Med Cezir Restaurant

While wandering Sultanahmet at dinner time, we were caught in a downpour without an umbrella and was saw Med Cezir so decided to get out of the rain and eat there. This was fate — perhaps the best food we had in Istanbul and inexpensive. It is an unassuming façade which you can walk by several times without realizing the jewel that is here. Try it, the best!

Stopped for a quick bite to eat while in Sultan Ahmet. Located across the street from the Sultan Ahmet Four Seasons, Med Cezir offers a good inexpensive lunch option.
We were a party of 3 and ordered a Pide (an oval pizza like thing) and salad and it was enough food! Bit of trivia, Jimmy & Roslynn Carter came for a bite while they were staying at Four Seasons. There is a picture of them enjoying a pide with the owner.
The owner’s nephew, «Toni» was quite a character who was raised in Brooklyn, NY and could turn on his New Yawk accent. He was a lot of fun to talk with and knew a bunch of interesting facts about the area.
Overall, great quiet place to rest your feet and have a nice light meal.

We had dinner here Thursday night and it was lovely. The restaurant is located in the Med Cezir Hotel right around the corner from the Seven Hills Hotel where we have been staying and is an easy walk, aside from having to deal w/​the importunities of jewelry and rug salesmen from the shops along the way. We were seated inside, next to a huge fish tank full of large tropical fish. On the table outdoors are demonstration breads which were moved to an inside table as the tables outdoors were occupied. We were brought some of this bread, fresh from the oven, puffed up in part, covered w/​sesame seeds and accompanied by a reddish dipping sauce. It looked like a platter-​sized oval naan and it was heavenly. We tore it apart, dipped it in the sauce and came pretty close to finishing it.
We ordered a salad to share. It was generously proportioned w/​a dressing piquant enough for me yet mild enough for Alan. I ordered a lamb kebob dinner which came w/​more vegetables a couple of small wedges of that excellent bread and some rice, at my request. Alan ordered eggplant stuffed w/​beef. Both were delicious. Although the lamb was tender, it was a little difficult to cut w/​a table knife. I ordered a glass of red wine and Alan drank water, since they didn’t have a dark beer. Toward the end of our meal there was a rumble between two pairs of fish, harmless, seemingly, but intense. It was something we had never seen and it was quite an amusing spectacle. We enjoyed our dinner here very much and recommend it highly. The food was good and prices seem reasonable.