Food Guide & Reviews in Istanbul Turkey

Istanbul Food and Restaurants

Food Glorious Food, a food guide post where I start with all the mouth-watering food in Istanbul as you walk through the streets of Sirkeci, you tend to get greeted and visit their restaurants by their waiters.

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Iskender Kebab

Restaurants in Istanbul

On our first evening after arriving we went to a local restaurant based near our hotel in Sirkeci called 'Bereket Doner'. I tried one of their popular dishes on the menu 'Iskender Kebab', a dish filled with donner meat, cubes of bread soaked in yoghurt and tomato sauce.

A restaurant based around Taksim Square, Istanbul, I headed down to an Arab restaurant with my other cousins, a place next to an Indian/Pakistani Restaurant called Mustafa. As my parents decided to eat at Indian/Pakistani there. We decided to try something different by going next door, which I thought the interior looked simply stunning, just like a wedding hall in London.

During our visit here I decided to order 'Kusbasulu Pide' just like a pizza filled with cheese and meat. Finally, for dessert, as most restaurants in Turkey tend to give their customers a complimentary, so we got offered ice creams and baklavas.

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Turkish Pide
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Baklava with Ice Creams

Dubb India - Istanbul

Food around The Blue Mosque, as my parents are from India, could not resist not having some Indian food. Therefore, I did my research for an Indian place to eat and found a restaurant called 'Dubb Indian' which serves various Indian dishes nearby to the Blue Mosque/Hagia Sophia place.

I had to check it out and see if it was any good, although the view you have during the day or night from the top floor is pretty awesome, this requires a reservation if you like to be sat upstairs. I have to say the food was not amazing, but just satisfying.

We ordered one of their popular dishes which was 'Butter Chicken' alongside Gosht (Lamb) and a meat platter which serves daal, rice, sweet (Halwa), chutney and chicken tikka. There is also a platter option for veg, also if you're strictly vegetarian.

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Meat Platte at an Indian restaurant
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Butter Naan
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Rooftop views of the Hagia Sophia
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Chicken cubes

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Sultanahmet Köftecisi - Sirkeci

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Grilled Meatball

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I'm sure everyone knows about Sultanahmet Köftecisi. A lot of use recommended this place on Instagram, therefore I had to check it out and see if it was any good, so I had the 'Izgara Kofte Porsiyon' known as the grilled meatballs with chips as shown above and there were pretty good I must say. These meatballs are priced at 19 Turkish Lira.

Also, a good sign of this restaurant fact that they were really busy, barely any room to sit. At times they were turning people away as there was no room for groups of people to sit.

Bursa - Kofteci Yusuf

The most famous and in-demand restaurant is based in Bursa called Kofteci Yusuf. Apparently, during weekends you have no room to sit down unless reserved beforehand that's how busy this place becomes.

The restaurant we visited during our trip to Bursa was simply amazing, it did not disappoint all the food was spot on, from starters, mains and desserts. Although I could not capture all the food as everyone was in a rush to eat and could resist, I captured what I could as seen below.

All three desserts were different, as one had just a sponge cake with cream, the other included honey and the third one was a vanilla cream cake with jam, cream spread on top. I preferred the one on the right as it was less sweet than the one which was filled with honey.

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Desserts
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1,2,3 various desserts
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Chicken pieces
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Starters

Sirkeci - Istanbul

A local restaurant in Sirkeci, next to the Centrum Hotel where we stayed at. I had the nicest looking 'Turkish Pide' and desserts as well as some entertainment when we ordered Turkish traditional food, 'Testi Kebabs'. There are vegetarian and meat options to pick a clay pot from but in this case, we opted for the meat option. These include lamb, chicken or beef and with the vegetarian option there includes carrots, celery, onions, garlic, and potatoes.

When the clay pots are ready, waiters tend to entertain their customers with the blazing hot jug and crack the pot in front of you, releasing the nice aroma scent. It's an experience not to forget, where everyone tends to enjoy from a distance. I would definitely recommend having this for the experience and taste.

Finally, the dessert I ordered was really well presented. The baklava with its sweet taste and the banana chocolate spread with two ice creams aside were spot on with their presentation. I truly enjoyed capturing these two dessert pieces.

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Turkish traditional Clay pot
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Pide Pizza
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Chocolate Banana and Ice Cream Dessert
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Baklava

Hotel Breakfast

Our daily morning breakfast consisted of a lot of Turkish traditional food, as seen in my first Istanbul Vlog.

We had many options to choose from in the hot and cold drinks section. This included juice, hot chocolate, tea and coffee. For those who love their cereals, they have corn flakes and raisins as an option. They also had freshly cut watermelons, melons, olives, jam and biscuits. If that wasn't enough, there were plenty of cooked chips, yoghurt and lots of different cheeses to pick from.

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Olives for breakfast
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A mix of various yoghurts
 Food Guide
Breakfast at our Hotel

As it seems like Turkish people love their cheese, we had this same breakfast for 7 days straight eventually I started to feel as if I wanted something different, but most cafes around the area pretty much have the same menu for breakfast.

Thanks for reading my blog post on my experience and thoughts on Turkish food during my visit to Turkey.

What are your thoughts on Turkish food? Do you like these types of food, let me know in the comments section below?

Adil Musa

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Adil Musa
Adil Musa

London-based Food, Travel & Lifestyle blogger. Blog space for all things FOODS, LIFESTYLE, TRAVEL, ATTRACTIONS & PRODUCTS. My blog has provided me with a real interest in food, lifestyle and travel. For collaborations & press enquiries - please email me at [email protected].

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