Turkish Cuisine: Way More Than Kebab [2026]

I thought I knew Turkish food from kebab restaurants in London. I was embarrassingly wrong. Turkey has one of the most sophisticated and regionally diverse food cultures in the world, and most Western exposure to it represents a narrow slice.

The Regional Diversity

Turkish cuisine varies as dramatically between regions as French or Italian cuisine does. The Aegean coast uses olive oil-based preparations, fresh herbs, and seafood in ways that bear little resemblance to the spiced meat dishes of the southeast. Black Sea cuisine features corn, anchovies, and fresh greens. Central Anatolia has a pastoral, grain-heavy tradition. Istanbul, as a crossroads city for millennia, synthesizes influences from all of them plus Greek, Armenian, and Jewish culinary traditions that shaped the city's food culture.

What to Understand About Meze

Meze — the array of small dishes that precede a main course — is where Turkish cuisine shows its range most clearly. Haydari (yogurt with garlic and herbs), patlıcan salatası (smoked eggplant salad), muhammara (walnut and red pepper paste), arnavut ciğeri (Albanian-style spiced liver), ezme (spiced fresh tomato salad) — these are not garnishes, they're the meal. Eating meze slowly with bread and raki is the correct approach, not racing to the main course.

Istanbul's Food Neighborhoods

Karaköy for breakfast and pastry. Balık-ekmek (fish sandwich) boats at the Galata Bridge — the quality varies between boats; find one with a queue. Beşiktaş market for produce and lokanta (traditional lunch restaurants). Eminönü for midye dolma (stuffed mussels on the street, eaten directly from the shell). The restaurant street behind Çiçek Pasajı in Beyoğlu for meyhane (tavern) dining. I'd specifically avoid the obvious tourist traps on İstiklal Caddesi and walk one or two streets away.

The Breakfast

Turkish breakfast (kahvaltı) deserves its reputation as one of the world's great meal formats: multiple cheeses, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggs prepared multiple ways, menemen, fresh bread, honey, clotted cream, and tea. Finding a good kahvaltı place and spending two hours over it is one of the better ways to spend a Istanbul morning.

What I actually think: Turkey is one of the most underrated food destinations in the world. Go for the food, stay for everything else.