Turkish cuisine is one of the great underrated food cultures of the world. It draws on Ottoman palace cooking traditions, Central Asian roots, Mediterranean produce, and over a thousand years of trade routes through Anatolia. The result is a cuisine of genuine depth and regional variation \u2014 what you eat in Gaziantep bears little resemblance to what you eat in Istanbul, which bears little resemblance to what you eat on the Aegean coast.<\/p>\n
This guide covers what you should eat, where to find it, and how to avoid the tourist traps.<\/p>\n
The Turkish breakfast is not a meal \u2014 it is a ritual. A full kahvalti involves 15 to 20 small dishes arriving at the table simultaneously: white cheese (beyaz peynir), kasar cheese, tomatoes, cucumber, olives (several varieties), soft-boiled egg, fried egg, honey, clotted cream (kaymak), jam, pastries (borek, simiti), butter, and unlimited tea in small tulip glasses.<\/p>\n
The quality of the tea \u2014 black, freshly brewed, served in endless rounds \u2014 is as important as the food. A proper Turkish breakfast takes 90 minutes. It is the most important meal of the day in Turkey and worth organising your morning around.<\/p>\n
Where:<\/strong> Van Kahvalt\u0131 Evi in Cihangir, Istanbul, is the benchmark. Any lokanta (local canteen) outside tourist areas serves a good breakfast. Hotel breakfasts range from excellent (boutique hotels) to a pale imitation (large chain hotels).<\/p>\n Simit:<\/strong> A sesame-encrusted ring bread, eaten throughout the day. Sold from carts for 15 to 20 TRY. The Istanbul simit has a thicker sesame coating and slightly chewy interior. Do not eat simit from a tourist cafe at 80 TRY \u2014 this is the same product at a 400% markup.<\/p>\n Balik ekmek:<\/strong> Grilled mackerel in a half-loaf of bread with onions and parsley, sold from boats moored on the Golden Horn at Eminonu, Istanbul. 80 to 100 TRY. The combination of the setting (the boats rocking on the Bosphorus, the Galata Bridge overhead) and the quality of the fish makes this one of the best street food experiences anywhere.<\/p>\n Lahmacun:<\/strong> A thin flatbread topped with minced meat, onion, and spices, baked in a wood-fired oven. Eaten rolled up with parsley and a squeeze of lemon. Available everywhere for 40 to 80 TRY. The best are from bakeries (firin) rather than tourist restaurants.<\/p>\n Gozleme:<\/strong> A thin flatbread folded around fillings \u2014 spinach and cheese, potato, or minced meat \u2014 cooked on a sa\u00e7 (convex griddle). Available at markets and street stalls throughout Turkey. 60 to 120 TRY.<\/p>\n Doner kebab:<\/strong> Not what is sold in European fast food takeaways. Turkish doner is properly marinated meat (lamb, beef, or chicken) carved from a vertical rotisserie, served in flatbread or on a plate with rice and salad. The version served as a plate in a sit-down restaurant is the better experience.<\/p>\n Kebab is not a single dish \u2014 it is a category with dozens of regional variations. The most important:<\/p>\n Adana kebab:<\/strong> Minced lamb with red pepper, handmade on wide flat skewers, from Adana on the Mediterranean coast. Spicy, fatty, and charred. Available throughout Turkey but best in its home city and Gaziantep.<\/p>\n Urfa kebab:<\/strong> The milder cousin of Adana kebab, from Sanliurfa. Less chilli, more cumin and pepper. Served with raw onions and flat bread.<\/p>\n Iskender kebab:<\/strong> Thin slices of doner meat on torn bread, covered in tomato sauce and brown butter, served with yoghurt. Specific to Bursa, where it was invented in the 19th century.<\/p>\n Kofte:<\/strong> Grilled meatballs made from minced lamb and beef with spices. One of the most universally available dishes in Turkey. Every region has its own variation.<\/p>\n Cig kofte:<\/strong> Despite the name (cig means raw), this is a vegan dish \u2014 raw meat is no longer used. Spiced bulgur wheat kneaded with tomato paste and spices, served in flatbread with lemon and pomegranate molasses. Sold from chains throughout Turkish cities as a fast food.<\/p>\n A meze spread is the Turkish equivalent of tapas \u2014 multiple small dishes served before or alongside the main course. Essential mezes:<\/p>\n Hummus:<\/strong> Better than the supermarket version. Made fresh with quality tahini. Baklava:<\/strong> Layers of filo pastry filled with pistachios or walnuts, soaked in sugar syrup. The Gaziantep version (with fresh green pistachios) is the finest. In Istanbul, Karakoy Gulluoglu on the waterfront makes the definitive Istanbul baklava. Buy from a pastry shop, not a tourist restaurant where it has been sitting out for hours.<\/p>\n Lokum (Turkish delight):<\/strong> The best is made with real fruit and natural flavourings \u2014 nothing like the dusty supermarket version. Haci Bekir in Istanbul (operating since 1777) is the original.<\/p>\n Kunefe:<\/strong> Shredded wheat pastry soaked in sugar syrup with a hot, melting cheese centre. A specialty of Hatay and the south. Served hot from the tray. Outstanding.<\/p>\n Sutlac:<\/strong> Baked rice pudding with a caramelised top. A simple, excellent comfort dessert available everywhere.<\/p>\n Cay (tea):<\/strong> Turkish black tea is the national drink, consumed throughout the day in small tulip-shaped glasses. Brewed strong in a double teapot (caydanlik). Refusing tea is mildly unusual \u2014 accepting it is a social gesture. Sugar (seker) is added by the drinker; never with milk.<\/p>\n Turkish coffee:<\/strong> Ground fine, brewed unfiltered in a small copper pot (cezve), served in small cups with the grounds settled at the bottom. Do not drink to the bottom. Strong, cardamom-scented in some regional versions.<\/p>\n Ayran:<\/strong> A cold, lightly salted yoghurt drink. The classic accompaniment to kebabs. Refreshing and practically ubiquitous.<\/p>\n Rak\u0131:<\/strong> The national spirit. An anise-flavoured grape spirit, typically 45% alcohol, drunk diluted with cold water (which turns it milky white \u2014 hence “lion’s milk”). Drunk slowly alongside meze in a long, social dinner. Not a shot drink.<\/p>\n Turkish wine:<\/strong> Significantly better than its international reputation suggests. The Aegean region produces excellent white wines from the Sultaniye grape. Cappadocia produces Emir (white) and \u00d6k\u00fczg\u00f6z\u00fc (red). Thrace produces European-style reds.<\/p>\n The single best rule:<\/strong> Walk two streets away from any major tourist site before eating. The restaurants directly adjacent to the Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, or Topkapi Palace charge 3 to 4 times as much for significantly worse food than anything 200 metres away.<\/p>\n Lokanta:<\/strong> A local canteen serving home-style cooked food \u2014 stews, vegetable dishes, soups \u2014 in a cafeteria setting. Lunch from a lokanta costs 200 to 350 TRY ($6 to $10) for a full meal. Universally found throughout Turkey, universally good value.<\/p>\n Pide salonu:<\/strong> A Turkish pizza restaurant serving pide (boat-shaped flatbread with toppings) from a wood-fired oven. A full pide costs 250 to 400 TRY. Better value and often better quality than tourist restaurants.<\/p>\n Bal\u0131k restaurants:<\/strong> Fresh fish restaurants at working harbours (Karakoy and Besiktas in Istanbul, Ala\u00e7at\u0131 harbour in Izmir, Bodrum marina) are exceptional. Order the daily catch rather than the menu.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Turkish cuisine is one of the great underrated food cultures of the world. It draws on Ottoman palace cooking traditions, Central Asian roots, Mediterranean produce, and over a thousand years of trade routes through Anatolia. The result is a cuisine of genuine depth and regional variation \u2014 what you eat in Gaziantep bears little resemblance…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1235,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"guide_category":[],"class_list":["post-1257","utt_guide","type-utt_guide","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utravelturkey.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/utt_guide\/1257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utravelturkey.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/utt_guide"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utravelturkey.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/utt_guide"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utravelturkey.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.utravelturkey.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/utt_guide\/1257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3334,"href":"https:\/\/www.utravelturkey.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/utt_guide\/1257\/revisions\/3334"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utravelturkey.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utravelturkey.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"guide_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utravelturkey.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/guide_category?post=1257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Street Food: The Non-Negotiables<\/h2>\n
Kebabs: The Regional Taxonomy<\/h2>\n
Meze: Small Plates<\/h2>\n
\nCac\u0131k:<\/strong> Yoghurt with cucumber and dried mint. The Turkish tzatziki.
\nPatl\u0131can ezmesi:<\/strong> Roasted aubergine dip with garlic, olive oil, and lemon.
\nSigara boregi:<\/strong> Fried pastry tubes filled with white cheese and parsley.
\nMidye dolma:<\/strong> Mussels stuffed with seasoned rice, lemon squeezed over. Sold from trays on Istanbul streets at night \u2014 outstanding when fresh.
\nArnavut cigeri:<\/strong> Fried lamb liver with onions and peppers. Confrontational for some but essential if you are not squeamish.<\/p>\nTurkish Sweets<\/h2>\n
Turkish Drinks<\/h2>\n
Where to Eat Well Without Overpaying<\/h2>\n