The 10 Oldest Restaurants in Istanbul

Istanbul keeps its history on the table. The ten restaurants in this guide opened between 1856 and 1920, several of them under the Ottoman Empire, and every one is still serving. Below you’ll find when each opened, who founded it, and what to order, plus a detail most lists skip: three of the most famous originals are in other cities. Many, though not all, of these restaurants sit in or near the old city, so you can walk to them from a hotel in Sultanahmet. For the wider picture of eating here, start with our Istanbul food guide.

The ten restaurants at a glance

Restaurant	Founded	Istanbul location today	Known for
Tarihi Kalkanoğlu Pilavı	1856, Trabzon	Branch since 2011	Bone-marrow rice from an Ottoman palace chef
Kebapçı İskender	1867, Bursa	Kadıköy, branch since 2003	The original İskender kebab
Hacı Abdullah Lokantası	1888, Istanbul	Beyoğlu, near Taksim Square	Ottoman classics under a sultan-issued license
Meşhur Filibe Köftecisi	1893, Istanbul	-	Köfte made with only onion, cumin, and salt
Konyalı	1897, Istanbul	Topkapı Palace grounds	State guests from Atatürk to Queen Elizabeth II
Pandeli	1901, Istanbul	Above the Spice Bazaar gate	İznik-tiled rooms, sea bass, lunch only
Develi Kebap	1912, Gaziantep	Samatya, since 1966	Gaziantep kebabs and baklava
Yanyalı Fehmi Lokantası	1919, Istanbul	Kadıköy market	One of the widest traditional Ottoman menus in town
Tarihi Ali Baba Balık Lokantası	1920, Istanbul	Kireçburnu, Sarıyer	Fresh fish with Bosphorus views
Tarihi Sultanahmet Köftecisi	1920, Istanbul	Sultanahmet, near Hagia Sophia	The köfte that spread to branches worldwide

A dash means the address isn’t pinned down in our notes; we list only what we can vouch for.

1. Tarihi Kalkanoğlu Pilavı

Opened: 1856

Süleyman Kalkanoğlu was the master rice chef of the Ottoman palace kitchens, and he fed the Ottoman army during the war with Russia in 1853. After the war he retired to Trabzon and opened his own restaurant there in 1856. The sixth generation of his family runs it today.

The dish is the same rice the sultans ate at Topkapı Palace. It gets its depth from bone marrow boiled for 24 hours and from butter made with the milk of cows grazing the Black Sea highlands at 2,000 meters.

Note: The original restaurant is in Trabzon. The Istanbul branch opened in 2011 and is run by the same family.

2. Kebapçı İskender

Opened: 1867

The first döner kebab was cooked in 1867, when İskender Efendi of Bursa stacked lamb cuts on a rotisserie and turned it vertical instead of laying it flat over the fire. He went on to create pideli döner kebabı, better known as İskender kebab: sliced döner laid over pita bread soaked in tomato paste and butter.

The original restaurant opened in Bursa in 1867 and still serves one of the world’s best döner kebabs. The family also runs a branch in Istanbul, on the Asian side in Kadıköy.

Note: The original restaurant is in Bursa. The Kadıköy branch opened in 2003 and is run by the same family.

3. Hacı Abdullah Lokantası

Opened: 1888

In 1888, the chef Hacı Abdullah received a restaurant license from Sultan Abdulhamid II and opened his restaurant at Karaköy Pier. During the late Ottoman era, official foreign delegations were hosted here so the empire could show off the best of its kitchen and its hospitality. The restaurant moved to its current home in Beyoğlu, near Taksim Square, in the 1950s.

Hacı Abdullah remains an Istanbul institution, serving Ottoman dishes and Turkish classics to locals since 1888.

4. Meşhur Filibe Köftecisi

Opened: 1893

Köfte has been cooked in Anatolia for centuries, and it inspired two of the oldest restaurants in Istanbul: Meşhur Filibe Köftecisi and Tarihi Sultanahmet Köftecisi.

Mehmet Saltuk immigrated to Istanbul from Bulgaria before the Balkan Wars and founded Meşhur Filibe Köftecisi in 1893. He named the place and its meatballs after Plovdiv, the city he left behind, Filibe in Turkish.

The recipe has been handed down through the generations to keep it intact. The köfte hold only onion, cumin, and salt, and they are still known for coming off the grill juicy.

5. Konyalı

Opened: 1897

Hacı Ahmet Doyuran arrived from Konya and opened a small restaurant in Sirkeci in 1897. Built on Anatolian roots and consistent cooking, Konyalı became an emblem of Turkish cuisine, especially after the 1940s.

Konyalı has hosted many famous figures, including the founder of the Turkish Republic, Atatürk, Queen Elizabeth II, Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and former U.S. President Richard Nixon.

The Topkapı Palace location began serving in 1969, while the original Sirkeci restaurant carried on in parallel until it closed for good in early 2021. Today the palace branch, run by the fifth generation of the founding family, carries the name forward as one of Turkey’s most celebrated restaurants.

6. Pandeli

Opened: 1901

Pandeli has served since 1901 in the turquoise İznik-tiled rooms above the gate of the Spice Bazaar in Eminönü. Reviewers consistently describe the climb up its stairs as a step back in time, and the tiled dining rooms alone justify the visit.

The menu is built on classic Ottoman-Istanbul dishes such as dolmas, zucchini flowers stuffed with feta, and its famous sea bass. Pandeli holds a Bib Gourmand in the MICHELIN Guide Türkiye.

Note: Pandeli serves lunch only, so plan your visit for the middle of the day.

7. Develi Kebap

Opened: 1912

Many of Turkey’s most famous dishes come from Gaziantep, the ancient city in the southeast, and Develi is one of that kitchen’s most important representatives in Istanbul. Arif Develi founded the restaurant in Gaziantep in 1912. The third generation of the family left the city in 1966 and opened in Samatya, on the Istanbul shore of the Marmara.

Today the menu runs from traditional Gaziantep dishes to a broader spread of Mediterranean and Anatolian cooking. The baklava served here might be one of the best in Istanbul.

Note: The original restaurant opened in Gaziantep. The Istanbul restaurant opened in 1966 and is run by the same family.

8. Yanyalı Fehmi Lokantası

Opened: 1919

Fehmi Efendi escaped from Yanya, Ioannina in Greek, and came to Istanbul, where he founded this lokanta in 1919. He was no cook himself, so he made Hüseyin Efendi of Bolu, who had worked in the Ottoman palace kitchens, his head chef. The pairing of an entrepreneur and a palace-trained chef turned the small restaurant into a staple for Istanbulites almost immediately.

The third generation now runs Yanyalı Fehmi Lokantası from its original spot in the Kadıköy market, and it remains as popular as it was in its earliest days. The selection of traditional Ottoman and Turkish dishes here is among the most diverse in the city.

9. Tarihi Ali Baba Balık Lokantası

Opened: 1920

Tarihi Ali Baba Balık Lokantası is the oldest fish and seafood restaurant in Istanbul, and it began as a barbershop. Palabıyık Ali Baba cut hair in this seaside spot, but locals grew so fond of the Bosphorus view from the shop’s garden that they started coming for picnics. In 1920 he decided the land deserved more than haircuts and opened a fish restaurant.

It has stayed popular ever since, and the view is only part of the reason. The fish is fresh, the plates are well presented, the service is attentive, and the prices stay reasonable for an establishment with this much history. For more tables by the water, see our guide to the best seafood restaurants in Istanbul.

Note: The restaurant is in Kireçburnu in Sarıyer, on the upper European shore of the Bosphorus, about 45 to 60 minutes from the old city.

10. Tarihi Sultanahmet Köftecisi

Opened: 1920

Mehmet Seracettin Efendi migrated from Turkmenistan and opened a tiny restaurant in 1920 in the heart of the old city, near Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. The meatballs he cooked in that small shop became one of the most essential tastes to come out of Istanbul.

Today, Tarihi Sultanahmet Köftecisi has branches worldwide, in Germany, England, the USA, Bulgaria, Cyprus, and Azerbaijan. The original still sits where it always has, an easy walk from any Sultanahmet hotel.

Final words

A founding date on the sign doesn’t guarantee a great meal, yet in Istanbul the two often go together; every restaurant on this list has held its reputation across generations. Most cluster in walkable parts of the old city, while Ali Baba in Sarıyer and the Kadıköy spots take a ferry or a longer ride. If you want to keep going from here, our Istanbul food guide maps the whole city plate by plate, and our Taksim Evening food tour runs three evenings a week, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 18:00.