Jul 07
Wednesday
Kebapçı Enver Usta: Underground Favorite
(Editor’s Note: We are proud to announce that an Istanbul Eats guidebook to dining in Istanbul will soon be available in Turkey, published in English by Boyut Publishers. In the course of preparing the book, we went back to some of our favorite haunts and took some new photos. One of our favorites was of Ahmet, the indefatigable waiter at Enver Usta in Beyoğlu. In honor of him and the soon-to-be released book, we are rerunning the review along with the new photo.)
(Editor’s Note II: As of early 2013, Enver Usta has moved to İlkbelediye Caddesi, Cem İş Merkezi 19, Galata/Beyoğlu.)
We usually avoid cramped basement spaces that have open fires and only one, narrow exit. But we make an exception for Kebapçı Enver Usta, a subterranean kebab joint that hits the spot when we’re looking for a simple and satisfying lunch.
Finding Enver Usta is part of the fun. Located for the last 20 years on a quiet Beyoğlu alley that thankfully has been bypassed by the neighborhood’s gentrifying wave, the restaurant occupies the bottom most floor of what seems like an abandoned building, the only sign of life a lone flower pot that sits on one of the window ledges. Next door is a forlorn-looking teahouse.
Things get livelier once you step down the stairs that lead from the sidewalk and into the restaurant. Continue…
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Hanging On to History: Edible Nostalgia in Samatya
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