What to Eat in Istanbul for a First-Timer: 5 Dishes to Start With
First time in Istanbul? Eat kunefe, dondurma, midye dolma, lahmacun, and Iskender kebab first. Here is when and where to order each one, plus what to skip.
Eat these five things on your first trip to Istanbul, before anything else: kunefe, midye dolma, lahmacun, Iskender kebab, and dondurma. You already know about baklava, Turkish Delight, and kebab. Turkish tea and coffee will find you on their own. The five below are the ones first-timers tend to miss, ranked in the order we would send you after them, each with the time of day it works best.
Who this list is for. First visits, mainly. If you have already worked through the basics, head for our full Istanbul food guide or the ranked best food in Istanbul list instead. Vegetarians get the two desserts; midye dolma is shellfish; lahmacun and Iskender are meat dishes. On a budget, lean on the street stalls. That is where midye dolma is cheapest anyway.
The five, in eating order
1. Kunefe
Turkey is famous for its desserts, and you will eat plenty of them without any help from us. Kunefe is the one most visitors have never heard of before landing. Strands of shredded wheat are grilled with cheese in a round tray, then soaked in sugar syrup and topped with pistachios. Cheese in a dessert sounds strange. The mix works, and there is a fair chance it ends up the favorite single thing you eat all trip.
2. Midye dolma
Midye is Turkish for mussels. Midye dolma is mussel shells stuffed with rice, spices, and sometimes a few small raisins, served on the half shell with fresh lemon squeezed over. This is street food at heart. Stalls sell it cheaply all over the city, and the good ones are easy to spot by the cluster of hungry locals standing around them.
3. Lahmacun
Most tourists go straight to pide, which is worth your time too. Lahmacun is what they walk past on the way. The dough is rolled very thin, then topped with minced meat (most commonly lamb) and minced vegetables and herbs: tomato, onion, parsley. Pizza-like, but lighter, which is exactly why it makes such an easy lunch between sights.
4. Iskender kebab
You will see dozens of kebab varieties on menus here. Start with this one. Iskender, also called Bursa kebab, is meat prepared like doner and cut thin, laid over pieces of bread, then topped with tomato sauce, melted butter, and yogurt. The bread underneath soaks up all of it. A sit-down dinner dish, and one of the most delicious kebabs you are likely to taste in Turkey.
5. Dondurma
Nobody puts Turkey on lists of the world’s great ice cream countries, and we have no idea why. Dondurma is made from milk, sugar, salep, and mastic, which leaves it creamy and sticky at the same time. It comes in just about any flavor you can think of. Find a street vendor on a warm afternoon, watch the show the sellers put on, and order more flavors than you planned to.
The five at a glance
| Dish | When to eat it | What you get | Price level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kunefe | Dessert | Shredded wheat grilled with cheese, sugar syrup, pistachios | Mid-range |
| Midye dolma | Street snack | Mussels stuffed with spiced rice, fresh lemon | Cheap eat at stalls |
| Lahmacun | Lunch | Thin flatbread, minced lamb, tomato, onion, parsley | Cheap eat |
| Iskender kebab | Dinner | Thin-cut doner over bread, tomato sauce, butter, yogurt | Mid-range |
| Dondurma | Afternoon | Salep and mastic ice cream, any flavor you can name | Cheap eat |
When to eat what
One full day covers all five, with the famous stuff slotted in around them.
- Morning: Turkish tea or coffee, wherever you happen to sit down first. If you would rather have the whole morning handled, our Taste of Two Continents food tour opens with breakfast at the Spice Market, then crosses by ferry to Kadıköy on the Asian side. It runs 5.5 hours with a maximum of 10 guests, and we have been running food tours in this city since 2013.
- Lunch: Lahmacun, two or three of them, with ayran.
- Afternoon: Dondurma while the sun is out. Midye dolma whenever a busy stall crosses your path.
- Dinner: Iskender kebab. Save pide for another night.
- Dessert: Kunefe. Baklava and Turkish Delight were always going to happen anyway.
Spreading this over two or three days instead? Our Istanbul food itineraries lay out full eating days so you only have to follow along.
These five will carry your first visit and open the door to everything else on the city’s menu. And when you are home and start missing it all, the Turkish recipes collection is the consolation prize.
