After visiting the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, we walked around the corner to a very touristic arcade bereft of the food options we’d come to expect as our due in Istanbul! The market was a small passage full of shops selling higher quality handcrafts (for the most part), at very high prices with only a few places worth. We were going to write off the whole market when ….
Towards the end of the passage we came upon a group of men eating some exceptionally yummy looking food, and us being quite hungry at the time, started staring and wondering where did they get their delectable dishes! Not a minute passed when the men, with true Turkish hospitality, asked if we wanted to try it! Of course, we did :) After a single scrumptious sample, we got the convoluted directions and after a short walk (and a couple of wrong turns) we ended in a closed alley with a few local cafeterias, of which our destination – Karadeniz – was one. Oh, how lucky we can sometimes be :)
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We ordered the kiremitte kebap, a lovely stew of tomatoes, herbs, and eggplant; – that dish that we had sampled from the men in the arcade. The Çoban Chopped Salad and a Pide Turkish pizza.
If you are in the area and wish to eat like locals, then a sidebar at Karadeniz is a must.
Karadeniz Restaurant
(90) 212 258-6290
Başka Şubemiz Yoktur
Istanbul, Turkey
OPEN HOURS:
12:00 – 19:00 daily
