Like any ancient culture, the Turkish culture has have rich traditions and manners in food, and their cuisine is at a high level, with a great variety of local and specialized dishes.
Places
In any part of the city you can find fast food outlets, with beef and chicken kebabs, served in normal bread or durums (pita bread), or pide and lahmacun (Turkish pizza) and other easy to prepare and prompt service, with economical prices.
In the other hand, if you don’t want to eat on the street but also don’t have too much time, you can go to a buffet, self service restaurants that would be a good option. There are also the so-called Meyhane, a kind of taverns, where you can eat and also try a good raki or other alcoholic drink.
The Turks call lokanta to small, popular restaurants, at a higher level than the taverns or buffets, while restoran are equally restaurants, just with more comfort and usually more expensive.
In Istanbul you can eat everywhere, in the streets you will see ice creams, simits, chestnuts and roasted corn cobs and in any neighborhood or district is possible to find places with good food.
Best eating areas
As good examples we can talk about Sultanahmet area, a popular tourist zone, with lots of restaurants, terraces and bars, attended by locals as well; around Taksim Square, the heart of the city, full of all kinds of establishments; Ortakoy neighborhood, or the Galata Bridge and its vicinity, abundant of restaurants with fish varieties, traditional and international cuisine, among other areas of the city.
Recommended restaurants
Although to find the place that better fit in your preferences, we suggest you to consult specialized pages or guides, we reference below two formidable restaurants which have always had very good reviews:
360. Bülbul Mh., Misir Buğdayı Sk, 34437, Taksim.
This is a quiet, tastefully decorated place, with excellent views of the heart of Istanbul. They have very good food and creative variety of dishes.
Çiya Sofrasi. Caferağa Mh., Güneşli Bahçe Sk No:43, Kadiköy.
This is an amazing, traditional Turkish food place, with specialties from the Gaziantep region and surroundings, the home land of the chef. Their different kebabs and other traditional dishes are delicious. It is located on the Asian side of Istanbul.
