Breakfast on the terrace at Les Ottomans was our main chance to enjoy the hotel’s location on the stunning, expansive River Bosphorous. The à la carte continental menu is quite international, and eating under the cream linen umbrellas at the front of the hotel on the waterfront was the most peaceful part of our attraction-filled day; it was always a wrench to leave. Guests can also have breakfast to the side on the deep, poolside terrace. This outdoor area is so leisurely; with plenty of places to lie back on mauve cushions with pink chiffon tied everywhere, blowing in the river breeze.
The Café Restaurant here is run by an outside company called CLUB 29. The Italian chef, Giovanni Terracciano cooks international cuisine with his own Italian influences - which always works for us. We loved the setting here so much that we broke our usual ‘eat outside the hotel rule’ and had an unbelievable lunch on our first Istanbul afternoon. I still dream about that chicken, simmered in a red wine sauce. There is also a private dining room at the hotel - ideal for romantic couples who want to play hermit. After 6pm, the bar here turns into a funky club with DJs where you can mingle with the young Istanbul crowd who come in late. The Istanbul bar and restaurant culture is very much an outdoor one; when the weather turns bad I cant imagine how they make money…
The Said family are particularly fond of shopping and eating the ancient way, in a marketplace where people come to try their luck and ply their trade as you walk past. We seek out the huge variety of colours, voices and smells. It makes modern shopping seems so sterile and flat - all about sameness and carparks. Markets are all about footsteps.
If you want to mingle with the locals as they shop for their groceries, or live on the edge and get some streetfood yourself, the Misir Carsisi is a covered market at the southern end of the Galata Bridge in the Eminönü district. It is a lot more compact and easy to navigate than the Grand Bazaar but you should leave yourself a good half day to wander - and you could easily combine it with a visit to the nearby YENI CAMI (New Mosque).
This 17th century marketplace has great bones: the beautiful covered building has high, arched stone ceilings and traditional Ottoman mouldings and guttering. But it is a shame that all the woodwork from the old stores was ripped out in the 1940s and all that charming old craftsmanship has been lost; the storefronts are all modern now.
As we entered a long corridor which turns into a further maze of other passages there was a kaleidoscope of colours, foods and people: middle age men with guts smoking tütün tobacco; even older men bent over with age and women covered in Muslim head dresses walking side by side with their husbands in baseball caps.
The food section is like a giant showcase of what the locals like to eat - a great education in Turkish food. Of course there are giant mounds of olive, mustard and ochre coloured spices or bright yellow saffron and curries filling the air with their exotic fragrance. There are also all the savouries and sweets: bags of dried prunes, nuts, seeds and gelatinous rolls of the local specialty, ‘lokum’ dusted with the lightest white powder - known to us as Turkish Delight.
The chickpeas, caviar, honeycombs and incir dolmasi’ (stuffed figs) was all presented with pride. Many of the edibles we saw were mysterious and unknown to us, like dessert logs with swirls inside, slabs of toffee rolled in nuts, huge blocks of nougat - ten times the size of a brick - and little cubes of different coloured wobbly jelly covered in coconut. Simple dates and almonds are usually Shiera’s and my favourites. But the aroma from the charcoal pork with all the skin crackling that had fallen away was whetting our appetites!
Our guide, Maher told us that the food here was clean. Noah and I decided to bite the bullet and try a döner kebab from a hole in the wall in a nearby street in the MERCAN district, one of the many surrounding neighbourhoods where the market is also open to the street. We requested the meat that was shaved off the rotisserie straight on the plate and it was marinated in herbs and really tasty - little did we know it would give Noah a stomachache for the rest of the trip. So you are forearmed and forewarned! Shiera knew better: she wasn’t prepared to risk a stomach bug so she hit the Turkish delight for lunch.
It’s not just about food. You can find great gifts like prayer beads, copper pots, lanterns, distinctive triangular ceramic plates, jewelry and even belly dancing costumes in the established shop fronts. It is a great area to walk around; we didn’t really have as long as we wanted. Leave yourself plenty of time to stroll along HASIRCILAR CADDESI, a narrow street with its own bazaar that leads right to the market building. The nearby TAHTAKALE market district is also full of colour. You could lose yourself for hours in this environment and eat where you dare…
For a fully authentic feast of every kind of herb flavoured, delicious kebab HAMDI, overlooking the Galata Bridge is a must. Our early evening meal there was in our top two Istanbul dining experiences.
It started off as a small one-storey building that has grown into a substantial extended space over the years due to its popularity; we really liked its casual hustle and bustle. The restaurant was full; we never would have got a booking if it weren’t for our hotel contact, so it’s best to get your concierge to pull strings in advance. Moustafa, the manager welcomed us with complimentary rakis: the distilled Turkish national drink that has a similar aniseed flavour as ouzo from Greece. The raki could seriously mess with you if the food wasn’t so hearty!
The view is dominated by dramatic views of the GALATA BRIDGE, which links old Istanbul with Beyoglu, the 19th-century European section of Istanbul, and Galata, which is famous for its medieval tower, part of the old city walls. This part of the river is an estuary that forms the GOLDEN HORN: a natural harbour that has traditionally protected the ships of every culture that settled here, from the ancient Greeks and Romans onwards. It all adds to the great vibe out on the patio, where it was still light at 8pm. But the lovely riverside location doesn’t mean it’s touristic. We were surrounded by locals laughing and chatting in Turkish: men in business shirts who had come from work, groups and couples. Each table is only inches away from the next so it’s very communal.
The menu delves far beyond the basic kebabs we foreigners are used to (which are already great). Massive plates with long rows of cubed meat and fresh vegetables come out, all marinated and smoky from the BBQ, with the skewers removed. There is so much variety, from beef and aubergine chunks to lamb that is rolled in crushed pistachio, minced then grilled so it is infused with that nutty flavour. The delicious rice on the side had a tomato sauce mixed throughout and spicy bread blown up like pappadams comes with plenty of garnishes.
The kids love the kebabs - it’s great family food - but the menu was quite diverse, with plenty of mezze plates, vegetables, salads, onions and fish dishes. You get a wide spectrum of Turkish cuisine, including Hamdi specialties, ‘yuvarlama’ - a yogurt soup served with balls of rice - and ‘erikli kebap’ - minced suckling lamb. We were on a roll and tried Künefe, a sticky honey pastry with sweet syrup, and slices of fresh watermelon and cherries. These are meals fit for a visiting pasha! Coffee is served in the ‘sark’ with oriental style seating.
This is a winner - traditional food which is excellent, good service, local colour and a spectacular view of a bridge that opens up to allow ships to pass through to the Golden Horn shipyards.
This is a very contemporary, sophisticated twist on the ‘izakaya’ style of informal Japanese cuisine. Amongst the Moorish architecture of old towers, palaces, mosques and mansions this huge restaurant on the river shows that modern Istanbul is just like any other big city - ready for a temple to high quality Japanese food in a chic, zen environment.
It may seem random to go Japanese when in the Muslim Orient - but we had been eating hearty, peasant food in Italy, Greece and here in Turkey for weeks - and knew there was plenty more to come - so this was a great break. After living in Sydney, where quality Asian food is part of the fabric of the city, we miss the clean, fresh, sharpness of raw fish and Japanese flavours when in Europe.
The restaurant’s position on the Bosphorous also has stunning views of the Blue Mosque, illuminated and golden by night. A fascinating culture clash moment! The décor is very hip, sleek and minimalist, with shiny surfaces and giant wooden grill shaped screens - quite an aesthetic shock after the over the top ‘maximalist’ look of traditional Turkey that you see everywhere.
In true Izakaya style the open sushi counter on the ground floor puts the chefs on show as they slice and dice, their hands as fast as hummingbirds; artichoke, jumbo tiger prawns and lamb chops sizzle on the Robata grill. We had already eaten at the original flagship Zuma restaurant in London so we knew the chef and fish would be high-grade here - and the tastes zoomed us straight out of Istanbul back to Japan! We had the delicious ‘Dynamite’ spider rolls with softshell crab, and wagyu beef smeared with oscietre caviar and fresh wasabi. There is also a sake bar upstairs with a huge regional variety that you don’t often see out of Japan. But whether you’re a sipper or a bolter, sake afficiandos can enjoy amazing panoramic views from up there, before their visions starts to blur!
This huge, stylish bar complex is the party restaurant of Istanbul. Everything about this experience is upbeat. A huge glossy white staircase glides down to a giant terrace that looks just like the deck of a cruise liner. A giant chandelier hangs over the dance floor and Turkish pop music plays, which has a slightly syrupy, Middle Eastern flavour with diva female vocals on top. It’s definitely a question of eat then dance, with plenty of bling on the girls.
The chef, Tevfik Alparslan serves mainly Mediterranean cuisine with some summery dishes. We’re actually quite light, healthy eaters so Sheira loved starters like fresh prawns with avocado vinaigrette. But the portions on the platters were big - like, comedy big. For mains we kept to the Turkish traditional fare, which is the specialty here. But it was reimagined in a new way, with a lot of international variety. Noah had what he called an “insane” steak with pepper sauce, with mounds of pasta served on a big glass tray as a side. There were unexpected options on the menu, like calf fillet cooked with Indian sauces, asparagus tart, Indonesian duck loin, even French style snails! It’s a great menu if you want to mix up the heavy Turkish meats with other European and Asian dishes; there will truly be something for everyone.
We topped off a fantastic dinner with a simple fruit dessert and cocktails along with our wine. Although we were feeling the party spirit, it came on our last night so we didn’t wait until the restaurant transformed into a throbbing nightclub. Although knowing my almost 8 yr-old Zoe, she would have been the first on the dancefloor trying out her modern jazz moves!
We could see very jet-set, party people coming and going by boat down at the waters edge. Istanbul seems to thriving: there is no Western recession happening here! In our wider experiences at the high-end beach clubs (see our BODRUM story) we saw the same thing: establishments packed with people spending money. There were no obvious empty spaces as there had been in Italy, Greece and then later in Croatia. It is probably the same here as it has always been: most of the population have very little money and no stock portfolio or savings to lose - and the top rich 5% are too far out of our banking system to be affected…
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