Tuesday

Mahir Lokantası: No Empty Suit

The backstreets of Istanbul’s Osmanbey quarter are loaded with fabric shops, while the adjacent thoroughfare of Halaskargazi Avenue is a busy shopping area lined with chain clothing stores and hotels. Come here for a cheap shiny suit, but don’t expect to find rewarding culinary adventures, as most of the area’s restaurants offer fast food that manages to be both overpriced and underwhelming.

Given all that, we were thrilled when Mahir Lokantası rolled onto the scene in 2015, bringing to the table a fine-tuned rotating menu featuring daily regional specialties from every corner of Turkey.

“We make a variety of dishes from the Black Sea region, the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts and Eastern and Central Anatolia,” Mahir Nazlıcan, the restaurant’s namesake and head chef, told us.

Nazlıcan and his brother, Uğur, trace their roots to the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, and cooking runs in the family. That’s why it doesn’t come as a surprise that the love and care they pour into their dishes resembles the affection and devotion good parents have for their child.

Read the rest of the review at 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!

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