Friday
Akın Balık: (The Other) Karaköy Fish House
Editor’s note, Oct. 16, 2012: After getting too many notes about this place from disappointed diners who had been served substandard food or had their check inflated, we sadly need to move this fish spot onto our “no longer recommended” list. For those looking for a good fish shack on the Golden Horn, check out this review.
For good reason, there is a well-beaten path to Karaköy Balıkçısı, an excellent fish restaurant in Perşembe Pazarı, a district near the Golden Horn filled with small shops selling power tools and bathroom fixtures. The fish there is superb, as it should be for a lunch that can cost $40 per person, with no booze. That’s fine for a birthday, but what about the other 364 lunches of the year?
A solution has appeared. Just around the corner from the fish market at the base of the Galata Bridge in Karaköy, we found Akın Balık, a bare-bones fish restaurant hugging the wall of what appears to be an otherwise abandoned building. One of several outdoor fish places in the area, set back just a few steps from the Golden Horn’s edge, the restaurant has a laid-back vibe that makes us feel like we’re no longer in the big city but instead relaxing in some seaside village. Continue…
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