Farzan and I visited Istanbul, Cappadocia, and Antalya this month (June 2022) and I wanted to share my recommendations for anyone else who may be visiting Turkey, or Türkiye, as it’s now called. This review will focus on things we liked, restaurant recommendations, touristy and non-touristy things to do, shopping, as well as things we disliked and recommendations on how to avoid those things. Two things that won’t be covered here are hotels and the party scene. Farzan and I don’t go to clubs/bars, so I won’t be able to comment on the Istanbul night life. We also did not stay in a hotel (we stayed in a furnished apartment through Blueground which we loved, but Blueground apartments are for long term stays 1 month+) so I can’t give hotel recommendations.
Restaurants
So I’ll start out by saying that Hafiz Mustafa and Güllüoğlu were the two best baklava places we tried. These two seem to be the most famous baklava and dessert places, given they own massive storefronts in busy areas. The baklava is amazing and almost identical (very moist yet flaky), but I will say that Hafiz Mustafa also sells this delicious milk cake in saffron and pistachio flavors and they are incredible (almost better than the baklava IMO). The baklava + ice cream combo at Nusr-Et’s was really good as well. Besides these shops, however, most restaurants serve baklava and it’s usually really good – you are in Türkiye after all.
Besides the baklava, there is so much good food to be had in Istanbul, but before I get into all the specific restaurants, I will share that while I loved most of the restaurants, Farzan did find the food to be bland, as have many other South Asian American friends of mine. For that reason, I recommend ordering food spicy or asking for hot sauce everywhere if you need your food spicy.
A restaurant formerly known as Köşebaşı, now renamed Nişantaşı Başköşe was probably my favorite from the places we tried. We went to the Nişantaşı location twice, though I believe there are other locations as well. I enjoyed the chicken and lamb shish kababs and the abagannuş.
Dürümzade was recommended to us by several people, and we enjoyed the chicken and lamb shish kababs. We ordered the kabab platter, which had chicken wings and beef liver which we did not touch, so I recommend ordering just the items you like. This is a smaller, hole in the wall type place, so it’s cheaper than Nişantaşı Başköşe, but the shish kababs are almost as good. If you’re in the area, I definitely recommend checking it out.
Hamdi eminönü is on the Asia side of Istanbul and it was tied for my favorite with Nişantaşı Başköş. We were lucky enough to get a table by the windows and the view is great. This restaurant is always busy, so make a reservation. We actually didn’t love the mezze platter, but again, I liked my kababs.
Adana Ocakbaşı – I enjoyed the shish kababs here as well, though overall, I’m not sure I recommend it if you aren’t in the area. It’s good, but probably my least favorite of the Turkish restaurants we tried. There was just a lot of good food, so this stood out the least to me.
Nusr-Et Steakhouse – It’s a steakhouse, as the name suggests, and I’m not sure what’s Turkish about it, other than the fact that the chain started in Turkey. They have locations in several other countries also. We ordered the Nusr-Et special and it was great steak. As mentioned earlier, we also enjoyed the baklava + ice cream. Pricier than every other restaurant we went to, but still cheaper than an NYC steakhouse. I recommend booking in advance, or else there may be a wait.
Dubb – One of the most famous Desi restaurants in Istanbul – Sara Ali Khan was in Istanbul when we were and she recommended this restaurant on her Instagram story. The food was good, but nothing to write home about. It was clearly trendy and had a nice vibe and a nice view.
Musafir – A hole in the wall Desi place that had better food than Dubb, but is the type of place that Sara Ali Khan (or any celebrity) probably wouldn’t step foot into, haha. We enjoyed the Desi meal a lot after having so much Turkish food.
Banyan – This restaurant was highly recommended by several people, and is an Asian fusion place. If it were in NYC, I would not recommend it because there is so much good Thai and Chinese food in NYC. In Türkiye, however, this seems to be the most popular Asian place. Having had a lot of great Asian food, I wasn’t impressed. It has a nice view, however, and the presentation of the food and the venue are chic.
Healin Foods – A trendy spot that serves smoothies, juices, acai bowls, and all the “health nut” favorites, as well as many more typical lunch items like pastas and sandwiches. We loved the acai bowl here and had it multiple times for breakfast.
Zoya’s Place – A brunch place that was super cute inside. They had some Turkish dishes, but also pretty much all of the typical American brunch foods like eggs, avocado toast, pancakes, etc. A nice switch up from all the Turkish food, again, and very nice inside. I loved it and would go again.
Touristy Activities
Blue Mosque & Aya Sofia – I’m lumping these together because they are right next to one another. The Aya Sofia was very crowded, as expected. Something no one tells you is that there are a lot of people and we all have to take off our shoes to enter the prayer hall, as it’s a mosque. This means it will smell like feet and sweat. It’s still gorgeous and worth going inside, but just a warning. I think it would be better to go earlier in the day, like at opening time in order to avoid the crowds. The Blue mosque had construction going on inside, so we were barely able to see anything, but it’s beautiful from the outside.
Topkapi Palace – this is the one major touristy place we didn’t enter. It closes early and I recommend going at opening time to beat the lines. It’s supposed to be a really cool museum and I’ll make sure to visit the next time we are in Istanbul.
Grand Bazaar – This is on all the lists of things to see. I get it- it’s a bazaar and people find that cool. We went just to check it off the list. I had one item I wanted to buy for our home (I have a goal to buy something for the home from every new country we travel to) and I found it easily at the Grand Bazaar. Overall, I wouldn’t visit again. I write more about why in the ‘shopping’ section of this post (below).
Bosphorus tour – There are 3 major companies that do Bosphorus cruises – Şehir Hatları, Dentur, and Turyol. You can buy tickets at the ports and they are generally cheap. I think we paid 60 lira per person for a 2 hour cruise with Dentur. Don’t get scammed by the people on the street trying to sell you a cruise ticket. Just buy what you want from the counter. You can check the schedules and ports online at each company’s website. We opted for the 2 hour cruise because the all day cruise (5 hours) seemed like too much time for us. We were glad we did – 2 hours was more than enough to enjoy the water and views.
Ortaköy waterfront – This is a popular photo area to get snacks and walk along the water and it’s quite nice. We did a photoshoot in the morning here with this photographer named Oktay and I highly recommend him! I liked knowing that we would get great photos with him and I didn’t worry about getting photos of us throughout the rest of the trip. We took a few selfies here and there and I took photos of the views and food and whatnot, but I wasn’t worrying about getting nice photos of the two of us in random places.
Galata Port waterfront – I think this waterfront is nicer to walk along than Ortaköy. There are plenty of restaurants and shops lining the water front, and it was bustling but not dirty or overcrowded. It seemed like many locals also liked hanging out in this area.
Non Touristy Activities
Bebek – This is a posh area of Istanbul that’s slightly farther away from the city center, but it’s super nice. There are a lot of nice cafes and restaurants to hang out in along the water and they have open decks with gorgeous views. We hung out and did some reading at an Espresso Lab with the most amazing view. We also went to this little patisserie called Bayan, which had good macarons. We then walked from Bebek to Ortaköy, which was a long walk, but it was mostly along the water and was pretty.
Enjoying the cafe culture – We had five full days in Istanbul and we didn’t cram our itinerary. We spent some time sitting in cafes and reading, for example. We felt like we got to know the city more by doing things that locals would do. We only visited 3 cities in the 2 weeks of our trip, which gave us enough time to not run around from one tourist attraction to another.
Buying local produce – I am really turning into my parents because I bought a bunch of fruit from a vendor on one of the first days we were in Istanbul. I do think eating the local produce is a fun way to experience the culture and see what a city has to offer. The apricots and mulberries were really good in June.
Walking a lot – we took a lot of taxis, but we also walked any time we wanted to go somewhere that was within a 30 minute radius. We saw so much of the city that way and really got to see neighborhoods that weren’t the most popular or touristy. We walked through some big parks as well, which was nice. I wish I had more on this list of non – touristy activities, but I do think the best thing you can do to fully experience a city is walk around a bunch and just look around.
Shopping
Grand Bazaar – I feel like all the shops here have either lamps, ceramic pieces, replica designer items, fur items, rugs/textiles, western clothing or traditional clothing (but like..the same few types of things – long dresses, caftans, etc), or touristy items like magnets or . Once you’ve walked through part of the bazaar, you’ve probably seen the six or seven types of stores there will be. Farzan made a good point, which was that if you’ve ever lived in India or Pakistan, these bazaars really aren’t that fascinating because you’ve been to so many of them and bazaars are just..normal. He is right. I didn’t find the Grand Bazaar to be that amazing – it was more hectic than anything. I’m sure you could buy anything the bazaars sell in other parts of Istanbul too.
Nişantaşı was the neighborhood we stayed in, and it turns out it’s basically the SoHo of Istanbul. There were so many designer stores as well as small boutiques that sell designer inspired items. This is where I learned that Türkiye has a very robust replica goods market. You can also buy great quality leather items that don’t have any designer logos (i.e. not fakes) but are clearly similar to designer items – think tan pumps with a black cap-toe like the Chanel inspired pumps we see in the US.
Overall – Things We Enjoyed
- Asian and European vibes – you get the best of both worlds. I enjoyed the diversity in terms of food, culture, vibes, buildings, fashion, etc. I see how Istanbul connects Europe and Asia, and for that reason, I think it will always be a unique city.
- I enjoyed seeing a very wide range of women’s dressing styles. It is common to see women completely veiled and also women in mini skirts and crop tops. It’s nice to see that diversity and everyone doing their own thing and co-existing. The vast majority of the country is Muslim, and it was nice to see women practicing their religion in a variety of ways and having their dress reflect that. I’m not sure if individual women do have the freedom to make decisions about their clothing, but it seems like the diverse environment would make it more possible for women to do what they are comfortable with.
- Women and men seem to have a great fashion sense. Regardless of how conservatively people dressed, they knew how to put together outfits. It was fun observing the fashion in Istanbul, and also browsing the shops to see the types of items that were trending.
- I really liked the cats that roam around and how people are so chill about them. They mind their business and co-exist with the people of the city. I also noticed that there were no mice or other pests in the city, and I’m sure the cats have a lot to do with that.
- Cafe culture and leisurely lifestyle. Don’t get me wrong, people hustle and work hard in Istanbul, but it seems much more relaxed than NYC. There are SO many cafes on every street and they are all busy all the time. It makes me wonder when people work. People also sit in restaurants and cafes for a while and chat – it’s the opposite of NYC where you can only hold a table for dinner for 90 minutes.
Overall – Things We Disliked
- It seems like hailing a taxi is easy but taxi drivers will make up their own price rather than turning on the meter. Make sure you ask the price at the beginning. We would ask the driver if they were willing to go to the neighborhood we wanted. Many times they would say no. Other times they would say “$200 lira” (i.e. 5x what the price should be). We got comfortable saying no and asking the next taxi that came around. We often had to ask 4-5 drivers before we got someone who gave a reasonable price or was willing to use the meter. In the busy areas, there are so many taxis that it didn’t take too long to find a reasonable price. Uber is also not that effective in Istanbul. You
- Scammers on the street – around the touristy areas, there are plenty of people who try to sell “tours” or random things that you don’t need. I.e. there are people who sell “Bosphorus tours” but they just upcharge you and send you on the same boat that you can buy a cheap ticket for. I found there to be more scammers in Istanbul than in Bombay, for example.
- Lots of smoking, indoors and outdoors. Smelly and carcinogenic. Didn’t love this, but there’s not much you can do about it. (I would have expected the smoking to take a toll on the people’s skin and health, but I feel like the healthier diet and more active lifestyle relative to America makes up for it and people in Istanbul generally seem fitter than people in America.)
- Very little English speaking by native Istanbul folks. I expected a little more English proficiency but it seems like Russian is the second language that people learn in addition to Turkish. For them, it seems like Russian is the language to learn in order to business with neighboring countries, etc. I don’t feel entitled to having people know English – I get that I am visiting THEIR country, so it’s on me to figure out how to communicate. That said, I feel like if you don’t have a smart phone with Google Translate (and a Turkish sim card so that you have data to use Google Translate), it can be difficult or nearly impossible to communicate with others. I think the reason I expected more English proficiency was because people in so many of the other foreign countries I’ve visited understand basic English required for tourism (i.e. “thank you”, “bill”, “ticket”). There was a lot more basic English understood by locals in Cappadocia – the ratio of tourists to locals is higher in Cappadocia than Istanbul, so it makes sense, in a way. Basically everyone in Bombay seemed to understand basic English, so I think my expectations were thrown off.
