- Book a food tour?
- Optional — everything below is yours to find with a local's directions
- Do not miss
- A weekend serpme kahvaltı — the full Turkish breakfast
- Best street food
- Balık ekmek at Eminönü, simit anywhere, kokoreç if you are brave
- Best value
- Esnaf lokantası — the workers' canteens with trays in the window
- To drink
- Turkish coffee, çay, ayran, and rakı with meze
- Avoid
- Restaurants with photo menus and a man outside inviting you in
Private tours from €150 per group, per day
Licensed local guide, private car and driver, and skip-the-line priority entrance. The day runs at your pace, and the plan stays yours to change.
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Is an Istanbul food tour worth booking? Only if you want the company and the planning done for you — everything on a typical route you can eat just as well, and usually cheaper, by walking in yourself once you know where to look. This page is that guide: what to eat, where locals eat it, and the handful of streets worth crossing town for.
Should you book an Istanbul food tour?
Plenty of companies run one, and they are a reasonable choice if you would rather not think about logistics on your first evening, or you like eating in a small group. What you are paying for is sequencing and company, not access — nothing on a typical food-tour stop is otherwise hard to find. If you would rather wander with a plan in your pocket, the rest of this page is that plan, built from where we and our own families actually eat.
What to eat in Istanbul — the quick version
| Dish | Where to find it |
|---|---|
| Serpme kahvaltı (Turkish breakfast) | Any proper breakfast house, best at the weekend |
| Balık ekmek (fish sandwich) | Eminönü, by the Galata Bridge |
| Simit | Red carts, everywhere, best warm |
| Kumpir (loaded baked potato) | Ortaköy waterfront |
| Meze and rakı (meyhane) | Kumkapı, Beyoğlu, Karaköy |
| Künefe and baklava | A specialist sweet shop, not a tourist café |
Turkish breakfast — the meal to plan around
If you do one food thing in Istanbul, make it a weekend serpme kahvaltı: a table covered edge to edge in small plates. White cheese and aged kaşar, olives green and black, tomato and cucumber, honey with clotted kaymak, several jams, butter, sucuk sizzling in a pan, menemen — eggs scrambled with tomato and pepper — fresh bread, and endless tea. It takes two hours and replaces lunch.
Street food worth stopping for
Simit — the sesame bread ring, sold from red carts everywhere, best still warm. Balık ekmek — a grilled fish sandwich eaten standing at Eminönü by the Galata Bridge, with onions, salad and a squeeze of lemon. Midye dolma — stuffed mussels with rice and spices, ordered one at a time until you stop. Kumpir at Ortaköy. Kokoreç — seasoned lamb intestine grilled and chopped into bread, and far better than that description suggests. Boza in winter, a thick fermented millet drink that tastes like nothing else.
Where do locals actually eat in Istanbul?
Look for an esnaf lokantası — a tradesman's restaurant, with trays of home-style dishes in a steam counter by the window. You point at what looks good. There is no menu, prices are low, the food is what somebody's mother cooks, and it changes daily. These places are all over the working districts — try the streets behind the Grand Bazaar or through Balat — and almost never on the tourist streets around Sultanahmet. If you want the single best concentration of them, cross the Bosphorus to Kadıköy: the market streets around the fish hall are where our Two Continents in One Day tour stops for lunch, and it is the least touristy proper meal in the city.
The other rule: if there is a man outside the door inviting you in, and the menu has photographs, walk on. Good restaurants in Istanbul do not need to catch you. Our Istanbul travel tips page covers the same instinct for shops and taxis, and our guide to tipping in Turkey explains what to leave once the bill arrives.
Meyhane — the long evening, and an Istanbul food tour at night
A meyhane is a tavern built around rakı, the aniseed spirit that clouds when you add water, and meze — dozens of small cold and hot dishes brought on a tray for you to choose from. Aubergine smoked and whipped with yoghurt, broad beans in olive oil, marinated anchovies, stuffed vine leaves, fried liver.
This is honestly the best answer to "food tour at night" — a proper meyhane evening runs for hours, with music, and it is the most sociable thing in Turkish eating culture. You do not need a booked tour to do it, just a good address and someone to explain the tray. Kumkapı is the famous district; Beyoğlu and Karaköy have the better modern versions.
Sweet things
Baklava from a specialist, ideally pistachio from Gaziantep, eaten fresh rather than boxed. Künefe — shredded pastry over melting cheese, soaked in syrup and served hot, and probably the best dessert in Turkey. Turkish delight from a real shop rather than the colored pyramids in the Spice Bazaar: ask for double-roasted pistachio. Dondurma, the stretchy mastic ice cream, complete with the vendor's routine.
What to drink
Çay — black tea in a tulip glass, drunk constantly, offered everywhere, and refusing it is the mild discourtesy. Turkish coffee — strong, unfiltered, served with a glass of water; let the grounds settle and do not drink the last inch. Ayran, salted yoghurt, the classic partner to grilled meat. Şalgam, fermented turnip juice, if you want the local experience in one glass.
Eating well on a private tour
We are not a food-tour company and we will not pretend otherwise — but every one of our guides eats in this city daily, and the single most common thing our guests say afterwards is that the meals were better than they expected. That is simply because we take you to the places we go ourselves rather than the ones with the photo menus, folded into whichever sights you are already seeing that day, whether that is the Bosphorus, the best of the city or a full one-day itinerary.
Tell us you care about food when you enquire about a private tailor-made tour and we will build the day's route around a proper lunch instead of fitting food in around the monuments. Guide and private car included, from €150 per group per day — tell us what you'd like to eat.
Istanbul food tour — frequently asked questions
Is an Istanbul food tour worth booking?
It's a reasonable choice if you want the planning done and enjoy eating in a small group, but nothing on a typical route is hard to find yourself. This guide covers the same ground — what to eat and where — so you can decide.
What food is Istanbul famous for?
Turkish breakfast, balık ekmek (fish sandwiches) at Eminönü, simit, kebabs of many regional kinds, meze with rakı in a meyhane, baklava and künefe, and Turkish coffee and tea.
Where do locals eat in Istanbul?
In esnaf lokantası — tradesmen's canteens with trays of home-style dishes in the window, where you point at what you want. They are cheap, excellent and almost never on the main tourist streets.
How do you avoid tourist-trap restaurants in Istanbul?
Avoid anywhere with photographs on the menu or a man outside inviting you in. Walk two or three streets back from the main sights. Look for places busy with Turkish families rather than visitors.
What is a meyhane?
A traditional tavern built around rakı and meze — dozens of small dishes chosen from a tray. Evenings are long and sociable, often with live music. Kumkapı is the classic district; Karaköy and Beyoğlu have excellent modern versions.
Is there a good food tour in Istanbul at night?
The honest local equivalent is a proper meyhane evening — hours of meze and rakı with music, no booking required, just a good address. It gives you everything an evening food tour promises without the fixed schedule.
Istanbul food tour in pictures
See it with a private local guide
Every tour we run is private and tailor-made — you choose the places, your licensed local guide plans the day with you, and a private car is always included.
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