1) RUMELI This Restaurant was VERY tourist orientated. The service is slow, the tables are packed together like sardines & the food is mediocre & overpriced. Whilst waiting for our meal we glanced around & wondered whether we might have been better going further up the street!
2)MURADIN This Restaurant has FANTASTIC views of the Blue Mosque from the upstairs terrace! We found the service, prices & food all good & would have been happy to go back.
3)SEVEN HILLS This Restaurant has fabulous views of both Aya Sophia & Blue Mosque, but frankly, they are the only good things I can say about this Restaurant! The service was so slow, that we actually saw a young woman, who had been waiting for her bill, finally give up & leave without paying!! When our food finally came, it was disappointing & overpriced. When our bill FINALLY came, the waiter stood expectantly waiting for a tip & was quite rude about it!
4)SARNIC CISTERN This is a must, if only for the atmospheric setting! SOooooooooooooo beautiful! The food was good, as was the service, but we certainly paid for the setting!
5)KALAMAR This Restaurant is an ABSOLUTE must. It is in the Kumkapi area, near the fish markets. The street takes on a wonderful festive atmosphere in the evenings with various gypsy bands vying for your attention & coinage!! We were fortunate to get a table on the upstairs balcony, which meant we were OUT of the mele, but able to WATCH it all! Absolutely BRILLIANT! The food here was excellent, reasonably priced & with helpful efficient staff. I cannot recommend the fish stew highly enough! Another good thing about this restaurant is that they can pick you up & deliver you back to your hotel after your feasting!
6)ADONI This is further up the street from the Rumeli, but has better food & better prices. We had a stew that had been cooked in a clay pot & then dramaticly smashed open at our table before serving. The staff were characters & consequently, the atmosphere was jovial.
7)KYBELE This place is charming! We sat on the street, beautiful lights shone in the window, lots of happy people around, with a mix of tourists & locals. The food was good & reasonably priced.
8)COOKING A LA TURK Even if you dont do a cooking class here, you can book to eat a meal here! But you do need to book at least a day in advance. The prices are reasonable & the food is VERY GOOD! Of course, I recommend doing a class here so that you see what goes INTO the food, but if not, you cant help but taste wonderful fresh flavours! Yuuuum.
9)MATBAH This Restaurant specialises in Ottoman Palace Cuisine, from antiquity! It is a Hotel Restaurant, so does lack a bit in the atmosphere & for most of the evening, we were its only guest, which is a tad unsettling! However, the food is to die for! HEAVENLY! The whole culinary experience was a wonderful treat. The waiter we had was totally charming, & deserved a much bigger tip than the pitiful cash we had on us that night! It was expensive, but, considering the quality of the food & the uniqueness of the dishes, I was glad we'd given it a go!
10)AKBIYIK FISH RESTAURANT This was one of those 'by default' restaurants. WE had planned to eat at the highly recommended Balikci Sabahattin Restaurant, but hadnt booked. When we arrived it was full & we were advised to return an hour later. When we returned we discovered that not only was it still booked with no sign of anyone moving soon, AND a rather long line of potential diners had obviously been told the same as us! It was clear we'd be lucky to eat there that night! Moral to the story....BOOK! So, we found the Akbiyik & ate there. I was tired, grumpy & hungry, so not in the best frame of mind, so my 'review' may be coloured by state of mind at the time! I thought the food mediocre & it annoying to have a musician playing in our faces until we gave him a tip to GO AWAY!
11)ALBURA KATHISMA This is another 'must'! The food & service are both good & the staff & restaurant charming, but the REAL gem of this restaurant, is that it is built into some Byzantian ruins! If you go through the fairy lights at the back, you are magicly transformed back in time, to when Justinius & Theodora walked these coridoors. If the lights dont automaticly come on, ask a member of staff to put them on for you. It is a very special place.
12)HAMDI I have placed this last, because it is worth booking a meal here at the beginning of your trip, for the last night of your stay! This is a popular restaurant with locals as well as visitors & it is not easy to get in! If you can get a table on the balcony of the terrace, you are much blessed! If you dont get that ideal spot, dont worry, because although your views may not be as good, the food is DIVINE! It is worth restricting your food intake early in the day so that you can really EAT here! The other delight is, if you have a view, watching the lights of Istanbul come on in the evening. Walk off your over consumption by wandering over the Galata Bridge & looking back!
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