Albura Kathisma

This restaurant is very good. Lots of tourists, but delicious food. Also came highly recommended by our hotel, which is a good sign.
Veggie options are good and not super limited! Woohoo!
Ambiance is nice, and wine was good. It was great for our first night in Istanbul. If you are in the area, definitely go.

I want to restate how much I love this restaurant! I’ve come here several times a year for six years, and it never lets me down. The food is good, the menu is accommodating to all kinds of eaters, and the fact that it’s located inside some Byzantine ruins is a bonus for any history buff! I love their seafood, but their vegetarian food is great too. It’s reasonably priced, even for being located in the main tourist restaurant drag.
This was a highlight for my family during their visit to Turkey– it will be for yours too!

Loved that the had signs that said HASSLE FREE since most restaurants are full of hassle in Istanbul. We had a fabulous meal here… I had kofta kebab, not too spicy and wonderful. Also tasted someone elses eggplant tomato and yogurt dish, stuffed with meat.fabulous. Salad was great, calamari was perfect. Service was great and there were nice sprayers to cool us off a bit. If you are headed to the Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque, this should be your lunch place.

Great hassle-​free place with amazing food and friendly people! We walked around the area a lot before we finally decided this was out spot! Drej went out of his way for us and was very kind to us, ask for him when you go! Apart from the delicious food, at the very end you can take a little tour of a hidden historic gem that happens to be at the back of the restaurant! We’ll definitely be coming back!

We happened into Abura Kathisma tonight having passed it 2 nights ago enroute to another restaurant in the area. It was rather crowded so we were happy to find it quite empty tonight though we started much earlier! Nobody was standing outside trying to get us to step in– nice change in this very touristy area. I had the guvech — lamb with tomatoe, onion, garlic and peppers cooked in a terra cotta pot and served with rice — it was SO very good. My pal had a chicken kebab with pepper and rice and he was equally pleased. And the chocolate soufflé cake with vanilla ice cream topped it all off!
GO ENJOY RETURN — we will return. Nice
Atmosphere, attentive service, delicious food = A++

Ambiance agréable, des serveurs discrets et attentifs… Et une excellente cuisine! Nous avons pris de plats très divers, simples (pita) ou plus élaborés (agneau aux noix).
Tout était fin, délicieux…
J’y retournerai certainement avant mon départ d’Istanbul!

I found it with ease and had a Turkish omelette and coffee. It was very well done. It was quick service. However, the loud «American music» that early in the morning was a bit much.

Good food, not great. Reasonable prices and good atmosphere. What’s nice is that they don’t hound you to look at the menu while you’re on the street, which gets old very quickly in the area.

Good place. Seems kind of just average but I’m coming from adventurous taste buds. Was definitely «good»…wouldn’t say earth shattering like my experience at Khorasani and Can Oba just down the road… but, good :)
Interestingly, people who walk in seem to have already been here one or two times. Waiters are definitely friendly and on point… cool trick, they run their ordering off of their smart phones. Their English like in most restaurants here are very good.
Geared to tourists, but they don’t hound you at the curb like other places across the street do.
Excellent outdoor covered patio for dining.

This restaurant were close to our hotel so perfect for a dinner our last night in Istanbul. We got there quite early, around 7.30, so not that much guests there. Yet.
A nice waiter placed us on a table facing the busy restaurant street outside and no worries about being cold because all tables «outside» are infra-​red heated.
I ordered fried squid roman style calamari as starter. Well cooked and tasted as they should. For main course, sea bass in saffron sauce. A bit disappointed there, the fish were well cooked but the sauce tasted more of cream than saffron, rather tasteless, but overall a well cooked meal.
This place have good food, perfect waiters and no barkers (which are really rare in Istanbul and a relief). The place got really busy and when we left a couple of hours later the restaurant were packed. So, this is a good alternative to all the restaurants in the neighbourhood with reasonable pricing but don’t expect a gormé dinner.

Great place, staff is not pushy, which is rare in Istanbul. This is our 2^nd time in a week that we have been here. We ordered the Rocket Salad, fried calamari and vegetable balls (like zucchini fritters). For desert chocolate soufflé, yum! Great outdoor patio as well. Our server Mehmet was the best! Go, go, go to Albura Kathisma! If you are in the Sultanahmet/​Blue Mosque area you can’t go wrong with this place! Hated to leave.

No pushy sales pitch, just genuinely delicious Turkish food. My lamb dish (something walnut, something Dervish) was highly recommended, but it was just very OK (way too tangy). Was a huge fan of the sauteed lamb dish (again, the name has escaped me) my fiancé got. Staff was great, and we even got to see the hidden ruins beneath the restaurant!

Cuisine typique très très bonne. Personnel très sympa et aimable. C’est vrai, le lieu est touristique et l’endroit kitch mais la cuisine est superbe. Nous l’avons testé à notre arrivé car pas loin de l’hôtel et nous y sommes retournés trois fois pendant notre séjour d’une semaine.
Nous avons gouté l’agneau aux figues et amandes (plat pour deux) qui était délicieux accompagné de riz pilaf. Ils proposent une autre version de l’agneau plus spectaculaire mais que nous n’avons pas testé. Nous avons pris du vin rouge local (la carafe, syrah et je né sais plus quoi, qui était parfait). La deuxième fois, on a testé le plat de poisson pour deux (sur le 90 TL). Il faut un peu de temps car la cuisson, longue, était en croute de sel aromatisé qui a donné au poisson un goût fin.

After some serious hotel trouble that necessitated a last-​minute move, we were really ready for our first dinner in Istanbul. Happily, thanks to the lovely people at Albura Kathisma, our logistical headaches were soon forgotten and we settled into a fabulous three days in Turkey.
First we ordered raki to toast our trip (my pregnant friend got a delicious mint lemonade instead.) Along with this came a mezze plate that I’m coming to realize is featured at most restaurants: an assortment of six dips presented on a platter with fresh crudités and a pile of mixed greens in the center. There was a Russian salad, basically cooked vegetables in a mayonnaise sauce; a deliciously spicy red-​pepper tapenade; two kinds of eggplant, one light and one dark; garlicky hummus; and thick, creamy yogurt. They served this with a huge soccer ball-​sized bread pouf and also the thick, chewy bread which is more common here. Everything was fabulous, even the Russian salad, which is not usually my favorite.
For entrees we shared three among four people, which was the perfect amount after our appetizers. Zucchini stuffed with lamb and rice, served with more of that thick yogurt dip; kofte kebab with a lovely, colorful assortment of vegetables, from pickled cabbage to carrots and cucumber; and manti, dumplings stuffed with lamb in a yogurt-​butter sauce with mint. Everything was excellent, though the manti were a little too large and doughy and overshadowed their own tender, meaty filling.
The crowning glory was dessert. My friend ordered knafe, which was too sweet for me – it came swimming in sugar syrup — but the cheese was wonderfully rich and the «shredded wheat» topping was still crunchy. I chose the figs and cream just out of curiosity, and I was blown away by them, as was everyone else at the table: four figs poached in a clove-​spiced syrup, arranged around a scoop of vanilla ice cream, poofs of whipped cream and chopped pistachios. It was heavenly, especially with sips of Turkish coffee between.
Our waiter was funny, helpful and mostly invisible while we enjoyed dinner, which came with plenty of time to enjoy each course. After dinner one of the other wait staff showed us to some kind of underground cavern that they appear to be excavating. His English was poor, but I think he wanted a donation. We had already tipped our waiter well, so passed on that; it was kind of a weird experience. Just say no, thank you, and enjoy the wonderful food and service!

From a recommendation from a friend, we went to Albura for our first dinner in Istanbul. Albura is located along restaurant row on Akbiyik Caddesi St.
We were seated and greeted by our friendly waiter. After ordering our drinks, we placed our orders. After getting our delicious Turkish bread shaped like a bloated football, (
) our food selections were:
Seasonal Salad: Seasonal green salad leaves, black olive slices, green peppers, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers; topped with corn, Turkish white cheese and walnuts; dressed with lemon juice and olive oil. A nice, light salad that was shared amongst us. (
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Kuzu Sultan (The Ottoman Sultan’s Lamb): Roast lamb with «iç pilav» (Ottoman style rice with raisins, pine nuts and spiced with cinnamon), broccoli and mashed potato. Meat was tasty and tender. A hardy dish (
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Farm Köfte (from a Turkish Kitchen): Specially flavored minced beef together with lamb, grilled and served with seasonal vegetables, fried potato and rice. Delicious and perfectly seasoned. (
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Beyti Kebap (Kebab with Garlic): marinated lamb & beef marinated in garlic, parsley, sweet pepper and spicy grilled on a skewer. With grilled tomatoes, green peppers, and bulgar wheat pilaf and pita bread. Tasty and was not overly spicy. (
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Manti (Turkish Ravioli): Homemade ravioli filled with succulent lamb and served with a yoghurt, garlic and mint sauce, drizzled with chili oil. Nice sized portion, but was too doughy and not enough filling and was bland. We were warned by the waiter on this dish. Our bad! (
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Hot Chocolate Soufflé: a chocolate soufflé served hot with ice cream and rich chocolate sauce. If you like rich chocolate, this is for you. (
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Figs, Cloves & Cream: Figs are soaked in syrup with cloves, married with Turkish clotted cream and ice-​cream, and come with fıstık (chopped pistachios) on top. Wow, never had anything like this and it was delicious. Now this is a Turkish dessert. (
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We had two dinners on Akbiyik Caddesi St. and by far this was the better of the two meals. The only disappointing dish was the Manti, but we were warned by the waiter not to order it. Friendly servers.
P. S. From prior knowledge, the restaurant sits about some historical ruins. We asked our waiter and he gave us a tour of it. Cool!

My food was excellent but wasn’t amazing value, probably due to its location near hotels and tourist attractions. Had good service as well.

Gute Küche, in angenehmen, sauberen Ambiente
Preise angemessen