The 10 Best Karaköy Restaurants, From Old Lokantas to Rooftop Kebabs

Karaköy is where local Istanbulites go out to eat. The neighborhood packs lokantas, ocakbaşı grills, an Italian kitchen, and terrace dining rooms into a few blocks, all a 20 to 30 minute walk from both Sultanahmet and Taksim hotels. The 10 restaurants below cover traditional Turkish cuisine, seafood, and everything in between. For other districts, start with our Istanbul neighborhood food guides.

All 10 restaurants at a glance

Restaurant	Style	Why go
Nato Lokantası	Lokanta, since 1952	Pot-style kebabs at weekday lunch
Karaköy Lokantası	Lokanta, since 2000	Hünkar Beğendi, Ottoman and Turkish classics
Mükellef Karaköy	Modern Turkish, chef-owned	Rakı and mezes with Turkish classical music
Mürver	Wood-fire kitchen	Flame-grilled dishes on the Novotel terrace
Rakofoli Ocakbaşı	Ocakbaşı	Kebabs with a Galata Tower view
Berlin Line	German and international	Burgers and Berlin-style meatballs; bar by night
Köşkeroğlu	Kebab house, since 1946	A deep kebab menu, baklava to finish
Ali Ocakbaşı	Ocakbaşı	Kebabs and rakı over the Golden Horn
Paps Italian	Italian	Neapolitan kitchen in the French Passage
Karaköy Gümrük	Market-driven kitchen	Daily-changing menu in the old Customs Office

What’s the difference between a lokanta and a restaurant?

You will notice we use the Turkish term lokanta and restaurant interchangeably here. The literal translation of lokanta is restaurant, with a slight cultural difference worth knowing.

Lokantas are casual. You do not need to dress up, and you rarely need a reservation outside of dinner. There is typically no printed menu either; you order from a buffet of prepared pots and see exactly what you are getting before you commit.

Turks visit lokantas much the way British people visit pubs. Most also serve alcohol, and they work well for long meals with close friends.

1. Nato Lokantası

Nato Lokantası opened in 1952, the same year Turkey joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the restaurant took its name from that event.

The kitchen specializes in pot-style Turkish kebabs, and there is no fixed menu; the lineup changes every day. Try the forest kebab or the eggplant kebab, “Orman Kebabı” and “Patlıcan Kebabı” in Turkish. If you enjoy your first meal, come back. The pots will be different.

This is a weekday lunch spot. It opens on weekdays from around 11:00 to 16:00, stays closed on weekends, and often shuts early once the day’s pots are sold out.

2. Karaköy Lokantası

In the heart of Karaköy, this family-owned restaurant has been serving since 2000, and it is one of the best places in the city for a traditional lokanta meal.

The room looks like a French bistro crossed with a classic Turkish lokanta, with Iznik-inspired tiles on the walls.

The menu draws on Ottoman cooking alongside Turkish standards. The most popular main is “Hünkar Beğendi” (Sultan’s Delight): sliced lamb served over a bed of creamy pureed eggplant flavored with herbs. Warm service, a handsome room, and that one plate make it an easy recommendation.

3. Mükellef Karaköy

Mükellef Karaköy is owned by Arda Türkmen, one of the best-known Turkish chefs, and the kitchen takes traditional dishes and gives them contemporary twists.

The room seats 120, so a table is rarely impossible to get, though reserving ahead is the smart move.

Music sits at the core of Turkish meyhane and lokanta culture, and this is one of the best rooms in Karaköy to drink rakı with Turkish classical music in the background. Tell the waiters it is your first time with rakı and they may suggest mezes and appetizers to go with it.

4. Mürver Restaurant

Mürver is the place in Karaköy for Turkish food cooked over wood fire. Most dishes here are flame-grilled, which adds a depth of flavor that is hard to find elsewhere in Istanbul.

The blue and brick wood oven stands right in the middle of the venue, so you can watch your food being cooked.

The restaurant sits on the terrace of the Novotel Bosphorus Hotel, which means sweeping views of Istanbul, and there is a long list of drinks to go with them. You can make a reservation here.

5. Rakofoli Ocakbaşı

Ocakbaşı roughly translates as “grill side”: a restaurant where your meat is cooked on a big open grill right in the seating area.

Rakofoli is one of the popular ocakbaşı rooms in Istanbul. The kebabs are some of the finest around, the drinks flow, and the view from your table takes in Galata Tower.

The menu is wide but stays inside Turkish and Ottoman cooking. There is live music too; book ahead if you want a table on a music night.

6. Berlin Line Karaköy

Berlin Line has been around since 2018, which makes it a young venue next to the decades-old institutions on this list.

Despite the name, the menu goes beyond Germany into world cuisine. It is a solid choice for quick meals: hamburgers, pasta, salads.

The German side shows in Berlin-style meatballs and herb soup, served alongside Turkish grill and meyhane fare, with appetizers, seafood, desserts, and mains rounding out a long menu.

Berlin Line opens for breakfast and coffee during the day, then runs as a restaurant and bar after dark.

7. Köşkeroğlu Restaurant

Köşkeroğlu is a family business famous for baklava, and its upscale restaurant covers Turkish kebabs, soups, pide, lahmacun, steak, and mezes.

The kebab menu here is probably one of the most comprehensive in Istanbul. And at the end of the night, the baklava is guaranteed to be outstanding.

The business was founded in Gaziantep in 1946 and later expanded to Istanbul. It has since moved into a larger space on Kemeraltı Caddesi, at the Tophane end of Karaköy.

Second-generation family members run the room today, and the traditional atmosphere fits the food: local, authentic, and built on decades of practice.

8. Ali Ocakbaşı

Ali Ocakbaşı is for kebabs and rakı with a view. The Karaköy venue sits on the fourth floor of the historic Grifin Han building, a rooftop-style space overlooking the Golden Horn.

A local favorite among kebab devotees, the kitchen pairs fresh, seasonal ingredients with wood-fired cooking. The meze list covers many of the most famous traditional Turkish dishes.

If you drink, rakı (also called lion’s milk) is the move here. In many locals’ opinion this is some of the best scenery in the city to sip it against.

Waiters can point you to the right pairings. Start with feta cheese as an appetizer and pick a fish dish as your main.

9. Paps Italian

Paps Italian is one of the finest Italian restaurants in Istanbul. Neapolitan chef Luigi Mariconda heads the kitchen, and his cooking harmonizes two Mediterranean cuisines, Italian and Turkish.

The restaurant opened in January 2015 in the middle of the historic French Passage (Fransız Geçidi), one of the prettiest settings in Karaköy.

One of the biggest perks here: the drinks list features both Turkish and Italian boutique producers.

10. Karaköy Gümrük

Karaköy Gümrük is a casual, stylish restaurant built around fresh ingredients. The food changes daily with what the market offers, and the kitchen is at its fullest at lunchtime.

The setting does half the work. The restaurant sits inside the old Customs Office, a neo-classical building restored to the detail, and the room recalls Karaköy’s golden age as Istanbul’s commercial center a century ago.

The cooking holds up its end. You will not know the menu until you arrive, and that is the point of a market-driven kitchen.

Where to go from here

Karaköy rewards repeat visits: a lokanta lunch one day, kebabs over the Golden Horn the next, street food on the backstreets in between. For waterside tables across the city, our Bosphorus restaurant guide picks up where this list ends.

And if you would rather eat through Istanbul with a local leading the way, our Taksim evening food tour runs three hours on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday evenings, capped at ten guests.