Restaurants in Istanbul; Good Food and Great Views

Dear reader of my blog, there aren’t a lot of you, so I appreciate you even more for it. Unfortunately, I have to disappoint you a little bit. On my trip to Istanbul I’ve not been a good blogger. When visiting restaurants in Istanbul, the food looked so tasty that I ate it straight away, forgetting to take pictures first! This must be a crime for a food blogger, but luckily I don’t identify myself as one! See, the thing is that I never planned to write about the food we ate. The pictures I did take, were just to experiment with the manual camera settings that I’d just learned about. But the food in Istanbul was so good, and some of the restaurants we found I liked so much, that I didn’t want to keep them from you! So here you go, a few of Istanbul’s restaurants I liked, where I didn’t photograph all the food we ate (and I don’t even remember the names of the dishes). Maybe you should just go and see it for yourself then ?

The first restaurant in Istanbul: Güney

Located in Beyoğlu this restaurant’s outdoor seating gives you a view of the Galata tower. We actually went up the Galata tower before visiting Güney, and the views from up there are definitely worth it. It was especially great because we were there around sunset.

Güney was a good choice for dinner after visiting the Galata tower, very easy to find and we loved the outdoor seating. I felt the need to eat some healthy food so I had a dish of Mediterranean grilled vegetables, and it was very nice!

And this is the view you can enjoy with your food:

Güllüoğlu: the best baklava in Istanbul

Widely considered Istanbul’s best place to go for baklava, this was a must for me! It’s location in Karaköy makes it walking distance from Güney, so we went for a dessert of baklava in the same evening!

The choice here is endless and you are literally surrounded by baklava. It’s a great feeling ? We ordered a plate with several different flavours to try out, and of course they were all super yummy. The baklava is very sweet, so have your dental appointment lined up, haha!

We loved it so much that we went back on our last day to have some more baklava, and we got ourselves a takeaway box to enjoy back home as well ?

Seafood restaurant in Istanbul: Seven Hills

This is the most spectacular restaurant we’ve visited in Istanbul, because of its great location and roof terrace! Located in Sultanahmet, almost between the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, you can imagine that the views are stunning.

As the roof terrace gives you a view on all sides, you can also see the Bosphorus and the Asian side of Istanbul from up there. This is seriously the place to go if you want to have a great picture of you and two of Istanbul’s main sights! It’s a great place to go for a romantic sunset dinner ?

Obviously when a restaurant has an amazing view that draws in lots of visitors, our expectations of the food were not too high. But we actually thought it was better than expected! Not the best we’ve ever had, but quite good considering we went up there for the view in the first place. The restaurant specialises in fish, so it might be best to go there for fish and seafood. We shared a seafood stew and had a nice dessert as well.

Because I really wanted to see the view again, I couldn’t resist and went back the next morning. I had some Turkish tea and enjoyed the amazing view one more time.

Palatium: a chilled restaurant in with an underground excavation

Considering we were visiting Istanbul to see the main tourist sites, the last restaurant we visited was also located in the touristic area of Sultanahmet. Palatium had a relaxed vibe about it and I really loved the interior of the restaurant.

I ordered a Turkish pizza called Pide, which I loved so much that I didn’t take a picture of it! Seriously, when you visit Turkey you must try pide, I thought it was so tasty. It’s not at all like an Italian pizza, instead it’s shaped like a canoe, so very long. You can have different toppings, so choose whatever you like. And then enjoy!

But then there is something interesting about this restaurant. It has an underground excavation of an old Byzantine palace! So after finishing our food we went to explore this historical sight.

It looks very much like a work in progress, but I really enjoyed this slightly off the beaten path exploration. Surely this restaurant is visited by lots of tourists, but not everyone seems to be aware of the historical element to it.

Thanks for reading, I hope my restaurant tips end up helping some of you. And please comment below if you have any more tips on nice restaurants in Istanbul!

Are you considering visiting Istanbul, but worried about the safety? Read here about my thoughts on safety in Istanbul and ‘risky’ destinations in general!

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