Istanbul

Ata Lokantası: Döner Fridays

In Sanayi Mahallesi – an Istanbul neighborhood where the streets are lined with hundreds of mechanic workshops and auto supply stores – most people are looking for spare car parts or a place to get their Fiat fixed. We, on the other hand, came here in search of döner. More specifically, we ventured to this area to eat at Ata Lokantası, a fantastic esnaf lokantası (tradesman's restaurant) that has been open since the late 1980s, and serves a rotating menu of comforting, homestyle dishes popular with workers in the area and white-collar office employees from the looming skyscrapers nearby. The menu features döner only on Fridays, and we heard it was excellent.

Istanbul

By Arnavut Köfte & Piyaz: Proudly Albanian

Istanbul's Bayrampaşa district is located just to the east of the city's historic 5th-century walls, and is synonymous with industry, unchecked urban growth, and immigrants from the Balkans. One neighborhood has a replica of Bosnia's Mostar Bridge, while dozens of restaurants can be found serving the specialties of Sancak, a Bosnian Muslim region that is nowadays split between Serbia and Montenegro, and from which a huge number of Bayrampaşa residents trace their roots. We've written about these places in the past, and were delighted to recently stumble upon a Kosovar Albanian restaurant of sorts, the first one we've encountered in the city.

Istanbul

By Arnavut Köfte & Piyaz: Proudly Albanian

Istanbul's Bayrampaşa district is located just to the east of the city's historic 5th-century walls, and is synonymous with industry, unchecked urban growth, and immigrants from the Balkans. One neighborhood has a replica of Bosnia's Mostar Bridge, while dozens of restaurants can be found serving the specialties of Sancak, a Bosnian Muslim region that is nowadays split between Serbia and Montenegro, and from which a huge number of Bayrampaşa residents trace their roots. We've written about these places in the past, and were delighted to recently stumble upon a Kosovar Albanian restaurant of sorts, the first one we've encountered in the city.

Istanbul

Bezirgan Çiğ Köfte: The Real Raw Deal

In the heart of Istanbul's Fatih district, not far from the colossal mosque of the same name and the headquarters of the city municipality, there is no shortage of great places to eat. These range from the popular kebab joints of Kadınlar Pazarı to the Syrian restaurants, markets, dessert shops and coffee stands on Akşemsettin Avenue, which also boasts one of the city's best and oldest yogurt producers. On a side street right in the middle of all of this lies Bezirgan Çiğ Köfte, a small four-table spot elegantly decorated with relics of the past from Anatolia, including rugs, prayer beads, and ancient, sturdy brass coffee grinders. At the entrance stands the shimmering counter, which is loaded to the brim with heaps of arugula, lettuce, mint and parsley. Next to that lies a mound of çiğ köfte bigger than a bowling ball.

Istanbul

Kebapçı Osman Usta 1976: Eggplant Kebab Enthusiasts

Kebapçı Osman Usta 1976 is located in the crowded neighborhood of Şirinevler, a corner of Istanbul that has fascinated us for years. Separated from the idyllic upper-middle class, tree-lined suburb of Ataköy by Istanbul's main highway but linked with a pedestrian footbridge built above it, Şirinevler is the polar opposite of its southern neighbor: dense, working class, chaotic, and lacking in green space. Nevertheless, it is a lively, bustling center of interactions and transactions, loaded with cheap fast food restaurants, bookstores, clothing shops and dodgy nightclubs. Şirinevler is also known for a cluster of grillhouses where the skewer slingers all hail from the district of Suruç in the province of Urfa, one of Turkey's kebab capitals.

Istanbul

Kurtuluş Pastanesi: Pastries for All

In our beloved home base of Kurtuluş, the neighborhood's rich patisserie culture is often associated with its Greek and Armenian communities. Some of these shops churn out the best profiterole in the city, while numerous others bake sakızlı Paskalya çöreği, a subtly-sweet bun laced with mastic gum and topped with thinly-sliced almonds consumed on Easter. There are more of these excellent patisseries in Kurtuluş than we could count on both hands, but only one that features the traditional Sephardic specialty börekitas, a small, crescent-moon shaped empanada variation stuffed with either roasted eggplant or potato.

Istanbul

Tiflisi: Authentic Georgian Food in Kurtuluş

There was a time in Istanbul when we had to go to a small international bus station in the Aksaray neighborhood to find Georgian food. There were a few different eateries in the area, but usually what brought us there was a shabby hole-in-the-wall up a flight of rickety stairs in a corner of the station, which generally catered to Georgians about to embark on a two-day bus trip back to their country. The food was decent, the service was surly at best, the atmosphere was shady (we and others had our phones stolen by other customers in the middle of dinner) but above all, they sold chacha,the flagship Georgian spirit distilled from the remnants of grapes used for wine.