IstanbulWhat to eat in Istanbul: a food guide, dish by dish

What to eat in Istanbul? Start with a long Turkish breakfast, then simit from a street cart, balık ekmek by the water, a kebab or meze for dinner and baklava with Turkish coffee to finish. The city has cooked for an empire for centuries, and it still eats well at every hour of the day and at every price.

This Turkish food guide is organised by meal and by dish, with the districts and markets where each one is at its best. We name dishes and neighbourhoods rather than restaurants: the places change, the food does not.

What to eat in Istanbul: the short list

If you have only a few days, these are the dishes to try first. Each one is easy to find, and each tells you something about how Istanbul eats.

Turkish breakfast in Istanbul

Breakfast, or kahvaltı, is the meal Istanbul does best (our Turkish breakfast guide goes plate by plate). The full version, serpme kahvaltı, arrives as a table covered in small plates: white cheese and aged kaşar, black and green olives, tomatoes and cucumbers, honey with kaymak (thick clotted cream), jams, butter and baskets of bread. Then come the hot dishes: eggs fried in a copper pan, menemen (eggs scrambled with tomatoes and peppers), sucuk (spiced beef sausage), and pastries such as börek and pişi, a light fried dough.

Tea is served in tulip-shaped glasses and refilled until you lay the spoon across the glass. Weekend breakfasts are long, social and often go on until midday. The villages along the Bosphorus, such as Bebek, Arnavutköy and Emirgan, are the classic places for a slow breakfast by the water, and an easy start to a day on the Bosphorus.

Istanbul street food

Istanbul street food is cheap, fast and part of daily life, not a novelty for visitors. These are the classics:

• Simit: the sesame bread ring sold from red carts on every corner. Eat it with cheese, or simply with tea.
• Balık ekmek: grilled fish fillet in bread with onion and lettuce, sold by the water at Eminönü and Karaköy.
• Midye dolma: mussels stuffed with rice, pine nuts and spices, squeezed with lemon and eaten one after another, usually in the evening.
• Kumpir: a huge baked potato mashed with butter and cheese and loaded with toppings, closely associated with Ortaköy.
• Börek: layered pastry filled with cheese, spinach or minced meat. Su böreği, made with boiled sheets of dough, is the finest.
• Lahmacun: a thin, crisp flatbread spread with spiced minced meat, rolled up with parsley and lemon.
• Kokoreç: lamb intestines grilled on a spit, chopped with spices and served in bread. A late-night favourite, and not for everyone.

Kebabs, köfte and the grill

Kebab in Türkiye means grilled or roasted meat in dozens of regional styles, not only döner. The ones to know:

• Adana kebab: hand-minced lamb with red pepper, grilled on a wide skewer. Spicy and smoky.
• Urfa kebab: the same idea, without the heat.
• İskender kebab: thin slices of döner laid over cubes of bread, with tomato sauce, sizzling butter and yoghurt. It comes from Bursa, where it was created in the 19th century.
• Köfte: grilled meatballs, usually served with piyaz, a white bean salad.
• Pide: boat-shaped flatbread baked with cheese, minced meat or egg.

A kebab house meal usually starts with a spread of small dishes: ezme (a spicy tomato and pepper relish), yoghurt, salads and hot flatbread. Ayran, a salty yoghurt drink, is the traditional thing to drink with it.

Meze, fish and the meyhane table

The Istanbul evening at its most traditional is a long meal at a meyhane, a tavern where meze come first and conversation lasts for hours. A waiter brings a tray of cold dishes to choose from: haydari (thick yoghurt with herbs), smoked aubergine salad, fava (a purée of broad beans), stuffed vine leaves, marinated anchovies and lakerda (salted bonito). Hot starters such as fried calamari or börek follow, then grilled fish or meat. Rakı, the aniseed spirit diluted with water, is the classic drink. The streets of Beyoğlu and the old fishing quarter of Kumkapı are full of meyhanes.

Fish follows the seasons. Hamsi, the small Black Sea anchovy, is the great winter fish, fried or baked with rice. Bluefish (lüfer) is prized in autumn, and sea bass and bream are available all year. Ask what came in that morning, rather than ordering from the menu. Beşiktaş and Kadıköy have fish markets where you can see what is in season.

Vegetarian food in Istanbul

Vegetarian food in Istanbul is easier to find than most visitors expect. Turkish cooking has a whole family of dishes called zeytinyağlı: vegetables slow-cooked in olive oil and served cold, such as green beans, artichokes, leeks and celeriac. Other dishes to look for:

• Mercimek çorbası: red lentil soup with lemon, served everywhere.
• İmam bayıldı: aubergine stuffed with onion, garlic and tomato, cooked in olive oil.
• Yaprak sarma: vine leaves rolled around rice, pine nuts and currants.
• Mücver: courgette fritters with herbs and cheese.
• Gözleme: thin flatbread filled with cheese, spinach or potato, cooked on a griddle.
• Menemen and cheese pide for breakfast and lunch.

Vegans should ask about butter and yoghurt, and everyone should check whether a soup or rice is made with meat stock. The word to use is etsiz, without meat.

Turkish desserts and sweets

Turkish desserts fall into two families: syrup-soaked pastries and milk puddings. Try both.

• Baklava: layers of filo with pistachio or walnut, soaked in syrup. The pistachio baklava of Gaziantep was the first Turkish product registered as a protected geographical indication in the EU, in 2013.
• Künefe: shredded pastry around melting cheese, baked and soaked in syrup, served hot with pistachio.
• Milk puddings: sütlaç (baked rice pudding), kazandibi (caramelised milk pudding) and tavuk göğsü, an Ottoman pudding made, surprisingly, with finely shredded chicken breast.
• Lokum: Turkish delight, flavoured with rose, pistachio or pomegranate.
• Dondurma: stretchy, chewy Turkish ice cream, thickened with salep and mastic.

Finish with Turkish coffee, brewed slowly in a small pot and served unfiltered with a glass of water and a piece of lokum. Turkish coffee culture and tradition was added to UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage in 2013.

Markets and food districts to explore

Some of the best eating in Istanbul happens in its markets and food streets rather than in restaurants:

• The Spice Bazaar (Mısır Çarşısı) in Eminönü, built in the 1660s as part of the New Mosque complex: spices, dried fruit, nuts, lokum and cheeses. It fits easily into a day in the old city.
• Kadıköy's market streets on the Asian shore: fishmongers, delis, pickle shops and stalls of olives and cheese. Our day on the Asian shore includes them.
• The Fatih Wednesday market (Çarşamba Pazarı), one of the city's oldest and largest street markets, held every Wednesday.
• Karaköy for baklava and börek, and Beşiktaş for its fish market and breakfast streets.

An Istanbul food tour, privately

A private food tour is the fastest way to eat well in a city this size. A good food guide takes you to the stall that makes the best börek in the neighbourhood, orders what you would never find on your own and explains it as you eat. Our Istanbul, to taste day starts with breakfast, crosses the Spice Bazaar and ends with baklava and coffee on the Asian shore, with every table halal.

Tell us about allergies and preferences in advance, and we brief every kitchen before you arrive. For a special dinner, our guide to MICHELIN restaurants in Istanbul covers the city's best tables, and our guide to halal-friendly travel in Turkey covers dining without alcohol. Eat slowly, follow the seasons and always say yes to one more glass of tea.

Checked by the Megis team on 4 November 2026. Opening hours, rules and seasons change; we confirm every detail again when we plan your trip.