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Posts Tagged ‘ Beyoğlu ’

Aug 19
Friday

Öz Develi Etli Pide Salonu: From the Wrong Side of the Tracks

Filed under Reviews (Eats)


Tarlabaşı
: These days, this run-down neighborhood in the rapidly gentrifying Beyoğlu district is the focus of a tug of war between preservationists and developers, with an impoverished population caught in the middle. While some cast the place as nothing more than a den of thieves, junkies, prostitutes and terrorists, many people who really know Tarlabaşı have experienced the vivid juxtaposition of village life in an ultra-urban setting that is the brutal charm of the place. Nelson Algren could have been talking about Tarlabaşı in his epic ode to the slums when he compared Chicago to a woman with a broken nose: “You may find lovelier lovelies but never a lovely so real.”

In almost a decade of living in or near this neighborhood we’ve come to appreciate its blemished beauty, but, as much as we’d tried, we had never managed to find a restaurant worth mentioning.

Then came a tip from a reader promising great pide just off of Ömer Hayyam Caddesi on the Tarlabaşı market street, Kurdela Sokak. Continue…

Culinary Backstreets
In case you didn’t know, Istanbul Eats now lives over at Culinary Backstreets. Same great culinary walks, same great culinary writing. You’ll be redirected there in a few seconds!

All entries filed under this archive


Beyoğlu Authorities Turn the Tables on Outdoor Seating
4 responses - Posted 07.26.11
Late afternoon on Sofyalı Sokak, the restaurant-crowded street in Beyoğlu’s Asmalımescit district, is usually happy hour – two-for-one tequila shots, rakı glasses clinking, half-liters of Efes hoisted. But today, in the aftermath of a Beyoğlu-wide crackdown on outside seating that left the street bare of a single place to sit ...continue
Govinda’s Vejeteryan Evi: Veg Out
4 responses - Posted 07.25.11
(Editor's Note: Unfortunately, this restaurant is now closed.) Step out of the dingy stairwell of the Rumeli Han and into Govinda’s Vejeteryan Evi and you will feel as if you’ve crossed a cosmic divide. The warm and cozy room has café tables, pillowed floor seating, walls covered with a friendly looking ...continue
Istanbul Köfte Week: #3 – Köfteci Hüseyin
no responses - Posted 06.08.11
(Editor’s note: Over here at Istanbul Eats, we like to think of ourselves as köfte savants. While to the untrained eye köfte may look like nothing more than a grilled meatball, we like to discern differences in taste, texture and consistency in the different styles of this ubiquitous Turkish dish. ...continue
In Beyoğlu, Love in the Hot Seat?
3 responses - Posted 05.20.11
We were as shocked as everyone else in Istanbul to read recent reports that claimed the Beyoğlu municipality’s inspectors were going around the neighborhood telling bar owners to get rid of their two-person outdoor “loveseats” – and in some cases forcibly taking those seats away – because they were leading ...continue
May Day Special: Eat Union!
4 responses - Posted 05.01.11
(Editor's Note: In honor of the May Day workers' holiday, we are rerunning last year's post that takes a look at the dining possibilities at two union halls, Istanbul-style. Happy May 1!) Gazeteciler Lokali-Beyoğlu: The Write Stuff Journalists in Turkey are notoriously overworked and underpaid (at least that’s what Turkish journalists will ...continue
Haymatlos: Down and Out in the Rumeli Han
4 responses - Posted 04.11.11
When left alone by real estate developers, the late Ottoman-era hans of Beyoğlu are fertile ground for commercial misfits you’d never encounter in more visible locations. Like mushrooms in a dark, damp place, some of the city’s most individualistic enterprises – tattoo parlors, pirated DVD shops, Off-Track Betting parlors, risqué ...continue
Asmalı Canım Ciğerim, İlhan Usta: Liver and Gossip
no responses - Posted 04.04.11
These days, along with döner kebab, Turkey’s biggest export is the soap opera. From Athens to Abu Dhabi, people are hungry for these sultry and often scandalous one-hour dramas. We, too, enjoy some good intrigue, and following the backstory of the Istanbul restaurant scene often plays out like a season ...continue
Istanbul Eats Cooks: Sabırtaşı’s İçli Köfte
5 responses - Posted 03.18.11
Several years back, before İstiklal became an open-air shopping mall and walking down the boulevard past Galatasaray still had a certain kind of frisson to it, reaching old man Sabırtaşı’s streetside içli köfte stand felt like pulling into a safe harbor. Always standing there was the beatific Ali Bey, an ...continue
Sabırtaşı’s İçli Köfte: Handmade in Beyoğlu
no responses - Posted 03.14.11
(Editor's Note: We've recently been given access to one of Istanbul's most inner sanctums: the kitchen of Beyoğlu's Sabırtaşı, where we were shown how to make the restaurant's superlative içli köfte, winner of our "Top 5 Street Foods" contest from a while back. We will be sharing the recipe on ...continue
Mohti: All That Laz
6 responses - Posted 02.28.11
(Editor's note, 2015: We're sorry to report that Mohti has permanently closed.) “My heart starts pounding when a pregnant lady enters the room,” said Hüseyin, the artist turned owner/operator of Mohti, a new “Laz Meyhane” in the back of the backstreets of the Asmalımescit area. While this might sound to some ...continue

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