than ordering from the menu, and confirm the price by weight before it is cooked.

Sweets

• Baklava — layers of filo with pistachio or walnut and syrup. Pistachio baklava from a specialist shop is a different thing from the boxed tourist version.
• Künefe — shredded pastry with unsalted cheese, baked and soaked in syrup, eaten hot.
• Lokum — Turkish delight, best bought fresh by weight rather than in pre-packed boxes.
• Sütlaç and kazandibi — rice pudding and a caramelised milk pudding, from a muhallebici (pudding shop).
• Dondurma — the stretchy Turkish ice cream, thickened with salep.

Drinks

Çay, black tea in tulip glasses, is offered everywhere and all day. Turkish coffee, whose culture is listed by UNESCO as intangible heritage, is served thick with the grounds settling at the bottom; order it sade (no sugar), orta (medium) or şekerli (sweet). Ayran, a salted yoghurt drink, goes with kebab. In winter look for salep, a hot milk drink, and boza, a thick fermented millet drink.

Where to go for the best food experience

What you want	Where to look
Market grazing and street food	Kadıköy market on the Asian side
Fish sandwich by the water	Eminönü and the Galata Bridge
Long meze dinner	Beyoğlu, Kumkapı or Kadıköy meyhanes
Quick traditional lunch	Any busy esnaf lokantası
Dinner with a view	A Bosphorus dinner cruise

The easiest way to taste a lot in a short time is a guided walk. Our Kadıköy food tour on the Asian side works through the market with a local guide, from pickles and cheeses to kebab and dessert. For an evening on the water, the Bosphorus dinner cruise with Turkish night show combines a set dinner with views of the lit-up palaces and bridges.

Tips for eating well

• Bread and water are often brought automatically; small charges for them are normal in some places.
• Tipping around 5–10% is customary in sit-down restaurants.
• Check menus with prices before ordering in tourist areas, especially for fish sold by weight.
• Vegetarians eat well: meze, zeytinyağlı dishes, lentil soup, pide with cheese and gözleme.
• During Ramadan, many places still serve food during the day in Istanbul, and the iftar atmosphere at sunset is worth experiencing.

FAQ

What is the one dish I must try in Istanbul?

If you only try one thing, make it a full Turkish breakfast. It shows the range of the cuisine better than any single dish.

Is street food in Istanbul safe?

Generally yes. Choose busy stalls with a fast turnover, particularly for mussels and fish.

Is Istanbul good for vegetarians?

Yes. Meze, vegetables cooked in olive oil, lentil soup, cheese pide and gözleme make it easy to eat well without meat.

What is a meyhane?

A traditional tavern where dinner is a long sequence of cold and hot meze followed by fish or meat, usually with rakı.

Do I need to book restaurants?

For popular meyhanes and view restaurants at weekends, yes. For lokantas, street food and kebab shops, no.