Kebapçı Rıdo – Mardin
A swoosh sound in the air, coming from the special knife called zırk, sliding front and back, on the well worn, literally beaten board, making mince meat form the veal…
Anadolu Lokantası – Istanbul
This family owned restaurant is a big escape for the white collars from their busy work schedules. The menu changes daily and you can enjoy home style cooking, hot, delicious,…
7-8 Hasanpaşa Fırını – Istanbul
Raisin, orange, apple, banana cookies, baton salé, savory cookies with nigella seeds, bran, rye bread, sandwich breads, Easter bread, kinds of cakes displayed on the big oven trays on the…
Baylan Pastanesi – Istanbul
One of Istanbul’s touchstones, my one and only Baylan stands bold, against all the new trends of baking,reminding us that old school is always sound. Ask any Istanbul local, they…
Kandilli Suna’nın Yeri – Istanbul
Here and there, tables scattered around the cobble-stoned pavement, under the huge plane trees. If it is cold you enjoy the small cosy restaurant at the left side, if the…
Simit – Istanbul
This timeless, this traditional flavor is so simple yet so hard to forget… Crunchy, twisted – literally -, sesame covered, oven baked savory pastry is a street taste. Some of…
Çiya Sofrası – Istanbul
Imagine a place where you find all those beautiful regional, Anatolian ingredients cooked ingeniously that create explosions through your senses. The moment you lay your eyes on the small place…
Fauna – Istanbul
5 tables plus open kitchen plus soothing jazz music plus homemade pasta equals to this little gem in Kadıköy. For there you find the freshest ingredients forming tasteful plates of…
Karadeniz Pide Döner Salonu – Istanbul
Meat… Tasty, juicy,thin layers of lean meat stacked on each other, rotating on a vertical spit, cooking slowly. The meat is from lamb and beef. It is marinated before, so…
Karaköy Güllüoğlu – Istanbul
In between the paper thin flakes of dough you see the ruby green of crushed pisstachios… You smell the butter, you taste the pisstachios, then the crunchiness of the dough…
Chestnut Stalls
You start to smell burning coal while you stroll Istanbul these days. The fumes are like messengers of good news. Good news of approaching winter and the delicious winter tastes,…
Köşem Karadeniz Pide Salonu – Istanbul
So small, but hard to miss. You can take in the teasingly good smell of meat and the butter from meters away and head to the right direction. The secret…
Fazıl Bey’in Türk Kahvesi – Istanbul
Everyone has a secret hiding place, a little safe zone. I have a couple myself. This one is for Turkish coffee. This place offers me the scene to the rush-ness…