17 Best Restaurants in Istanbul, Turkey

Chef-owner Musa Dağdeviren, who hails from the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep, is something of a culinary anthropologist, offering truly unique dishes made using recipes from around Turkey. This restaurant, Çiya Sofrası—the original of the three no-frills branches along the same street—is known for its seasonal meat- and vegetarian-based daily specials that feature unusual flavor combinations. Nearby Çiya Kebap serves top-notch kebabs along with home-style dishes; Çiya Kebap 2 offers just kebabs.

Popular with locals and visitors alike, Giritli offers a prix-fixe multicourse dinner menu of well-prepared Cretan specialties that includes unlimited local alcoholic drinks (wine or rakı). At least 15 different cold meze—such as sea bass ceviche, herb-covered cubes of feta cheese with walnuts and olives, and various uncommon wild greens—are followed by hot starters like fried calamari in olive oil; the main course is a choice among several grilled fish, followed by dessert.

This is a Turkish version of a New England fish shack, with nets and crab traps hanging from the ceiling in two venues across the street from one other. Families and other groups come here to enjoy simple, fresh, well-prepared fish for much less than what they would pay at some of the fancier seafood restaurants along the Bosphorus (it's cheaper in part because no alcohol is served).

This cluster of small tables under a spreading tree not far from the ferry dock is a friendly place to have an inexpensive meal of grilled meat or fried seafood. It's also a great spot to people-watch while sipping a beer, a glass or wine, or some rakı.

This restaurant with exposed brick walls in the popular Tünel area of Beyoğlu offers specialties of Turkey's Arab-influenced southeastern Hatay province. The menu includes a variety of meze and kebabs with intense flavors and served with Antiochia's uncommonly tasty chile pepper–rubbed flatbread.

With ornate Arabesque decorations and mosaic lamps, this centrally located café is an atmospheric place to spend a long morning. The picturesque breakfast spread is expansive and includes a mixture of Turkish and Lebanese dishes. Arada has two other outposts, one a five-minute walk up the hill from this one and the other in Üsküdar.

Occupying several rooms and storefronts on both sides of narrow Kallavi Sokak, this down-to-earth restaurant is best known for Turkish standards and Circassian specialties, including the signature fıccın, a savory pastry filled with ground meat. The menu, which changes daily, always includes a range of mezes—many of them vegetarian—as well as a handful of simple meat and fish dishes, and prices are extremely reasonable.

Part of a new wave of small cafés, craft shops, restaurants, and antiques dealers popping up in the atmospheric but long-neglected neighborhood of Balat, Forno distinguishes itself with owner Yona Grunberg’s short, high-quality menu of freshly prepared pides, pizzas, salads, and soups. With its brightly colored geometric tiles, exposed-brick walls, and large wooden communal table, this is an equally pleasant place to just relax for a while over a coffee or tea, and the weekend breakfast gets raves.

This grill house is an Istanbul institution, with a huge selection of kebabs, as well as appetizers like mini lahmacun (thin flatbread topped with spicy ground meat); although the food may not be too different from other kebab houses, Hamdi's three dining floors still tend to be packed with both tourists and locals. This makes for a lively, even boisterous, atmosphere, and service can be a bit harried; make sure that you get—and pay for—exactly what you order.

Drawing on Istanbul’s cosmopolitan past, this cozy spot offers meze and mains made from Armenian recipes, along with Greek, Ottoman, and Circassian dishes. With its white tablecloths and bookshelves in a low-ceiling space that opens out onto the street, Jash makes you feel as if you’ve stepped into someone’s home kitchen to taste all of Istanbul’s history.

This popular, cozy hangout, named after famous Turkish photographer Ara Güler, whose black-and-white photographs of Istanbul line the walls, is a nice place for a light meal or cup of coffee. The menu includes several Turkish meat dishes along with more international fare, such as grilled entrecôte (sirloin) steak with pommes frites or tagliatelle with salmon.

This brasserie-in-a-bookstore is a cozy place to enjoy a coffee surrounded by an extensive collection of Turkish and English-language books. The menu has a wide range of breakfast and lunch options.

At this restaurant on a lively backstreet in Beyoğlu's Asmalımescit area, a friendly, laid-back setting—with Greek music playing in the background and photographs of old Istanbul on the walls—elevates the classic meyhane food. The meze, whether from the regular menu or the daily specials, and the hot appetizers are more notable than the main dishes; try the zucchini with walnuts in yogurt or the Albanian-style fried liver.

Just a short walk from the area's major tourist attractions, Tarihi Çeşme is a rare find in Sultanahmet, offering good food at very reasonable prices, genuinely friendly service, and a congenial atmosphere that appeals to both visitors and locals. The menu includes a fairly typical range of meze and kebabs, as well as pide, or flatbread baked with different toppings—the Turkish version of pizza.