Karaköyüm Cafe Restaurant

I was planning to write in Turkish and wanted to give 4 stars but because of reading these no sense negative references I’ve decided to write in English. First I must say that I don’t know the owner and I went there only once. Ofcouse anyone could give 1 star or 5 stars but giving someone a negative reference because of mis-​understanding is not fair at all. Hi Fabian and Tatiana I have even had chance to meet the owner who is nice lady, she is an architect graduated one of the best univercity both in Turkey and Europe. She could speak English too. So it is very vary hard to believe you guys had this mis communication. I see that your expectation was eating all these side dishes for free with this amazing view. What do you mean they put it on our table and asked us to pay? Guys its a restaurant what would you expect? I guess you were miss guided. The guy you asked about tax was wrong too. Because where ever you buy something you have to pay tax. They can only issue an invoice with the tax included so customers pay for it.
For Rajul, I went there on a Saturday too and they have also told us that they have fix menu on Saturdays. I have told them that me and my girl friend don’t want fix menü because we are not ging to stay all night and they found it reasonable. We just paid whatever we drank and ate. This is my experince so let’s say in your case they didn’t accept your offer they only asked you to have fix menü or leave. I hope they didn’t tie you guys on chairs and forced you to eat! If you didn’t want fix menu why did you sit there and eat and then you guys are complaing about fix menü? This is not fair and not even nice.
Again I would like to clarify that I don’t even know this place that much I only went there once but I think Unilocal authorities should be more selective for especially 5 stars and 1 stars. People are making money in their companies and giving someone a 1 star shouldn’t be that easy just because of misunderstandings.
Finally something about the place; The appetizers (meze) are very fresh and nice. My girl friend orderd some red meat, I went for fish. We enjoyed it alot. The taste wasn’t the best but their friendly stuff and live music + an amazing view made it one of the best dinner. I highly recommend you guys to give them a chance. Cheers.

This is my first bad review on a restaurant: They ripped us off!!! I’m really pissed off because I just talked to a turkish guy at the hotel and he said we are not supposed to pay taxes in addition to the check. At the restaurant, they charged us taxes and also for something we did not order that he had just put on the table (other restaurants we went to gave us a small appetizer as a courtesy). This guy just put stuff on our table then charged us for it and also added taxes — something we are not supposed to pay in Turkey!!! I don’t support this attitude in any place in the world! Please don’t give your money to these guys.

We came here in Dec 2014 after reading the great reviews on Unilocal.It was just across the street from our hotel and the restaurant is at the top of a nice building with a great view of the old city and the palace.
The waiter seemed really nice and like other people had mentioned we were brought a generous portion of appetizers that we hadn’t ordered. We had gotten similar sides with the bread in all the other restaurants we went to, however, we were surprised to find out at the end that we were going to be charged 50 lira (for 2 portions!) for these dips in addition to the 10 lira for the bread and the water (which is fine with me). We had nothing to complain about the food itself — it was delicious and authentic.
However, we felt really screwed over when we were presented the check. In addition to the food we ordered and the food we didn’t order (but were still supposed to pay for) they also added a hefty sales tax to the bill for us tourists.
After we went back to our hotel we felt more and more uncomfortable with what had happened and decided to ask the staff about what’s common and not common. They told us that the sales tax is always included and that we shouldn’t have gotten charged for the sauces that accompanied the bread. The thing that ticked me off most is that the waiter knew we came because we had found him on Unilocal but they screwed us off wherever they could. Don’t let them ruin your night as well!

I was told that this is a new restaurant in Istanbul and wow, they certainly are trying to leave an impression. It starts with the amazing view of the Bosporus that you have from most tables and that makes you worry about the size of the bill — spoiler alert, its not expensive at all for the quality of the food and the location.
What I love about Turkish food is that you can order a wide mix of different appetizer dishes that everyone than shares and in all the places I have been in Istanbul those small appetizers were the highlights of the entire meal. My main dish didn´t convince me 100% (grilled fish) but it couldn´t spoil any part of the great experience. Let´s talk about the service (which in Istanbul is great in most places anyway): absolutely outstanding, the friendliest waiter in my whole stay in Istanbul, who made us feel extremely welcome and did a great job at preparing the dishes on the table. Also the owner came by to say hello, which I found was a really nice touch.
All in all, a fantastic place that looks super expensive but isn´t.

This was a really pleasant surprise! The waitstaff was not only impeccably friendly and attentive, but the food was delish and the prices very reasonable. I would happily take people from out of the city here for a nice mix of meze and other starters. Some of us tried the levrek wrapped in dough (I was quite jealous, I liked it much more than my hunkar begendi!), and that was awesome. If I go back I’m getting that. The view is good for the area as well. I would recommend this place if I’m nearby, but I’m not sure that I’d make the trek to Karakoy specifically for this restaurant. We’ll see how much I’m craving it in a couple of weeks. :D

This is a very difficult restaurant to find. Once you cross the Galata bridge, follow the street that the tram runs on as it curves to the right. The restaurant is shortly after the curve, on the right-​hand size. Only a small plaque indicates the location, in a building which looks like an office building. Once you enter, take the elevator to the top floor.
We visited in the winter, when the terrace was closed to keep out the cold. There is still a brilliant view of the south European shore (Sultanahmet area). We went on a Tuesday and there were only two other tables, and we were seated at some distance away to create a cozy atmosphere.
The service was good, and seemed proportional to the number of customers, whereas most Turkish restaurants seem overstaffed from a western European point of view. We ordered two meze starters, and got 8 different bowls. Next we had Karaköyüm manti (a type of pasta topped with yogurt), and hunkar begendi (lamb on a bed of roasted mashed eggplant). We had one small raki and one glass of wine to drink, in addition to water. For dessert we shared a sakizli muhalleb (mastic pudding with caramel and raspberry sauce) and tea. We paid 100 lira, including the tip for this meal for two.
The food was quite good and this ended up being our third-​favorite meal (second favorite dinner) of the entire trip. It is well worth leaving the Sultanahmet area to visit this restaurant, especially as it is not very far. It is well within walking distance; we took the tram there, but walked back across Galata bridge after our meal.