6 Best Sirkeci Restaurants: Where to Eat Near the Station
The 6 best Sirkeci restaurants: kebab houses near the old station, a point-and-choose budget lokanta, and two Spice Bazaar classics, with what to order.
Sirkeci was the easternmost terminus of the Orient Express, and writers from Istanbul to Paris built its reputation long before the boutique hotels and bookstores moved in. These days the district down the hill from Sultanahmet earns its keep with traditional food. Here are the six restaurants worth your appetite, from a point-and-choose lokanta to a dining room inside the Spice Bazaar. This guide is part of our Istanbul neighborhood food guides.
The six, compared
| Restaurant | Style | Order this | Good to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Güvenç Konyalı | Konya oven cooking | Etli ekmek, fırın kebabı incik, peanut künefe | Easy-going room built for long conversations |
| Bitlisli | Kebab house | Ali Nazik, liver shish with şalgam | Vegetarian pide on the menu |
| Kasap Osman | Grill house, since 1964 | Beyti, İskender | Street tables for people-watching |
| Hamdi | Kebab beside Spice Bazaar | Pistachio kebab, muhammara | Reserve ahead, especially for the terrace |
| Pandeli | Spice Bazaar classic | Hünkar beğendi, aşure | Lunch only; closed Sundays |
| Balkan Lokantası | Point-and-choose lokanta | Kellepaça soup, beans on bulgur rice, Tas kebab | The budget pick; no Turkish required |
1. Güvenç Konyalı
The room is traditional and easy-going, the kind of place that lets a conversation run long. The kitchen’s focus is oven-cooked food, Konya style, and the etli ekmek, a thin meat-topped pide, comes out of the oven strikingly long.
Start with the Gavur Dağı salad, vegetables under a sweet-sour pomegranate sauce with crunchy walnuts, or the Roquefort bread if your comfort food needs a touch of class. The İskender here pairs a deep red sauce with yogurt so creamy it can be cut with a knife.
The dish to remember, though, is the Konya Fırın Kebabı incik: a soft mutton leg cooked until it melts, buttery, in your mouth. Order the peanut künefe straight after.
Location of Güvenç Konyalı:
2. Bitlisli
Bitlisli is a kebab house that takes its vegetables seriously. Pair the walnut salad with the cheese-stuffed mushrooms and close with the honey-yogurt dessert, and the place reads as healthy food that happens to live at a grill.
The menu’s photo spread of kebabs makes choosing slow, so here is the shortcut: the Ali Nazik, smoky grilled eggplant mashed with garlic and topped with meat. The vegetarian pide is the closest thing to pizza on the menu, and the çiğ köfte comes pressed into neat, wavy ridges.
Feeling bold? Pair the liver shish kebab with şalgam, the purple carrot and turnip juice. Liver tastes better than it sounds, and the şalgam is good for digestion.
Location of Bitlisli:
3. Kasap Osman
Kasap Osman has been in Sirkeci since 1964, and the room shows it knows what it is doing: bright lights, mirrors, plants hanging over the street tables. Sit outside to people-watch. The street stays busy, yet the tables feel like a small getaway from it.
The Beyti is the order. The meat comes wrapped in phyllo, sliced, and arranged in a ring around white rice: a slice of grilled tomato, then meat, then grilled pepper, the whole plate finished with a creamy white sauce and a tangy tomato one. The İskender runs it close, meat in a rich tomato sauce with a dollop of velvet yogurt to the side. Add the seasonal salad and the bulgur rice, which arrives a startling shade of orange. Every plate leaves the kitchen camera-ready.
Location of Kasap Osman:
4. Hamdi Restaurant
Strictly speaking, Hamdi sits beside the Spice Bazaar in Eminönü, a short stroll from Sirkeci, and it is far too good to leave off this list. The dining room runs on warm yellow light, intimate enough for a date and calm enough for a family dinner, and the terrace views are reason alone to come.
You have to make reservations just to try the pistachio kebab: 50 percent beef, 50 percent lamb, green pistachios poking through the surface, served with a red bulgur pilaf, onions, and grilled vegetables. If pistachios are not your thing, there is a succulent poppy seed kebab you will struggle to find anywhere else.
Order the muhammara too, a spicy red dip of walnuts and pomegranate molasses, and drink the Kalecik Karası red alongside it.
Location of Hamdi Restaurant:
5. Pandeli
Pandeli sits inside the Spice Bazaar itself. Agatha Christie fans will recognize the mood: the room carries the era of the Orient Express better than anywhere else in the district.
The Hünkar beğendi earns its reputation: soft bites of lamb in tomato sauce on a bed of smoky, garlicky mashed eggplant, smooth enough to deserve its own ode. Pendore’s Öküzgözü, a Turkish red favored internationally, matches it well.
The aşure comes sweet and crunchy, scattered with nuts and thin slices of fig. The Cevizli Kaşık Salata, a spoon salad with sweet-sour pomegranate sauce and crunchy walnuts, is colorful enough to slow you down, and the seasonal fruit compote closes the meal well.
One planning note, and it matters: Pandeli serves lunch only and closes on Sundays. Time your visit for midday.
Location of Pandeli:
6. Balkan Lokantası
You are running low on cash, you do not speak the language, and your stomach is rumbling. Balkan Lokantası solves all three. The room works like a cafeteria: take a tray, point at what you want, carry it to a table. On a cold day, start with the kellepaça, an offal soup that warms you to your soul.
The counter holds pink puddings, rice and pasta dishes built for a carb overload, and vegetable dishes that actually taste good. The beans on bulgur rice eat like home cooking from a warm cottage. The Tas kebab, tender meat hugged by a tangy tomato sauce, is another thing altogether, and even sworn leek-haters tend to leave the leek dish convinced.
Location of Balkan Lokantası:
Final words
Six restaurants, three speeds: trays at Balkan Lokantası, grill smoke at Güvenç Konyalı, Bitlisli, and Kasap Osman, and dressed-up lunches by the Spice Bazaar at Hamdi and Pandeli. When you have eaten through the list, take the ferry across the water; our Kadıköy restaurant guide covers the Asian side.
Dates and times for all our walks are on the tour calendar.
