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Eating Istanbul – Pandeli

Mar31

Restaurant: Pandeli

Location: Rüstempaşa Mah. Balık Pazarı kapısı Sokağı Mısırçarşı İçi 1, D:2, 34110 Fatih/İstanbul, Türkiye. +90 212 527 39 09

Date: June 16, 2023

Cuisine: Traditional Turkish

Rating: Old fashioned and good

This is right inside one of the smaller, but nicer, spice bazaars.

The building is definitely ancient.

The menu.

Bread.

Cucumber tomato salad.

Charcoal grilled eggplant salad.

Artichoke in olive oil.

Okra with lemon and olive oil.

Overn-baked sea bass baked in crul paper.

Sultan’s delight. Stewed lamb with mashed eggplant.

Doner kebap and pilaf.

Rice pilaf.

Tea.

This wasn’t modern or novel, but I like to mix it up and they do a nice job with “classic” (early 20th century?) Turkish dishes. The setting is great too.

For more Turkish dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Eating Türkiye, Istanbul, Pandeli, Turkish cusine

Eating Istanbul – Turk Fatih Tutak

Mar27

Restaurant: Turk Fatih Tutak

Location: Cumhuriyet Hacıahmet Silahşör Cad, Yeniyol Sk. No:2, 34440 Şişli/İstanbul, Türkiye. +90 212 709 56 79

Date: June 15, 2023

Cuisine: Modern Turkish

Rating: Awesome

This is Istanbul’s and Turkey’s long Michelin 2 star.

The space.

pickle juice with plum. This welcome drink tasted like… well a shot of pickle juice. It was pretty sour. Excellent, as I like vinegar, but intense. The plum was lacto fermented so as to have no remaining sugar. Very interesting.

Wine pairings.

A bit of crispy bread with cheese and meat on it. Excellent.

Fresh baked sourdough Pide. Lovely little “pita” bun.

trabzon butter, bitlis hizan honey, 2000 meter. The butter and honeycomb combo (served in the bone) was pretty amazing.

Special Turkish olive oil.

TT mussels dolma. The oyster shell was not actually made of oyster shell and was completely edible. Basically this rice stuffed oyster tasted like Turkish paella. Delicious.

A “salad tart.”

Egg inside an egg.

egg, morel mushroom, thracian cheese. Mixed up this was a scrumptious yolky asparagus cheesy mess. The “sauce” tasted like a cacio e pepe emulsion.

mackerel, new potatoes, horseradish, tomato. Had an almost Jewish deli taste to it with the mackerel and horseradish. A good bit of kick too. Intense and delicious.

caviar, artichoke borek, pea, spring tarhana. Lovely little vegetable/fish tart.

Raki!

red mullet, cheese that wasn’t cheese, and crispy rice.

It was served with this whipped fish-bisque type sauce. Really quite delicious together. Paired very well with the raki too.

Bonus manti. Amazing meat dumpling bite with the yogurt and spicy oil/butter.

“Perfect” penne butter. For our son: perfectly al dente with a lovely butter flavor and a hint of cheese.

We got to choose our special knives.

charcoal thracian lamb. Beautiful roast lamb with pepper and sauce.

Beets and peppers.

potato, buffalo milk. A great starchy “side.”

Pistachio bomb.

with lime cream.

Cherry cordials.

Tour of the kitchen

fermenting.

Dry aging.

Neat containers.

The oven.

White chocolate bonbons.

A gooey Turkish candy.

Charcoal ice cream — they love charcoal.

Wild strawberries.

Take home gift of their EVOO.

Overall, a very precisely executed and delicious meal with great service and wine pairings. TT desserves the 2 stars even by European standards. We did have some issues with our gluten free guest — as we had not planned ahead or checked and there was relatively little on their single set menu that didn’t subtly have gluten. They dealt with it very gracefully and it was totally our fault. They even sent someone out to buy penne and then the main chef made the benne butter himsefl! Like “a great burger” from the menu, only less fatal.

For more Turkish dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Eating Türkiye, Istanbul, Michelin 2 Star, Turkish cusine

Eating Istanbul – Aheste

Mar25

Restaurant: Aheste

Location: Asmalı Mescit, Meşrutiyet Cd. No:107 D:F, 34430 Beyoğlu/İstanbul, Türkiye. +90 212 243 26 33

Date: June 14, 2023

Cuisine: Modern Turkish

Rating: Great mezzes

This was our third dinner in Istanbul.

Turkish tapas in an ancient space.

The menu.

Bread.

Charcoal butter. Quite nice, actually.

A bit more sour than the similar wine the night before.

Tomato salad with grilled fennel. A bit of goat cheese. Nice tomatoes, even for a tomato hater.

Dudi Persian rice. Crunchy pilaf. I liked the crispy onions.

Topik crackers. Crispy crackers with white bean.

Calamarski. Warm calamari.

Vine leaves with cashew sauce.

Tuna kadayif with pomegranate sour mayo. On a thin dough noodle.

Shrimp with black cabbage.

Asparagus with nectarines. Whipped yougurt.

Red mullet with tomato bisque and corn bread. Very strong tomato sauce but mild mullet (which is good).

Lamb’s heart with baked potato. Chewy and medium warm.

Lamb neck meat with figs on aubergine puree. Nice. A bit like Sultan’s delight.

Carrots with za’atar and goat cheese. Good carrots.

Revani with melisa and boza. This semolina cake is a bit like tres leches.

Mint and ricotta cream profiterole. Tangy.

Solid and tasty meal. The flavor blends weren’t perfect, but it was quite good.

For more Turkish dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Aheste, Eating Türkiye, Istanbul, Turkish cusine

Eating Iznik – Nihat’ın Yeri

Mar23

Restaurant: Nihat’ın Yeri Balık Restaurant

Location: Selcuk Mah, Gol Sahil Yolu, Iznik 16860 Turkiye. +90 542 475 38 99

Date: June 14, 2023

Cuisine: Turkish Fish Restaurant

Rating: fried fish

Daytripping to Iznik / Nicaea we stopped at a lake restaurant.

This was an interesting local experience not far from where Constantine and crew haggled out the status of the father, the son, and the holy ghost…

Outside seating on the lake.

Local olives for sale.

Nap time.

Here are the local olives, which were good.

Olive oil and tomato sauce.

Bread.

Fries – found at nearly every Turkish lunch resteraunt.

Grilled lake fish.

Fried lake fish is what they are famous for. It was… well… fried fish.

Popular with the locals.

Really popular.

Turkish Tea.

Not exactly expensive.

For more Turkish dining reviews click here.

When I went hunting with my pet wolf.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Eating Türkiye, fish, Iznik, Nihat'ın Yeri, Turkish

Eating Istanbul – Manzara Breakfast

Mar15

Restaurant: Manzara

Location: Barbaros Blvd Besiktas, Istanbul 34353 Turkiye. +90 212 310 25 25

Date: June 13-17, 2023

Cuisine: Modern Turkish

Rating: Hotel restaurant, but good

The Conrad Hilton Istanbul has an extensive breakfast buffet…

Pretty much something for everyone… except the pork lover (it’s halal).

For more Turkish dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Breakfast, Eating Türkiye, Türkiye

Eating Istanbul – Manzara

Mar12

Restaurant: Manzara

Location: Barbaros Blvd Besiktas, Istanbul 34353 Turkiye. +90 212 310 25 25

Date: June 12, 2023

Cuisine: Modern Turkish

Rating: Hotel restaurant, but good

This is the first meal in my new Eating Türkiye 2023 series.

Manzara is the main restaurant in the Conrad Hilton.

The menu.

Bread.

Garlic butter.

Olive oil.

Arugula Salad with Artichoke. Olive oil cooked artichoke, baby arugula, citrus, pomegranate, candied walnut, Biga goat cheese, raspberry sauce.

Lakerda. Salt water cured bonito, pickled red onion, seasonal greens, olive oil. Very nice. Salty with strong flavors.

“Kitel.” Siirt style kibbeh with beef and walnut, buffalo yogurt, parsley, sweet basil, spicy burnt butter. Like thick ravioli with a kind of beef “chili” inside and yogurt sauce. Quite delicious.

See the meat inside.

Simple pasta.

Grilled Sea Bass. Buckwheat tabbouleh, oyster mushroom, lettuce, fresh herbed lemon sauce.

Konya Oven Kebap. Braised lamb shoulder, pita breead, grilled spring onion, tomato, pepper, thyme. The meat was a little but dry but was very nice with the yogurt.

The dessert menu.

Manzara was quite pleasant. It’s a hotel restaurant, but the food quality was high and it wasn’t particularly expensive. Atmosphere was a touch stiff but there was great service and a lovely view.