What are the must try foods in Turkey?

Just as there are big differences between McDonalds hamburgers and Gibsons in chicago, what may be termed awesome can turn out to be terrible. it depends on where you eat what.

just for starters, please specify which part of turkey you will be visiting, the season and your per person lunch and dinner budget.
different regions have their different delicacies. touristic restaurants have their tourist fares. Marmaris, dalyan, fethiye, etc. have full english breakfasts.

Also, an important warning to you : Most kebaps, including the doner kebap are usually made with a mix of beef and mutton. So, are you against red meat or just beef?

Chicken is usually not on a traditional turkish menu.

lamb is great in some areas.

Other areas goat is sold as lamb, and although quite tasty may cause diarrhea for some people.

The Aegean, especially in the Spring has an incredibly large variety of wild salad greens. the Western Black Sea has less but also different and good. navy beans are great in eastern black Sea. Many of these, especially the salad greens you cannot find in Istanbul.

The fish of the Bosphorus has no equivalent in the world when it comes to bonito and especially Blue Fish and Turbot and horse mackerel, but only in season. If you can find John dory/St. Pierre (Dulger in Turkish) consider yourself luck in any season.

Most restaurants cheat by selling farmed bream and sea bass as if they were fresh from the sea. The tast difference is appalling.

i will respond to your other post after you give me the particulars.

again, most cheap bakeries are unhygienic and use incorrect oils or margarine, although some of their products taste OK.
Neither does expensive mean good always.

turkish baked food is excellent, better than French, etc., in terms of the salty items and quite good in terms of the sweet stuff as well.

Hi, Thanks for this. We will be in Istanbul for 5 days. We don;t have a fixed budget, but looking for a mix of places...could be high end to medium. The criteria is great Turkish food. We can eat kababs if it has a mix of beef and mutton.
We will be in Istanbul this September on the 22nd for 5 days.
Do you have any restaurant recommendations as well?

Thanks for your help!

Being 45 pounds overweight, and enjoying cooking Thai, Turkish, Indian, Chinese, French fusion at home, if I did not have suggestions for you I would be living a lie. I hope you will not mind if i exaggerate a bit, because i am peckish now

1. Beyti restaurant, for the best lamb chops in the world. Do not ask for a mix grill where they bring quite a bit of everything, because you will be full before you get to the lamb chops. Just get the lamb chops and the meatballs, with a navy bean salad. And the glorious 'Kunefe' as dessert (turkish string cheese wrapped in shredded beef, baked and covered with honey syrup with sprinkle of pistachios and special water buffalo cream.
You will also see photos of owner with many heads of state and VIPs and presents sent to him. If an old man welcomes you say hello and shake his hand. he will be the owner.+$$

Changa Restaurant. The top restaurant in Turkey. Turkish far east fusion. Try the starter tasting menu. It is usually enough for two, and will leave room for the desserts. The summer location is at the Sabanci Museum in Emirgan. If the Winter location is also open, it is at Siraselviler Street, near Taksim. There is some difference in menus but not much. Their best wine is Doluca Kav, which is reasonably priced. $$$

Zanzibar, Beymen Brasserie, Midpoint for lunch if you are in nisantasi area.+$

Any restaurant on Nevizade street for traditional Turkish Raki (oozo like anise drink, usually drank during dinner with meze and fish)evening. $.

If Reina or Sortie is still open, just walk in before 8PM and ask which restaurants there are and pick one you would like. Both supper clubs have turkish kebap. seafood. italian, french, etc. +$$$

Hamdi restaurant. a favourite wit forumites and touristy, but still very good and with excellent view. next to spice bazaar, and Rustem pasa Mosque, and thus suitable for lunch. $.

Bakeries:

-Gulluoglu at Karakoy only for Baklava
-Seba Borek at Karakoy for meat pastry
- Savoy at Cihangir, Divan anywhere, Gezi at Taksim, Bulvar at gayrettepe for sweet pastry, cakes and what not.

For quick food, try the pretzel like Simit with white cheese and fresh tomatoes.

Do not eat fried fish at cheap locations.

It is a good time for Lufer (blue fish) and Palamut (bonito), but get them where you think they are likely to know how to do them, and eat them grilled. The blue fish from the bosphorus is truly a taste treat. Do not eat any other fish unless you can find john dory/st. pierre.

I forgot Borsa restaurant, one of the best for traditional turkish. Try their roast lamb (Kuzu tandir) with smoked aubergine and tomato rice on the side (begendi and domatesli pilav) I like to have beer with these.

Also to add to above :

Hamdi makes good kebap: Adana for spicy hot, Urfa not spicy hot, and some specials which are also good. Try the yoghurt drink, Ayran, with the Kebap.

Thanks so much for your help. This is great...can't wait to try all this great food!! Thanks again

otherchelebi,

What a resource! I've also bookmarked your response for our trip. One question, why do you not recommend eating other types of fish? Are they not prepared/cooked properly?

Thank you for all your wonderful information and insights!

Ellen

dear Ellen, i mentioned some of this before :
- the sea bass and bream are usually from fish farms. some of the farms do not use very good fish food and the taste loses
- most of the farmed fish are bought wholesale by the restaurants, frozen and then cooked after fast thawing, according to demand. Again, the taste goes.
- the only time i will eat either is if i know the restaurant well and can trust them to have fresh sea bass.
- turbot is great between January and May.
- anchovies is also good, especially on the black sea coast, but again, in season.
- horse mackerel is good in winter and spring.
-sardines are good if caught in Canakkale region and in season (especially wrapped in grape leaves and grilled).
- red snapper is not very tasty.
-Rouget is over priced.
- trout is good at restaurants next to streams, which prepare it in earthenware plates, usually with home churned butter and mushrooms, and/or melted cheese.
- frying oil is both bad quality and over-used in cheap restaurants. If you can go in the kitchen and see that they pour frying oil from a commercial and previously un-opened bottle, you can eat fried fish.

-In Turkey, most fish are served grilled or fried. On the black sea you can get fresh anchovies cooked with rice and otherwise as well. A few of the sandy sea bottom fish (i do not know their English names), Kirlangic, Lipsos, iskorpit are good baked or steamed with herbs and butter.

- There are some other fish like grouper, which is not easy to get and again very expensive.

Salmon is new to Turkey and unless you really are pining for it, there is no reason to eat it here.

Leave room for meze! I don't have extensive Istanbul experience but it seems every sit-down, table-cloth type restaurant would have someone bringing around little plates of grilled vegetables etc., after you order kebabs or other main dishes. Those little dishes, sometimes even just olives or cheese, often steal the show. For a smaller or less fancy meal, grab some pide or lahmacun. They're both a sort of flat bread or pizza-type item, typically with some spicy meat and other stuff going on. I'm hard-pressed to explain the subtle differences. I'm not sure either is an Istanbul specialty, but you find local joints offering either or both, everywhere.

If you have a chance, try the freshly-squeezed pomegranate juice - sometimes you see street vendors selling it.

You might be interested in my trip report to Turkey (just click on my name to find). In the Istanbul part I mention two high end restaurants that specialize in fish, one of which begins the meal with 18 mezes.

Just bumping up for this summer and fall's visitors to Turkey

Thanks for bumping this up otherchelebi! Lots of great suggestions!

another bump for current and Summer 2011 visitors.

other restaurant suggestions in the meantime were,

Ciya
Prokopi
Oz Kilis
Asitane
Sinop Manti
Bursa Garaj
Hacibey
Al Jamal
Doga balik
Assk Kahvesi
Mia Mensa
Sardunya

One thing I really enjoyed in turkey was a flat bread called Pide...it can be made with various toppings...and then of course there is Apple Tea, also quite good.

some turkish desserts and sweets

baklava
sütlaç
muhallebi
kaymaklı ekmek kadayıfı
künefe
lokum
aşure
kabak tatlısı
kazandibi
şekerpare
kadayıf
Güllaç
kemalpaşa tatlısı
revani
Yoğurt tatlısı
lokma tatlısı
hanım göbeği, vezir parmağı
ayva tatlısı
pişmaniye
irmik helvası
tavuk göğsü
tulumba tatlısı
höşmerim
şöbiyet
sütlü nuriye
zerde tatlısı
bülbül yuvası
keşkül
fıstıklı dürüm
spangile
cezerye
cevizli sucuk
Maraş dondurması
Kestane Şekeri
Badem Şekeri