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A minute's walk from Sirkeci
railway station is a cluster of
small, simple, pleasant restaurants
serving
tasty meals at low prices. If you're
looking for a good, pleasant, inexpensive
place to eat while visiting the Egyptian
(Spice) Market or the Eminönü ferry
docks, make the short walk to Hocapasa.
From Sultanahmet, take the Eminönü/Findikli
tram to Sirkeci
station.
The restaurants are clustered by the
Mosque of Hocapasa (HOH-jah-pah-shuh)
just south
of Sirkeci
station.
From the station, walk south uphill
on busy Ankara Caddesi for
one short
block
and turn left to find the mosque and
restaurants.
In fine weather, tables and chairs
are set out in the small square and
nearby streets, filling many of them.
The open-air
dining and
old-time neighborhood atmosphere are
pleasant. Prices are all quite reasonable,
so you might as well choose by first
impressions: pick one you like, look
at what's cooking, point to what you
want, take a table and enjoy.
Take your choice from ready-food
restaurants,
grills, or pide (Turkish
pizza) places. A light meal of pide
and a drink may cost as little
as YTL6. A ready-food lunch might cost
YTL8 to YTL12; a big dinner YTL15 to
20.
In general, alcoholic beverages
are not served here.
Here are descriptions:
Kasap Osman Iskender Kebap
"Osman the Butcher" knows good meat,
which is why he wants you to try
his savory Iskender
kebap. This is
the most prominent of the small restaurants
here, located directly across from
the Hocapasa mosque.
Namli Rumeli Köftecisi
At Hocapasa Sokak
No. 22, across the street from Kasap
Osman, is this longtime favorite place
for izgara köfte.
The
chef, an immigrant from Komotini (Gümülcine)
in Greece, selects his meat carefully,
and prefers
real
tomatoes to the hard white hothouse
fruit.
Kral Ocakbasi
An ocakbasi (oh-JAHK-bah-shuh)
restaurant is one in which customers
sit right at
a long rectangular grill. That doesn't
work here, but the grilled kebaps and
köfte are
still good, and inexpensive.
Et-Is
Pronounced "EHT-eesh," a literal
translation would be "meat-work," but
in fact there are as many ready-food dishes (if not more).
Kardesler Anadolu Lokantasi
Right on the corner opposite
the mosque, this simple place has been
here for decades serving ready
food (soups, stews, pilavs, grills).
Balkan Lokantasi Self Service
A more modern ready-food
restaurant with a good variety of dishes at low
prices.
Hocapasa Pide Kebap
Lahmacun Pizza
The name of this place
is its menu. Your pide (Turkish-style
pizza) is made to order: peynirli (with
cheese), kiymali (with ground
meat), sucuklu (with spicy
sausage), tavuklu (with
chicken). Quick, tasty, hygienic,
inexpensive, good! You can also get
kebaps and lahmacun, an
Arabic-style pizza of thin, soft
bread spread lightly with tomato
sauce and sprinkled with ground meat
and spices.
Akdamar Döner ve Köfte
Salonu
Although the name makes you think
this eatery specializes in döner
kebap and izgara
köfte, there
is a ready-food steam table as well.
Another great place for a delicious,
filling, nutritious, cheap meal is
under the Galata
Bridge at one of the
small eateries selling traditional
Istanbul
fish sandwiches. More...
Hocapasa Hotels
Istanbul
Fish Sandwiches
Sirkeci Railway Station
Istanbul
Restaurants
Turkish Cuisine
Istanbul
Sights
Istanbul
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