10 of the best lokantas in Istanbul
Ciya Sofrasi, a lokanta in Istanbul that collects recipes from around Turkey
Thanks to glowing write-ups, this Asian-side eatery is no longer the secret it once was, but the restaurant – possibly the best in Istanbul – has remained true to what made it successful in the first place. Owner-chef Musa Dağdeviren's commitment to collecting recipes from aroundTurkey has resulted in a menu that features unusual regional dishes you're unlikely to find anywhere else, and changes according to what's in season – such as a springtime meat stew cooked with bracingly tart unripe green plums. Çiya isn't the fanciest or most cutting-edge place in town, but one rarely leaves it without having had a profoundly memorable taste experience.
• Güneşlibahçe Sokak 43, Kadıköy, +90 216 330 3190, ciya.com.tr, mains TL14 (£5). Open noon-10pm
Photograph: jslander on Flickr/Some rights reserved
Though Istanbul generally lacks foreign ethnic restaurants as we know them in other world cities, look closer at many lokantas and you'll discover links to kitchens well beyond the borders of Turkey. Ficcin is a friendly restaurant serving the unique cuisine of the mountains of the Caucasus. At lunch, this humble eatery's tables occupy nearly all of the street it is on, laying out Circassian specialities such as a cold chicken and walnut spread and hulking dumplings. Its namesake dish, ficcin, a Chechen börek, is a savoury, cake-like dough layered over fragrant ground meat and then baked like a pizza.
• Kallavi Sokak 7/1-13/1, Beyoğlu, +90 212 293 3786, ficcin.com, mains £4. Open Mon-Sat 7am-midnight, Sun 11am-10pm
Open since 1967, Şahin Lokantasi is usually bursting at the seams during lunch, with an almost comical number of people stuffing themselves into the small, two-storey space. The menu changes daily, with about a dozen dishes on offer, a combination of meat or vegetable stews, pilafs, köfte (meatballs) and other classics of the Turkish (home) kitchen. The imam bayildi, made of a fried eggplant stuffed with onions, tomatoes and garlic, is among the finest renditions of this totemic dish. Şahin's superb sütlaç (rice pudding) is chock-a-block with grains of soft rice floating inside a thick, milky pudding. Like everything served in this restaurant, it hits the spot.
• Orhan Adli Apaydin Sokak 11/A, Beyoğlu, +90 212 244 2543, mains £3.50. Open Mon-Sat 11am-4:30pm
"One lady says to me, 'If I knew this place was called Nato, I wouldn't have eaten here,' and walks out. She was clearly a communist," said Mevlüt Bey, manager of Nato Lokantasi, a esnaf lokantasi (tradesmen'srestaurants) in Karaköy named in honour of Turkey's entry into the western alliance six decades ago. You can't help but join in the party because everything served at Nato is simply delicious. The menu is composed of daily specials such as sautéed vegetables, a couple of soups and plenty of meat dishes, and it's always best to make your way to the steam-table in the back to see what looks good.
• Karanlik Firin Sokak 4, Karaköy, +90 212 249 6424, natolokantasi.net. Open Mon-Fri 11am-3pm
This place started with the concept of a traditional esnaf lokantasi and added laid-back service and funky design and paying greater attention to the food. The result is a power lunch spot buzzing with bankers out for a bite. Hünkar beğendi, a leftover from the Ottoman imperial kitchen, is the star of the menu. Eggplants are charred on a charcoal grill, then peeled, mashed and thickened with milk and cheese. Over the top, tender morsels of slow-cooked lamb are drizzled with the red gravy they were stewed in. It's the beğendi experience that this place thrives on. At night, it turns into a taverna.
• Kemankeş Caddesi 37, Karaköy, +90 212 292 4455,karakoylokantasi.com, mains around £5. Open Mon-Sat 6am-midnight
At Doyuran Lokantasi, in the touristy district of Kumkapi, the men at the next table might be wearing plaster-encrusted work shirts and have measuring tapes on their belts, but they know their food. In most Istanbul neighbourhoods, the working class sets the culinary bar, and sets it high. They want it fast, fresh, cheap and as close as possible to their mothers' recipes. Offering up four or five daily lunch specials, including manti (homemade Turkish dumplings), chickpeas on rice, and various traditional stews, Doyuran answers the working man's call with ease, and the service at once professional and homely.
• Ördekli Bakkal Sokak 10, Kumkapi, 90 212 458 2637, mains £3. Open Mon-Sat 7am-8pm
Lades is an old-school spot, a classic lokanta serving stews and steam-table favourites day in, day out. If Lades were a car, it might be an old Volvo estate – nothing exotic, but safe and extremely reliable. The menu changes daily but follows certain rules. As written on the front window, on Mondays and Thursdays the special is succulent ribbons of dönerkebab served with rice. Tuesday is a day for arnavut ciğeri, lightly fried lamb's liver ramped up with red peppers. But day in, day out, just about everything at Lades – from the soups to the stews to the desserts – is dependably good.
• Sadri Alışık Sokak 14, Beyoğlu, +90 212 251 3203, mains £4. Open Mon-Sat 11am-9:30pm
Situated at the mouth of the Kadiköy market, with a chintzy plaster chef statuette in a silly hat, Fehmi Yanyali does not inspire much confidence in the hungry traveller in search of a culinary backstreet find. But that would be a grave miscalculation for those who find truth in a simple but perfect bowl of ezogelin çorbasi, lentil soup, and rapture in içli pilav(stuffed pilaf). It was started in 1919 by a refugee from Greece and has been run by his descendants for three generations, preserving the recipes of the founder. Serving mainstream favourites and hard-to-find specialities, this is a place steeped in the history of Istanbul.
• Yağlikçi İsmail Sokak 1, Kadiköy, +90 216 336 3333,fehmilokantasi.com, mains £3.50. Open 9am-10pm daily
The Black Sea area is Turkey's culinary misfit; it's not really about kebabs or mezes. If anything, the food seems to have been mysteriously transplanted from the American deep south, with cornbread, collard greens and smoky bean stews. It's simple, filling, down-home food, and Hayvore, a little restaurant in the Galatasaray area, is a great – and affordable – spot to get acquainted with it. Try the chickpeas in a glowing red gravy, meaty, stuffed chard leaves, large hunks of cornbread or the Black Sea anchovies (hamsi) lightly fried.
• Turnacibaşi Sokak 4, Beyoğlu, +90 212 245 7501, mains £3.50. Open 7am-midnight
Istanbul Culinary Institute
The restaurant/cafe at the Istanbul Culinary Institute has become an institution since it opened in 2008. The idea is simple: let the students of the culinary school upstairs prepare food for the customers downstairs. The menu changes frequently depending on what is being taught, but it always features classics from the Turkish kitchen. It might sound like there's an element of risk in putting yourself in the hands of neophytes, but what comes out of the kitchen never disappoints. There's zero risk, meanwhile, when it comes to the interior – a stylish space fusing industrial cool with homely warmth.
• Meşrutiyet Caddesi 59, Beyoğlu, +90 212 251 2214,istanbulculinary.com, mains £6. Open Mon-Sat 7:30am-6pm 10pm, Sun 8am-5pm
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