Tavanarası Restaurant

I’m generally a big hater on Turkish food. Seriously. I’m Turkish and the cuisine is some of the blandest, most basic stuff in the world. I say that as someone who has spent the better half of my adult life traveling the globe, eating food and drinking alcohol through a funnel. (I pay for all my travel through illegal activities, don’t ask)
This place however keeps it 100%.
For starters the interior is super homy and warm. Wood burning fireplace and extra heaters keep it super cost in the winters. The wood interior and the fact it’s on the 6^th floor give it a whole other level of pleasant and distance it from typical Turkish kebab houses with bright lights and poorly chosen décor. This fit somewhere in between old style wooden log house in the Indian mountains with British pub.
The service was beyond nice. Super warm and intelligent staff that was nicer than any server I’ve met in Turkey. They spoke excellent English and were incredibly hospitable.
The food was the topping on the cake for me. Despite being able to drink while eating (a rarity across turkey) the food was perfectly prepared and variety in options (another rarity for the country).
I’ll be back. Absolutely loved it.

The best restaurant we visited in Istanbul. We took the metro to Tophane and walked from there (it is an uphill walk we weren’t expecting!). Not a bad walk overall but it was not very well-​lit at night so if you’re the skittish type and it’s dark out you may want to take a taxi or try and take the train to Tünel and walking up Istiklal.
I have no recollection of what we ordered but I’m sure Urfa Kebab was on the list. There are some good wines on the menu and the bread was awesome (we had to ask for butter, which they were able to give us with no problem!). The fried ravioli was delicious as others have mentioned but the best best best part was that they had rice with corn in it (we are rice addicts) just like we make it at home.
The ambience is awesome too with a very low key feel to it – service is great and it wasn’t too packed when we were there so we had our pick of the table. Highly recommended for any Istanbul tourists like ourselves!

Stopped in here on our last night in Istanbul and were not disappointed. The place was packed when we arrived, but service was still good and our food was served promptly. Ordered fried Turkish ravioli, lentil soup, grilled sea bass and rice. All equally delicious and prepared well. If you don’t mind a cramped setting — not a place for claustrophobics — check it out!

Went here twice during our stay in Istanbul. It was really close to our hotel, but without the internet we would never have found it. You have to take a shady elevator to the 6^th floor and the elevator door opens right into the restaurant, which has a sort of hipster, loungey vibe to it.
The servers were nice and spoke good English. Everything here is really good and the portions are quite hearty. We had the lamb chops, manti (a sort of ravioli in yoghurt), and something similar to a risotto, and all were freshly made and tasted delicious.
Would definitely go back and recommend ¹⁰⁄₁₀

Really good food, very authentic, very tasty. Real Turkish food at reasonable prices. Afiyet olsun.

It’s really interesting that currently only 1 out of 14 reviews for this restaurant is not in Turkish, as I was surprised by the amount of foreigners around and figured locals wouldn’t be so keen. Glad to see that’s not the case.
Unfortunately I forgot to check as we were leaving what the neighbouring restaurants are called but basically the entrance is on the north side of the street (right hand side coming from Istiklal) through a non-​descript door with the words ‘Emre Han’ on it, you then have to go into the lift and press for the 6^th floor. Ask, as we did, staff at other restaurants for help if you miss it!
The interior is utterly charming, a sort of attic garden, almost like a picnic railway carriage. It was packed at 9pm on a Wednesday night and there’s nowhere really to wait/​get a drink but we were seated after only about 10 minutes (grab a menu to amuse yourself, it’s a great read).
You order by writing down the dishes you want on a piece of paper, which saves a lot of pointing and poor translation. We went for the cheapest 37.5l wine, which like all the Turkish wine we had was very good. We opted for three mezze and one casserole dish. Foolishly I didn’t realised the meat wasn’t minced in the one we picked, so was not that keen on that aspect of it but the cheese/​bechamel/​aubergine part was great, and my friend who does like chunks of meat assured me the whole thing was delicious.
We also like the courgette mezze we got although it had too much yoghurt on it, rather drowning the vegetable. The cheese pastry we had was obviously delicious but for me far and away the best dish was a cauliflower mezze which was subtle in flavour, cooked perfectly and one of my favourite things we had in Istanbul.
Would definitely return/​recommend.

I found this place on my first stay in Istanbul, thanks to Unilocal,and it’s auto-​translation feature, which makes Turkish reviews sound a bit dramatic, but hey, I got the drift — this place rocks, and locals love it. And so did we. In fact, we bookended our trip with two dinners there. The food is stellar and very reasonably priced. It’s a small, cozy joint, with an open 6^th-​floor overlook that runs along one side of the restaurant, and a special escape hatch for after-​dinner smokers. The wait staff is kind, collected, and politely patient with foreigners, unlike the wait staff at some of the more touristy places. The entrance is completely non-​descript, with no signage that I noticed. The phone-​booth sized elevator also has charm, and makes you think you’re ascending to the apartment of a 19-​year-​old tattoo artist, but don’t let that throw you off. Everything is well worth the ride (oh, and press 6 for the restaurant, 0 for the street level).