I’ve recently returned from my first ever visit to Istanbul.  It was also my first visit to Turkey (unless you count once crossing the green line, in Nicosia, into the so-called Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which of course doesn’t exist).

Having visited numerous Middle Eastern countries and those of North Africa, I wasn’t expecting this to be a trip that presented me with any particular culinary experiences of note.  I was wrong.  Not only was I wrong I was wrong in more than one way because the food was modern as well as traditional, prepared with good hygiene and tasty beyond belief, at least in most cases.

A friend informed me that there were plenty of ‘contemporary’ restaurants and arriving as we did on New Year’s Eve, we’d booked into one of them for dinner that evening.  Being a roof-top venue, it had lovely views over the Golden Horn to the old city of Constantinople and the food was presented in a very modern style with good flavours. By and large it was local food, successfully elevated in style and presentation using modern techniques.  There were lots of powders, purees and creams made from tahini and yoghurt.  Salted Yoghurt cream was particularly interesting .  Often the down-side of travelling in a predominantly Muslim country is a scarcity of alcohol.  This wasn’t the case in Istanbul but in this restaurant in particular the staff lacked knowledge about the wines they served to match the multi-course tasting menu.  My suggestion would be to avoid that option and simply choose a wine you like the look of and stick to it throughout.  The restaurant is ‘neolokal‘ and well worth a visit to see how Turkish chefs are embracing current culinary trends.

 

 

In a simliar vein, but not in my opinion as good, either in terms of food or in particular the service, is Mikla, another roof-top venue with outstanding views over the old city in one direction and the Bosphorus in the other.  The food was generally nicely presented but despite appearances I found it quite heavy.  The service however was the the most disappointing aspect of this restaurant.  Our waiter kept responding to every comment with ‘amazing’  This isn’t helpful when you’ve just told him that the balance between monkfish and white beans on the dish you’ve just eaten wasn’t right!  The timing between courses was also somewhat erratic and clearly suited more to the kitchen than the diners.  I wouldn’t return here without knowing that something had changed.

We had the Tasting Menu as seen below, despite being tempered by the idea of ‘Bridshit’ being offered on the other menu!

The presentation and style were impressive, as also the views.

 

Far and away a better culinary experience, in my opinion, was eating kebabs in ordinary restaurants on the street. The standard of cleanliness and service were excellent and the flavour of the roasted, grilled and casseroled meats were amazingly good and way beyond my expectations.  Some 35 years or more since I first tasted a Donner Kebab in backstreets of Newcastle, I am now a fully signed-up Kebab fan.  The flavour of the dishes I tasted in those everyday restaurants in Istanbul will remain with me long after the memory of the posh-nosh has faded.