Meze, kebab and the lokanta: the Istanbul table, the back story

About Meze, kebab and the lokanta: the Istanbul table, the back story

By the ULTIMATE Istanbul Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Istanbul’s food is the sum of an empire. The palace kitchens at Topkapı fed thousands every day; migrants brought the dishes of every Anatolian region; Greek, Armenian, Jewish and Levantine cooks shaped the meyhane table. Today the city eats all of it, from street simit to tasting menus.

The lokanta

The lokanta, or esnaf lokantası, is Istanbul’s everyday restaurant: trays of stews, stuffed vegetables, pilaf and soups cooked in the morning and kept warm in a glass counter, so you point at what you want. It is where shopkeepers and office workers eat lunch, and it is the best introduction to home-style Turkish cooking. Look for hünkar beğendi (lamb on smoky aubergine purée), karnıyarık and kuru fasulye.

Kebabs and the regions

Kebab means grilled or roasted meat, and every region has its own: Adana and Urfa kebabs from the south-east, İskender from Bursa with tomato sauce and yoghurt, lahmacun and pide from the ovens. Restaurants run by families from Gaziantep, Urfa or Kayseri keep their regional recipes alive across the city.

In Istanbul, breakfast is a meal you plan your morning around.

Meze and olive oil

A meyhane dinner starts with meze: white cheese and melon, haydari (thick yoghurt with herbs), fava purée, stuffed vine leaves, ezme salad and dishes cooked in olive oil and served cold, the zeytinyağlılar. Hot starters and fish follow, all with rakı. It is a long, sociable meal, and the best way to spend an evening in Beyoğlu.

Fish and the seasons

Fish follows the seasons through the Bosphorus: bonito (palamut) and bluefish (lüfer) in autumn, anchovies (hamsi) from the Black Sea in winter, and sea bass and sea bream all year. At Eminönü and Karaköy, balık ekmek, grilled fish in bread, is the city’s best-known street snack.

Street food

The city runs on simit, the sesame-crusted bread ring sold from red carts; on midye dolma (stuffed mussels) at night; on roasted chestnuts and corn by the ferry piers; and on börek, kumpir in Ortaköy and Turkish ice cream. Eat as you walk, as Istanbul does.

The new Turkish kitchen

Over the last decade a generation of chefs has turned to Anatolian produce, heritage grains and forgotten recipes. The MICHELIN Guide arrived in Istanbul in 2022; its 2026 selection gives two stars to TURK Fatih Tutak and one star to eight more restaurants across Istanbul province, from Nicole in Beyoğlu to Casa Lavanda on the Black Sea coast at Şile.

Our advice: eat lunch at a lokanta at least once, give a whole evening to a meyhane, have balık ekmek by the water at Eminönü, and book one special dinner well ahead. Ask what is in season: in Istanbul, the fish counter tells you the month.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Meze, kebab and the lokanta: the Istanbul table, the back story before you go.