Turkish Home Cooking

The list has to start with Lale Lokantası: open since 1970 in Hasköy, on the street opposite the Rahmi Koç Museum. A broad menu of classic and seasonal dishes — a traditional esnaf lokantası done well — and the tandır and the döner in particular are very good. Among the things we tried: kelle paça soup, iç pilav, beğendi and kadayıflı muhallebi.

The classics in İstanbul are well established. Mahkeme Lokantası in Perşembe Pazarı has never let us down with its daily menu — depending on the day you will find tripe soup, trotters or something else. Karaköy Lokantası puts out a different menu every lunchtime in the same spirit. Hayvore, just off İstiklal, has been cooking Black Sea food for over ten years.

Then there are the ones that belong to their own neighbourhood: Ortaköy Kuru Fasulyecisi; Meşhur Fetih İşkembecisi in Balat, built entirely around offal for more than fifty years; and Yıldız Konyalı in Mecidiyeköy, serving the food of Konya since 1995 — okra soup, etli ekmek, oven kebab.

For lahmacun, Mahir Lokantası in Osmanbey stays on every list of İstanbul's best. For mantı and çiğ börek, Aşkana in Etiler, open for over thirty years; go on a Friday evening and you will queue for a table. On the Asian side, Nazende in Caddebostan is the neighbourhood's place for fresh home cooking.