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Istanbul is
a wonderful place for restaurant
dining, no matter what your budget.
From
simple workers' eateries and sidewalk
cafés to posh culinary
palaces with
uniformed waiters, Turkish
cuisine is flavorful and
the value-for-money good.
Main
dining areas:
Restaurants
in Sultanahmet cater
mostly to foreign visitors with more European-style
preparations—and
prices. Although the food can be good
and the prices moderate, there is
less authentic Turkish food here than
elsewhere. I often go off the major
streets into the back streets and
find a small workmen's eatery for my
noontime sulu yemek (stew)
and pilav (rice), or I walk
for 10 minutes or take the tram to...
Near Sirkeci
railroad station, the ferry docks, Egyptian
(Spice) Bazaar and Galata
Bridge, some of the best restaurants
are—surprisingly—in
hotels. Here
they are.
Under
the Galata
Bridge are simple eateries where
you can have a traditional Istanbul
fish sandwich. There's
also a great little neighborhood
packed with simple, cheap,
good eateries called...
This neighborhood
just south of Sirkeci
station near
the Neorion
Hotel has a dozen
small eateries patronized mostly
by locals, with good food, friendly
service and low to moderate prices. More...
This district south of the Grand
Bazaar near the Sea
of Marmara shore has
been a seafood mecca since Byzantine times.
You can enjoy an excellent fish dinner
here if you follow
these tips. More...
Want a cheap
fish dinner? Here it is!
The district around the Grand
Bazaar and Süleymaniye
Mosque has lots of
interesting places to eat, from refined
Ottoman court cuisine to simple but
delicious plates of beans. More...
Want an Ottoman-style meal where everyone
sits around a huge tray laden with
succulent kebap, salads and
vegetables and scoops up morsels with
flat bread? Then you want to head for Fatih,
among the most traditional areas of
Istanbul. More...
The 19th- and 20th-century city north of the Golden
Horn is the more upscale part of the city, but
has the better bargains in food. The little side-streets
off İstiklal
Caddesi are packed with basic eateries, smooth
restaurants, trendy bistrots, artsy cafés, jolly
meyhanes (tavernas),
and pastry-shops. This is where Istanbul's young,
hip, well-heeled and not-so-well-heeled come to promenade,
sip, chat and dine. More...
Kadıköy,
on the Asian
shore of the
Bosphorus south of Üsküdar,
has a vibrant restaurant scene in its
colorful market area only a few minutes'
walk from the Kadıköy ferry dock. More...
The European and Asian
shores of Istanbul's marvelous
maritime highway are dotted with excellent
sea-view restaurants, many of which
specialize in seafood. Although the
price of fish has escalated in the
last two decades, and many diners
now opt for kebap instead,
everyone enjoys the great variety of meze (hors
d'oeuvres), wine, beer, rakı and
camaraderie. More...
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