Turkish Street Food - Eating Our Way Around Istanbul
Istanbul is a rich vein of foodie delights. Read our article as we eat our way through the streets of Istanbul, eating everything from simit to baklava, pide to kebabs. Read our guide to Istanbul’s must eats!
Anyone who knows us, knows that we love food. Especially the kind of food that can be bought cheaply from the side of the street. One of the main reasons we booked a trip to Istanbul was to eat! We had dabbled in Turkish cuisine on the streets of London, tucking into huge meze plates and enjoying grilled meat kebabs (often after a late night on the town), but we both knew that there was so much more to Turkish food.
We had tried to prepare ourselves, we had binged YouTube for streetfood recommendations, scryed GoogleMaps for possible ideas, but nothing could prepare us for actually pounding the pavements and sampling Istanbul’s street food ourselves!
Even writing this now we are basically salivating at the thought of Istanbul's famous street eats. Below (and in no particular order) is a list of some of the best street food we ate and loved in Istanbul.
In this Istanbul Street Food Guide
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What To Eat in Istanbul? Our Street Food Recommendations
No matter where you are in Istanbul you will be able to find some fantastic street food. These are just some of our favourite Turkish street eats we devoured during our time in Istanbul!
Simit - A local bread snack
Simit is a daily staple in Istanbul. The local bread can be found in shops and carts all over the city. As we wandered through the crowded streets, it was possibly the most common street food we saw. Simit is shaped like a skinny, twisted dough bagel and usually comes in the form either of a plain simit or one covered in sesame seeds.
John visited Istanbul as a child and vaguely remembered having to chew for hours on an elderly simit he had bought from the street, so it was without high hopes that we purchased one. We opted for the option of a sesame simit with cheese.
After taking my first bite, I can only assume that little John was either:
a) Young, grumpy and taking it out on the poor simit (quite likely)
b) Had an unlucky choice in a less than fresh simit
The simit we tried was delicious. Slightly chewy, but with a firm exterior, it was the perfect vehicle for the soft cheese. Simit made for an excellent post breakfast snack and easily powered us through till lunch. There is also the option of buying a simit spread with Nutella if you’re looking for a sweet treat!
Availability: Everywhere, just look for the little carts piled high with circular breads, or purchase straight from bakeries found across the city.
Average cost: Prices will start from 10 TRY but expect to pay more if you are purchasing from a street stall outside one of the main tourist attractions or if you are buying from a brick and mortar bakery.
As they are highly portable, we would recommend picking up a couple of simits to form part of a picnic. We did just this on our day trip to the Princes Islands (click the link to read more) picking up both a sweet and savoury simit to eat on our walk around Büyükada island.
Döner - Kebabs but not as you know them!
Possibly no Turkish street food is more famous (especially to the English) than the Turkish döner kebab. Meat is sliced and then piled into stacks, then formed into elephant leg sized towers of meat, vertically grilled before being sliced onto bread and served. Although familiar to us, the original is so much better than the imitators (as is often the case). During our time in Istanbul we sampled many a döner each subtly different, with variations of meat, spicing and sauces. Throughout our stay, and despite many opportunities, we didn't have a bad kebab. The key differences between the kebabs of home and the ones that we found in Istanbul were:
Due to the high demand, the meat is constantly fresh and always juicy to the point of sauciness.
Before slicing the meat into the bread, the bread is slapped onto the rotating meat to suck up all the delicious meaty juices.
The meat is frequently covered in a dry spice before any sauce is added.
Very unlike its traditional English post-pub counterpart, the vegetables are actually vegetables and not just tarnished memories of what was once a green plant.
We’re sure that, if you tried, you could find a bland, tasteless greasy döner to remind you of England but of all the many we munched, ours were tasty and vibrant without exception. We don't think you can really avoid döner kebab in Istanbul and we would recommend you don’t even try! We even bought one in the heart of the most touristy spot near us (the base of the Galata Tower in the Beyoğlu district) and it was cheap, filling and delicious!
Availability: Again, absolutely everywhere. We stumbled upon döner kebab stalls on almost every street corner. You couldn’t avoid them. They were available from street stalls to convenience stalls and all the way through to fancy restaurants. We even ate one from a mobile phone shop that sold SIM cards right next to the flaming grill!
Average cost: Variable, the street eat ones that we were typically getting ranged around the 80 to 150 TRY depending on meat and fillings etc but in some places this jumped to over 200 TRY although this was usually in the tourist hotspots of the city.
If you want to try an utterly spectacular sit down meal then make sure you check out our first night in the city where we gorged on a humongous kebab feast in the form of grilled lamb kebabs from the fantastic Bilice Kebap’s restaurant (again click the link to read more).
Pide - Turkish style pizza
Looking sort of like a flat canoe that had an illicit affair with a pizza, Pides are often referred to (but not usually by the Turkish), as ‘Turkish pizza’. Unlike their Italian brothers, pide is a crispy, oven-fired flat bread with raised sides which help to contain a variety of tasty toppings. The majority of pides come topped with some form of cheese. Either cheese on its own, cheese with some form of meat or cheese and a mixture of vegetables. We always opted for the cheese and minced beef which was always super gooey, rich and delicately spiced. Pide was always a reliable street food to eat on the go. Once cooked, the pides are sliced into thin segments and make perfect hand-held street snacks whatever the time of day.
Cheap, hot and often very cheesy, we found ourselves indulging with these on more than one occasion!
Availability: Everywhere, look for bakeries, hole in the wall joints, bars and restaurants. Pides make an exceptional street food snack after a night of drinking a few Efes beers!
Average cost: Prices will usually start at around 300 TRY for a pide. In less touristy spots in the city, you may be lucky and find cheaper pides. If you are planning to sit down in a restaurant, prices can jump up to a lot more. Also bear in mind that pides come in a range of sizes. We saw several that were well over a metre long!
Kokoreç - A sausage sandwich but better!
Kokoreç or kokoretsi is one of those foods better left unexplained. Just imagine you had to describe to an alien what a sausage was.
“Basically we grind up lots of animal bits and stuff them back into their own intestines… it’s delicious!” See! The description doesn’t exactly sell the product, and it’s the same with kokoreç.
On a horizontal spit, lamb offal, sweetbreads, heart and kidneys are wrapped in intestines, grilled over flames and then sliced, diced and put between bread. Even as we type this, we know this is hard sell but honestly, please just give it a go! The kokoreç is not as gamey in taste as the ingredient list may make it seem. Instead the kokoreç was the perfect counterbalance between hot, spicy and rich. Fiery pepper mixed with sweet onions and indulgent, intestine cased meat. Kokoreç was super tasty and so much better than we expected. If you take anything from this, just remember you eat sausages so don’t judge!
Availability: Very common all over the streets of Istanbul, look for the horizontal skewers that look like they’re wrapped in bacon (it’s definitely not bacon!).
We bought our kokoreç from the excellent Gala Kokoreç (location) on the European side of the city in the Fatih district, a short walk away from the Grand Bazaar.
Average cost: Prices start from 180 TRY for half a kokoreç and go up depending on size and filling.
Gözleme - A Turkish take on savoury crepes
We stumbled upon gözleme whilst wandering along the Galata waterfront. It was late afternoon and the whole waterfront was busy with families and locals fishing. Feeling a little peckish, we headed through the crowds and spotted a small stall set outside a restaurant that piqued our interest… It was time to try gözleme!
Gözleme is a sort of stuffed savoury crepe which is cooked over what could only be described as an up-turned wok heated from below. Gözleme can be stuffed with many different ingredients from meat to vegetables and almost always, mixed together with some form of cheese. After eating a lot of cheese and rich dishes over the week, we opted for the pure vegetarian spanakli gözleme which was stuffed with spinach, onions and herbs. Chewy, crunchy and packed full of green flavours, it was a delightful fresh contrast to the heavy meats and thicker doughs of the day.
Availability: All over the city, but we found a few stalls selling gözleme just east of the Galata Bridge, along the waterfront opposite the Karaköy ferry terminal on the European side of Istanbul. To try the gözleme we had, just look out for a large red stall and the smiling ladies cooking the gözleme out front.
Gözleme is a popular Turkish breakfast dish, but as you can see, they are available at all times of day. We think they would make for an excellent breakfast dish!
Average cost: Gözleme prices start at 160 TRY and go up depending on what filling you choose. Obviously meat stuffed gözleme cost a bit more than pure vegetable gözleme.
Midye dolma - Stuffed streetside mussels
Midye dolma is a cold shellfish delicacy found on the streets throughout the city. Street side seafood is almost always a hard sell to anyone, but midye dolma came highly recommended to us from a friend who used to live in Istanbul.
Midye dolma are mussels that have been stuffed with herbed rice and served cold with a squeeze of lemon juice. Vendors usually have a variety of mussel sizes to choose from and you eat these mussel-y morsels street side in one bite using the other half of the mussel shell as a scoop/spoon. These mini bites were totally unexpected (for some reason Ellie thought they would be warm!), they are a whirlwind of aromatic herbs mixed with the zing of citrus all blended with the salty taste of the sea. These ubiquitous snacks are an absolute must try!
Availability: Everywhere all over Istanbul. Come the evening, look out for sellers holding circular trays of mussels in a rainbow of sizes.
Average cost: Expect to pay around 10 to 20 TRY per midye dolma. In restaurants you can order larger portions / plates of mussels with prices starting from 300 TRY.
Baklava - An incredibly moreish sweet treat
Ellie is a fiend, a devil in human skin, a hoover with an endless appetite…. At least when it comes to baklava. If I was to survive our Istanbul trip, there was no option, Ellie must be supplied with baklava. So even though these are not technically street food, we have included them here.
Myriad layers of crepe paper thin pastry, stuffed with pistachios nuts and soaked in sugar syrup, baklava are truly decadent, sweet delicacies. We purchased our baklava from a little old lady in a tiny shop at the bottom of our street in the Beyoğlu district of Istanbul. In her shop, she only sold three varieties (at least when we visited), so we brought all three to try.
Each type of baklava we bought was completely different. One was stuffed with chopped walnuts, the other wrapped in a scarf of chopped pistachio and the last was coated with crunchy small shards of pastry and stuffed with dried fruit and drizzled in honey. They were divine!
Sweet (John says to the point of sickness, but I disagree) and sticky, these little one biters are a fantastic accompaniment to strong coffee, and make an excellent pick me up should you need your sugar replenishing (or if you’re a devil in human form and can only be appeased by sweet snacks!).
Availability: Everywhere, look out for the speciality baklava shops found all over Istanbul.
Average cost: One piece of baklava can start from 70 TRY and expect to pay around 300 TRY for a variety box. In the more high end shops, you can buy baklava in kilogram sizes.
Baklava costs a lot more than everything else on this list, but it’s totally worth it! Expect to pay a lot more in Istanbul’s most well-known baklava shops such as Hafiz Mustafa 1864 or Karaköy Güllüoğlu.
Fresh fruit juice - A refreshing pick me up!
After climbing the multiple hills of Istanbul and gorging on heavy meats, breads and many morsels of baklava, you may find yourself in need of some fresh fruit refreshment. Luckily Istanbul (especially the Galata district where we were staying) is well equipped with juice shops that will squeeze your fruit of choice into a fresh and tasty beverage. You will see colourful stands proudly displaying a rainbow of fruits. Choosing from this plethora of fruits can be difficult, but regardless of choice, your fruit will be chopped, juiced and poured into a cup. Just like bras, prices range depending on cup size as well as (unlike bras) fruit choice with apple and orange being the cheapest and the more exotic fruit being much pricier. These juices were a much needed refreshment when tackling a day out in the busy sunny streets of Istanbul.
Availability: All over the city. In the Beyoğlu/Galata district we found these stalls everywhere. They were not always obvious (sometimes we mistook them for fruit stalls) but they are easily spotted by their massive fruit displays.
Average cost: Prices start from 60 TRY for a small cup of orange juice and can quickly triple in prices depending on cup size and choice of fruit.
Istanbul Street Food Tips - How to Eat Like a Local
Over the last half decade, our diet has mainly consisted of street food and these are some tips we’ve picked up along the way on how you can eat street food like a local!
A long queue is not always a bad thing especially when it comes to street food. Wherever you are, just look for the busy stalls. A long queue full of locals almost 100% guarantees that what you order will be fantastic!
Bring lots of cash. Although credit and debit cards are widely used across Istanbul, for smaller street food stalls you are going to need the old-fashioned notes and coins!
If you do get sick, chances are it won’t be because of the food. During the summer the temperatures in Istanbul sky rocket. Make sure you drink lots of water. Also ease yourself in with spicy food. Chances are your body won’t be used to it so give your stomach some time to adapt!
The above also applies to cooking oil. Many people feel a little queasy outside of their home country as different oils are used in cooking. Don’t panic, it’s completely normal and your body will adapt quickly.
Drink bottled water. The water from the taps in Istanbul is treated, but it is still highly recommended that tourists drink bottled water. The ice and water used for drinks at the street food stalls will be made from mineral water.
Be adventurous and don’t be afraid. It can sometimes be a little daunting going up to a street food stall in another country, but we’ve always found street food vendors to be some of the most friendliest and helpful people.
Also don’t be scared to try new things. Street food is always much cheaper than what you can order at a restaurant. Our advice is to order anything that takes your fancy!
Learning a little bit of the language helps you get a long way! We’re not talking about attempting to be fluent, but just the basics always helps. Failing that, smiling and sign language always works for us too! What can we say, Turkish pronunciation doesn’t come naturally to us!
These are general street food tips that apply not only to Istanbul but to anywhere in the world.
Taking a Food Tour in Istanbul
We found the easiest way to try Istanbul’s delicious street eats was just to wander around the city. We were extremely lucky as we had a while in the city which gave us plenty of time to delve deep into the Istanbul street food scene. For those who are short on time in the city, it can be a bit of a juggle trying to cram everything you want to do in alongside eating. One of the best ways to overcome this is by booking a food tour.
We have taken street food tours all over the world, from the crowded and chaotic streets of Old Delhi all the way to the neon lights and tuk tuk filled Yaowarat Road in Bangkok’s Chinatown and every tour has been fantastic! Not only did we get to experience the city with a local and get to eat some incredible dishes, but we also learnt so much more about the history and the culture. We loved how on every food tour we have been on, we have visited local markets we would never have found, ate dishes we would have no idea how to order and eaten at small street side joints that if we would have been on our own, we would have walked straight past! Food tours are a great way to throw yourself into a place's food scene, especially if you are a little unsure as to how to order!
If you are looking for an Istanbul food tour, why not check out this street food tour on Get Your Guide which takes you on a culinary curated tour around both the European and Asian sides of Istanbul!
Next time we would love to take a food tour ourselves as we know there really is so much more to Istanbul’s street food scene than what we have eaten.
Final Thoughts
We were only in Istanbul for a week, but these were some of our favourite street snacks we tried. This list is of course by no means an exhaustive list of all the street food on offer in Istanbul. Even with our greedy stomachs, it would take several lifetimes to taste and catalogue all that Istanbul has to offer!
Next time we are in Istanbul we want to dive a little deeper and explore some of the lesser known districts of the city to see what other tasty treats we can find.
If you are planning a trip to Istanbul, our only advice is:
a) Go hungry and eat from the streets as much as you can
b) Whatever you choose to eat, we don’t think you can go wrong, that is unless you end up in McDonalds!
Happy munching all!
Thanks for reading,
John & Ellie x
#adventuresofjellie
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