Istanbul

Best and worst restaurants:

Best: Sultanahmet Koftecisi
Why: Great food, inexpensive, and really does have locals eating there. Beware of the restaurant next door with almost the same name --- check street number.

Gail Gerdemann in Albany, OR USA 06/26/2008

Best: Doy Doy Restaurant
Why: Great menu, great prices and very friendly service. Be sure to go to the top decks to eat as the views of the Blue Mosque are spectacular.

Amy Sinclair in Novato, CA USA 06/05/2008

Worst: Sultan Pub
Why: The book says it is cheap -- no way -- beers are 9 YTL for local stuff way more for imports. Also the food is expensive -- I feel the reviewers did not visit this place.

John Dillon in New York, NY USA 05/27/2008

Best: Lale Restaurant
Why: Good food at a reasonable price. Friendly service. Straightforward ordering.

Worst: Balikci Sabahattin
Why: Expensive restaurant, snobby service. Fried or grilled fish required not special or unique - at the Bosphorus is likely just as good and much cheaper. Worst of all, we were treated in a snobby fashion with active coersion to order more. Finally, we were tricked into ordering multiple portions of mezes. These entrees were presented in identically sized dishes but each dish could contain 1, 2 or 3 portions of the dish - something you did not find out until the end when the bill arrives and the squid cost 30 YTL instead of the 10YTL that one expected!

Not worthy of a Rick Steves mention and our worst restaurant experience in following Rick over 7 years while living and vacationing in Europe.

Suzanne Lau in St Ismier, France 04/28/2008

Worst: Yesil Ev
Why: It's more like $$$. The waiter was very serious. You should say it's very classy which is nice, but it's not worth paying for because we found another restaurant to recommend instead of this (Enjoyer Cafe).

Mark McKnight in Austin, TX USA 04/07/2008

Worst: Balikci Sabahattin
Why: Way over-priced, the waiters were in too much of a hurry, and the food was fairly dull. This was a good lesson that we should steer clear of the Sultanahmet area if we wanted good food at a reasonable price.

Gary Fogal in Renton, WA USA 03/16/2008

Worst: Cumhuriyet Meyhanesi
Why: Indifferent servic, but most of all, dried out meats from overcooking or recooking.

mm gillen in potomac, md USA 12/09/2007

Best: Taksim Sutis on Istiklal Cad.
Why: Delicious entree loaded with doner kebab; helpful staff; fun explanations of puddings -- but chicken pudding??!! I'll definitely return.

Helen Holter in Seattle, WA USA 11/01/2007

Best: Sultanahmet Koftecisi
Why: Simple but good food, lively place to eat, convenient, cheap. It is busy now; I wonder what it will be like once hordes of Rick Steves readers descend on it.

Dale in Fairfield, Oh USA 07/20/2007