Köroğlu Karadeniz Mutfağı

Köroğlu Lokantası has been doing the same thing, consistently, for more than thirty years in Fatih — one of the addresses keeping Istanbul's old-school esnaf lokanta tradition alive.

There are two main reasons to come here: the döner and the kelle paça.

The döner is genuinely very good. Good meat, the right fat ratio, Black Sea–style small pieces nicely crisped on the outside but still juicy inside. No unnecessary spice, no flavour crowding out the meat. Old-school, distinctly meaty, done properly. You can have it over rice or on its own, but if it's your first visit I'd taste the döner as plainly as possible.

The kelle paça soup is a reason to come in its own right. The consistency is spot on, there's plenty of meat, and the flavour is strong without being heavy. With garlic and vinegar it is exactly as it should be. Given how hard good kelle paça is getting to find in Istanbul, Köroğlu's is especially valuable.

But reducing Köroğlu to döner and kelle paça would be unfair. There's a counter of daily home-style and esnaf dishes that changes every day — from stews to olive-oil vegetable dishes, from pilaf to the day's meat dishes. That turns it from somewhere you go 'for döner' into a real esnaf lokanta that regulars can drop into often. Looking at the counter and picking whatever you fancy that day is part of the pleasure.

Staying open for thirty-odd years, in a place as competitive as Fatih, is no accident. Köroğlu survives on good ingredients, correct cooking and the mastery that only years bring, rather than on show.

In short: if you're on the Fatih side, kelle paça first, then döner. But keep an eye on the counter of daily dishes too. If you arrive hungry, a soup, a döner and a plate you've picked off the counter make for a proper esnaf lokanta feast.