This tour takes you into the heart of the modern section of Istanbul, ‘quirky’ meyhanes and bustling food markets. You and your friends and family will embark on a four-hour gastronomy tour around the world famous Beyoğlu (Pera) neighborhood.
What’s Included
Exclusions
Additional Information
Beyoğlu – Istiklal Street:
Istanbul is famous across Turkey for its outstanding street food but discovering good eateries in a big city is not always easy. Not to worry, that’s where we come in! We’ll help you experience all the flavors the city has to offer by guiding you through Istanbul’s best street food area called Beyoglu or a.k.a. Pera.
We start our food journey with delicious Börek; is a family of baked filled pastries made of a thin flaky dough known as phyllo, of Anatolian origins and also found in the cuisines of the Balkans, Levant, Mediterranean, and other countries in Eastern Europe and Western Asia.
Continue with Meyhane (Mezes and raki experience) A meyhane is a traditional restaurant or bar in Turkey. It serves alcoholic beverages like wine, rakı, vodka, beer with meze and traditional foods. “Meyhane” is composed of two Persian words: mey (wine) and khāneh (house). A meyhane refers to a restaurant with traditional food, decoration, and music.
Stop at another street food vendor for İçli Köfte; Sabirtaşı makes Istanbul’s best içli köfte (a crispy bulgur shell filled with minced meat, parsley, and sautéed pine nuts), and if you don’t feel like walking up to their restaurant, their İstiklal Street vendor is always around to serve up the köfte on the go. Made by hand on a daily basis, the içli köfte are downright delicious.
We are sure, easily you will find Turkish coffee all around Istanbul but you should know another traditional type of coffee drink as Menengic Pistachio Coffee. Menengic is produced from the coffee tree. This tree is Latin name is pistacia terebinthustur. In Turkey, menengic trees grow naturally in mountainous rural parts of the Mediterranean region, Southeastern Anatolia region, and Central Anatolia region without any need of any planting process. Menengiç Coffee has different ways of cooking, but the most common method of cooking is to cook just like Turkish coffee.
You must not leave Turkey without tasting Dürüm Kebab that is the sliced meat of a döner kebab may be served on a plate with various accompaniments, stuffed into a pita or other type of bread as a sandwich, or wrapped in a thin flatbread such as lavash or yufka, known as a dürüm. Since the early 1970s, the sandwich or wrap form has become popular around the world as a fast food dish sold by kebab shops and is often called simply a “kebab”. The sandwich generally contains salad or vegetables, which may include tomato, lettuce, cabbage, onion with sumac, fresh or pickled cucumber, or chili, and various types of sauces.
Turkish people love sweets and confectioneries. Let try some of them; Beyoğlu Chocolate; one of the most famous chocolates in Istanbul are the milk or dark chocolate bars filled with enormous hazelnuts, pistachios, or almonds, sold on İstiklal Street at Meşhur Beyoğlu Çikolatacısı. The manufacturer of these grab-and-go chocolates is Elit, which has been around since 1924.
Baklava (baqlawah) is a rich, sweet pastry made of layers of filo pastry filled with chopped walnuts or pistachio and sweetened with syrup or honey. It is a very traditional Turkish Dessert.Ice cream; traditional ice cream in Turkey incorporates natural thickening agents, which give it a smooth, compact, and almost stringy texture.
We can finish our delicious journey with Turkish Tea, is popular throughout Turkey and the Turkish diaspora. Turkish tea culture also extends to Northern Cyprus and some countries in the Balkan Peninsula..
Departure Point:
We’ll meet by the entrance of Tünel (historic funicular) which is opposite to Nord Stern Hotel in Karaköy, located on the street where the tram lines (T1) run through Galata Bridge, approximately one minute walk from Karaköy tram stop.
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What a fantastic experience. erol showed us places and food we would never have tried as we would
not have known about it. A tour every tourist should do
We had an excellent evening with our guide, Erol. We visited a number of restaurants, bars and shops in Beyoglu, and the tour included a lot of historical information. The food we tasted was excellent, and ranged from mezze platters to confectionery. The tour felt very well thought out, our guide was a local expert, and we felt we gained a great insight into the food culture of Istanbul.
My tour guide was excellent, attentive and had a lot of knowledge on Turkish food and history. Me and my partner happened to be the only 2 on this tour and our tour guide still spent a full 4 hours (and bit more). I tasted food I would have never tried and enjoyed immensely. Would recommend this tour to anyone!
Vi havde en dejlig aften med god mad og stemninger. Guiden var god til at fortælle om historie, kultur
og traditioner fra Tyrkiet. Vi nød en masse skønne retter og de 4 timer fløj afsted. Kan helt klart
anbefales – vi gør det gerne igen 😊
This was an excellent tour from the beginning to the end. Meeting up with our guide, Erol, was straightforward and as my 21 year old son and I were his only guests, we had his undivided attention throughout. The tour itself was a gentle stroll through some of the backstreets off Independence Avenue stopping off at Cafes, Taverns and street food stalls to sample a cross-section of delicious foods to include breads, Meze, meats, stuffed mussels and desserts. It was a fascinating insight made better by the detailed and informative comment provided by Erol. I cannot praise Erol highly enough; he was a first class guide providing thoughtful information on the history, cultural significance and relevance not only of the food but of the locations where it was served. This was a wonderful introduction to Turkish food and I highly recommend the tour – bring an appetite, you will need it!
