With a mission is to sniff out the best of the easy-to-miss local joints serving up the kind of food that’s been drooled over in the region for centuries, you’ll be hard pressed to find foodies more knowledgeable about Istanbul’s hidden eateries than the team behind the Culinary Backstreets: Istanbul blog and iPhone app. Ansel Mullins give us his top tips to finding the choicest eats on both sides of the Bosphorus.
For delicious mantı (tiny, boiled dumplings served swimming in yoghurt), head to Emek Mantı Evi the ritzy Bosphorus-front neighborhood of Yeniköy. Paneled in dark wood wainscoting with walls painted dark green, the place feels more like a “classy” airport bar than a hole-in-the-wall culinary discovery. But there is something utterly inspiring going on in the kitchen, namely saray mantı, made up of strips of dough that have been twisted and then fried, the ground lamb folded into the knots of thin mantı ribbons — at once crispy and soft, rich in flavor, and never dull.
Köybaşı Caddesi 218 — Yeniköy
+90 212 223 7168
9am-midnight
Ziver Usta has been turning the köfte — something like Turkey’s equivalent of the hamburger — at the charcoal-fired grill of the shoe box-sized Meşhur Filibe Köftecisi for the last 30 years, serving up juicy little buttons of meat with just the right amount of char. The other option on the two-item menu here is revani, an extremely homey dessert made out of a dense white cake that’s been soaked in sugary syrup. The waiter, Mehmet, swears it's good for the sex drive.
Ankara Caddesi 112 — Sirkeci
+90 212 519 3976
11am-5pm; closed Sunday
The skills of a pideci — the maker of pide, commonly known as Turkish pizza — are proven in the crust, not in the toppings. And if the deafening crunch and crackle inside Fatih Karadeniz Pidecisi is anything to go by, it’s clear why this place has been packed for more than 50 years. The service is a bit slow, but the ordering process is straightforward: There’s peynirli (cheese) pide, which is open-faced, and kıymalı (minced meat) and onion pide, which is customarily closed like a long, slender, ridge-backed calzone. Meanwhile, a karışık (“mixed”) pide has one side with cheese and the other with meat and is offered open. Listen carefully and just follow the crunch.
Büyük Karaman Caddesi 47 — Fatih
+90 212 635 0509
10:30am-8pm; Sunday opens 9am
Beyran çorbası is a stupendously delicious lamb-based broth usually slurped down for breakfast in the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep, but for a local fix, head to Aksaray. At Ehli Kebap, the usta (soup master) makes to order each bowl like a kind of hot and soupy ice cream sundae. First up is a schmear of suet — the shortening-like fat found around a sheep’s kidney — to give the soup some silkiness. Piled on top of that is a mound of white rice and strands of lamb meat that has been slow-cooked for hours. A dollop of minced garlic and liberal sprinkles of light and dark red pepper flakes ratchet up the flavor. By the time the beyran arrives at the table, it has achieved a lovely rusty red color, looking and tasting like a Turkish version of Louisiana gumbo.
Simitçi Şakir Sokak 32 — Aksaray
+90 212 631 3700
11am-11pm
It’s a dirty secret nobody wants to talk about: finding a good cup of Turkish coffee in Turkey can sometimes be very difficult. But the brew at Mandabatmaz lives up to the promise — and it had better, since the café’s name roughly translates as “so thick even a water buffalo wouldn’t sink in it.” Brewmaster Cemil Pilik, calling upon almost two decades of experience, holds a well-worn copper coffee pot to a jet of blue gas flame, conjuring forth a brew thick to the point of being almost chocolatey. Each demitasse holds only a few sips’ worth of strong coffee before you hit a rich deposit of dark brown grounds, custom-roasted daily.
Olivya Geçidi 1/A — Beyoğlu
Near St. Antoine Cathedral on İstiklal. Look for Barcelona Patisserie on the corner.
9:30am-11pm
Once you get past the overzealous shopkeepers hawking souvenirs, one of the hidden pleasures of going to the Grand Bazaar is exploring some of its quieter back alleys for smaller eateries that cater not to tourists but to the locals who work in the sprawling marketplace. The unassuming grill house Gaziantep Burç Ocakbaşı is located on a narrow side street off one of the Bazaar’s busier thoroughfares, and serves up very tasty food from Gaziantep, a city in southeastern Turkey that is considered one of the country’s culinary capitals. Their Ali Nazik, tender morsels of marinated beef sitting on a bed of a garlicky yogurt-eggplant puree, are perfectly made, while the delicious salad served on the side, topped with chopped walnuts and zingy pomegranate molasses, is impeccably fresh. Save room for the restaurant’s specialty, extremely flavorful dolmas made out of dried eggplants and red peppers that are rehydrated and stuffed with a rice and herb mixture.
Parçacılar Sokak 12 — Grand Bazaar
+90 212 527 1516
11am-4pm; closed Sunday
Kandilli Suna’nın Yeri is small fish restaurant that, with its army of tables, chairs and frazzled waiters, seems to have conquered the waterfront of the Bosphorus-side Kandilli neighborhood. For starters, the chilled fava bean puree meze is smooth and rich, almost custard-like, while each bite from a plate of fried calamari marks a new chapter in texture and tangy garlic sauce love. Next, choose between big catches such as levrek (sea bass), çipura (sea bream) and kalkan (turbot), or go for a plate of smaller fried fish: hamsi (anchovies), flayed and ribbon-like; istavrit (mackerel); and our favorite, tekir (mullet). The fish are so perfectly prepared that we suspect Suna has regular pep talks with them before they hit the pan.
Kandilli İskele Caddesi 4-17 — Üsküdar
+90 216 332 3241
10am-midnight
There are probably hundreds of pilav carts crisscrossing Istanbul every day, but one on Atatürk Bulvarı, a busy road in Fatih, is different. While the owners of other carts usually roll along trolling for business, this one stays put, letting the crowds come to him. And they do. Every night, a large group of men can be seen huddled around the brightly lit cart, stuffing their faces in a kind of zombie-like frenzy with a pilaf of rice, chickpeas, and chicken, along with ayran (a salty yogurt drink) — comfort food that comes at a very comforting price.
Atatürk Bulvarı — Unkapanı
Near the “İMÇ Çarşısı 1. Blok” sign on the eastern side of the street, on the way to the aqueduct. Look for the crowd.
7pm-2am
Culinary Backstreets share their top tips to finding the tastiest local eats on both sides of the Bosphorus.