Activity Review: Istanbul Food Tour
As we researched ahead of our Istanbul trip, we realized that this amazing city and country has such an incredible food culture! Because we were only there for four days, we booked an all day food tour with Istanbul Food Tours! With hundreds of excellent reviews, the food tour would begin with breakfast and end with dessert almost eight hours later. Not only would be visit Istanbul’s best European restaurants, we would also try Istanbul’s Asian restaurants! Because the Ottoman Empire spread over centuries and incorporated many current countries, the dishes vary by region and mix very well. Little did we realize that we would be tasting so many different cuisines!
This awesome food tour usually costs $110 per person if you pay via credit card. Or, like we did, you can pay in cold hard cash!
Travel Tip: Save $10 by paying in cold American dollars - there are many ATMs in the city that give USD.
First Breakfast
Meeting at a coffee shop in the SIREZ, we walked to the city’s famous Spice Bazaar to pick up our first European breakfast. Our guide, Mehmet, weaved us through the tiny crowds to pick up fresh feta cheese along with pastrami and buffalo cream with molasses. Purchased at a tiny food stall, Mehmet explained that they chose this stall because it comes fresh from the farm daily and is considered the highest quality. Funnily, I had walked past this stall and I never knew!
Welcome!
To eat our tasty first breakfast, we went to a little cafeteria where Mehmet then surprisingly produced a bagel (sizmet), goat’s cheese, hazelnut sauce, and pistachio sauce. While we ate our “light continental” Turkish breakfast, the family started to make their homemade shakshuka. Because the dish is our favorite from our London cafe, we were very excited to try the real deal! Each bite was terrific and tasted incredibly fresh. We sampled each dish and our favorites were the buffalo cream with molasses, shakshuka, goat cheese, and the two sauces. Sadly, we had to ration ourselves as this was just the first breakfast!
Second Breakfast
As made famous in the Lord of the Rings series, second breakfast is a must - although the Turks usually don’t eat second breakfast! However, that did not stop us from visiting Lezzet-i Sark Antep Sofrasi in the spice bazaar. Similar to the first stall, I had passed this restaurant on my way to baklava yesterday. Rather than a heavy breakfast, we were treated to Turkish soup. We were given three choices: lentil, shredded lamb, and lamb’s head soup. We split the choices and I had the shredded lamb soup and MF had the lentil soup. Wow, this was so tasty! We believe I won the soup battle, but we loved the soup.
A Iskender Kebab
For our third stop, we would travel across the Bosphorus river to the Asian side and begin our food journey on the other continent. Famous for Iskender Kebab, the restaurant, Kebapci Iskender has served sultans and royalty. The kebab is now famous through Istanbul and there are a lot of copycats!
Freshly cooked!
Greeted with shir (fermented grape juice), we were then introduced into the Iskender Kebab. Rather than a traditional kebab, they lay a grilled pita on the bottom, cover it in tomato sauce, then layer slices of fresh doner lamb kebab and pour butter everywhere! This was our favorite stop! The kebab was incredible. We would easily come back here!
Mouth-watering
Ottoman’s Favorite
Home of the famous Netflix series Chef’s Table, Ciya Sofrasi is now world famous and usually requires a reservation to try its Turkish and Ottoman delights! Rather than order a traditional “meal” we ordered loads of cold and hot mezes. This style is famous throughout the Mediterranean as we also ordered meze in Greece and Cyprus.
Too many options
Our favorites here were lamb and spinach, lamb, tomato, and eggplant soup, and then tomato eggplant stuffed with lamb. At this point, we were getting extremely full, but we persevered!
A Mussels PitStop
Shortly after we left Ciya Sofrasi, we arrived at our fifth stop called Midyeci Yasin. Family operated for generations, the men catch the mussels while the women prepared the stuffing and then stuff the mussels. The stuffing is made with rice and other local spices and usually has a staple such as vegetables. Because MF and I were both very full, we split trying the different kinds of stuffing. We had the original with just black pepper, one with curry, and then the house special. Our favorite was definitely the house special - and sadly I do not know what was in it!
Just NO
For our sixth stop, we arrived at a famous pickle shop where we would try Turkish pickle juice to help the digestion. Because both MF and I hate pickles, I offered to try the juice. I took one sip and wished I never tried it. It tasted like pickle juice - so if you like pickles, then this is a great shop…
As we walked through Kakakoy, I loved the busy streets full of merchants, food, and tasty restaurants. The streets are beautiful and crazy fun.
A Cheap Tantuni
Inside Karakoy, there are many students with the universities - thus there are many cheap eats! Our seventh stop was at a cheap student eat called Tantuni 12 famous for Tantuni. This disk is a very thin bread covered with shredded beef. We also sprinkled a little lemon on top to make it even more tasty! At this point, we were so full but we kept pushing! Thankfully, tantuni was lighter than expected which we definitely required!
Glorious Lamb Intestine
Famous throughout Istanbul, kokorec is lamb intestine cooked three times and then finished with tomato, oregano, and paprika. For our sampling of this fine cuisine, we went to Reks Kokorec. Because it smelled like bacon, we were hopeful that we would enjoy it and be able to try more than a few bites. Because MF was too full, we split one and the taste was similar to chewy bacon. While we may have been incredibly full, I am not sure we enjoyed this round. Or perhaps the lamb intestine got to us…
Pizza Pide or Pie?
Similar to an Italian pizza, but instead shaped like a boat, the Turkish pide is famous for being a cheap and great eat! Stopping at a local hangout, the Pide Sun will be great. Because we ate one yesterday, we were well aware of the tasty dish. However, we were incredibly full and could not stomach another bite. We had the spinach, tomato, and cheese pide. Thankfully, we just ordered it for takeaway and possibly tonight’s (or tomorrow’s!) meal.
Dessert at Mado
For the final tenth stop, we ended our food tour with dessert at Mado! Famous for baklava and goats cheese ice cream, we ordered way too much dessert! Usually, this would mean I was very happy, but MF was rolling me through Istanbul’s streets.
I love dessert!
Thankfully, we pushed through our final meal. Mehmet ordered us pistachio, vanilla, and chocolate ice cream and then AMAZING baklava. We finished every bite, including the vanilla ice cream. A perfect way to end a perfect food day.
The UnChartered Summary
While we anticipated a very filling day, we heavily underestimated the quantity of the delicious Turkish cuisine. Yet, the quality of the dishes were superb from the finest Turkish restaurants to the cheap student food stalls. With every bite, we enjoyed the unique flavors only found in Istanbul.
- Istanbul Food Tour provided a fantastic time for an all day tour. I definitely believe it is way too much food.
- For the great restaurants that we stopped at, click here for the Google Map links.
- Regardless if you go on Istanbul Food Tours, I highly recommend eating at Kebapci Iskender! I still drool over the water butter poured over the tasty kebab...
- At the end of the day, I am incredibly proud of us! While we like trying new food, sometimes it is hard to find those restaurants and the food tour is a perfect way to discover a city and cuisine.