Istanbul has easy access to the fertile farmlands of Thrace and
Anatolia and boasts one of the world's richest cuisines full
of culinary variety. Whether you are dining at the city's most
fashionable rooftop or Bosphorus-front restaurants or decide to
fill up on the go with a simit (Turkey's answer to the American
bagel) or dürüm (filled tortilla wrap) from a street vendor there's
more than enough choice for every taste.
Restaurants
A "restoran", denoting anything from a motorway-bus pit stop to
a white-tablecloth affair, will provide ızgara yemek or
meat dishes grilled to order. Kebapcıs traditionally
specialise in kebabs and at their most basic offer only limited
side dishes - sometimes just salad, yoghurt and a few desserts.
Many today, however, are veritable palaces, where you'll get a free
flat-bread to tear, share and mop up a few simple dips, then choose
from a menu including soups, all kinds of
kebabs, köfte (meatballs), lahmacun (a
flat-bread "pizza" topped with spicy mincemeat) and pide.
A lokanta is a restaurant emphasizing hazır yemek,
pre-cooked dishes kept warm in a steam-tray. Here also can be
found sulu yemek, "watery food" - hearty meat or vegetable
stews. Despite their often clinical appearance, the
best lokantas may well provide your most memorable taste of
Turkish cooking. İskembe salonus are aimed at revellers
emerging from clubs or taverns in the early hours, and open until
5am or 6am. Their stock-in-trade is tripe soup laced liberally with
garlic oil, vinegar and red pepper flakes, an effective hangover
cure. A çorbacı is a soup kitchen.
Another kind of place that has become very popular over the last
few years is Ev Yemekleri(home-cooked foods)cafés. Typically
these are run by women and dish up good-value meals more typical of
those you'd find in a Turkish home rather than a standard
restaurant, with hazır and sulu
yemek, börek, dolma (stuffed vegetables)
and mantı all usually figuring. Many feature
excellent-value three-course lunches for as little as 6TL.
At an ocakbaşı, the grill and its hood occupy centre-stage,
as diners watch their meat being prepared. Even more interactive is
the kendin pişir kendin ye (cook-it-and-eat-it-yourself)
establishment, where a mangal (barbecue with coals), a
specified quantity of raw meat, plus kekik (oregano)
and kimyon (cumin) are brought to your outdoor/indoor
table.
Meyhanes are taverns where eating is on a barely equal
footing to tippling. Once almost solely the preserve of men, the
fancier İstanbul ones, as well as some in the bigger cities and
resort towns of Western Turkey, are frequented by "respectable"
Turkish (and foreign) women. They can be great fun as well as
dishing up excellent food. Plenty of meyhanes are not
really suitable for foreign couples or female travellers, however,
so examine the place before making your choice. Balık
Restoran (fish restaurants) are ubiquitous in Western Turkey,
made viable by the fish-farming industry, which produces an endless
supply of sea bass and sea bream.
Prices vary widely according to the type of establishment.
Expect to pay from 7TL for a hearty pide in
a pideci, 10TL and up for a kebab or köfte. A simple
grill or kebab in a licensed restaurant is likely to be twenty
percent more expensive than in an unlicensed kebabcı.
A meyhane meal is likely to set you back 25-30TL for the
food, plus whatever you drink. Many have set deals, typically
involving an array of cold and hot meze, a grilled-fish main
and fruit dessert for around 80TL - which includes as many local
drinks as you desire. A main course in a hazir
yemek joint usually costs around 5TL for a vegetable dish, 8TL
and up for meat. A meal in a flashy fish restaurant serving
wild-caught rather than farmed fish may set you back well over
100TL without drink
