If you’re heading to Istanbul’s historic peninsula, here’s a guide that works like medicine! (The video is in Turkish; every stop is listed below with its timestamp and map link.)
The short answer
A half-day walk that starts at the Spice Bazaar and heads up through the Grand Bazaar and Nuruosmaniye before dropping down to Hocapaşa in Sirkeci: a fishmonger, spice shops, coffee roasters, a kitchenware store and a knife shop, with gas-grilled döner, Gaziantep baklava, lahmacun and Maltese coffee along the way, and Hocapaşa’s old lokantas to finish. I shot the video in 2020; I rechecked every address in the list below in November 2026.
Places · 19
Checked November 2026
| In the video | Place | Map |
|---|---|---|
| 00:38 | Taze Balıkçı | Open in Maps → |
| 01:43 | İnanç Baharat | Open in Maps → |
| 02:06 | Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi | Open in Maps → |
| 02:15 | İhsan Kurukahvecioğlu Halefleri | Open in Maps → |
| 02:50 | Kurukahveci Nuri Toplar | Open in Maps → |
| 03:22 | Nüans Züccaciye | Open in Maps → |
| 04:08 | Bıçakçım.com | Open in Maps → |
| 06:44 | Galeri Set | Open in Maps → |
| 07:00 | Hayfene (Ucuzcular) Baharat | Open in Maps → |
| 07:21 | Pandeli | Open in Maps → |
| 07:38 | Cankurtaran Gıda | Open in Maps → |
| 08:21 | Dönerci Şahin Usta | Open in Maps → |
| 13:11 | Çarşı Baklava | Open in Maps → |
| 14:09 | Bena Dondurma | Open in Maps → |
| 14:45 | Şeyhmuz Kebap Salonu | Open in Maps → |
| 15:59 | Erenler Nargile, Çorlulu Ali Paşa Madrasa | Open in Maps → |
| 16:59 | Şehzade Cağ Kebap | Open in Maps → |
| 18:31 | Meşhur Filibe Köftecisi | Open in Maps → |
| 18:48 | Güvenç Konyalı | Open in Maps → |
Hours and details change; check before you go.
Around the Spice Bazaar
- Before you go in, look at the shops around it. Taze Balıkçı is one of the places I buy fish and seafood in Istanbul; their lakerda, cured bonito, is superb.
- Most stalls sell nuts, Turkish delight and cheese out in the open. I don’t buy anything that has been sitting uncovered, not because it’s bad, but because of the dust and air. A personal preference; just so you know.
- İnanç Baharat is where I take foreign guests who want to buy pepper paste and chili flakes.
- Everyone comes to Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi for freshly ground coffee from the counter, and I love it as an old shop. For whole beans for filter coffee, try İhsan Kurukahvecioğlu Halefleri right across the street. My own roaster is a little deeper in: Kurukahveci Nuri Toplar, with 1890 on the sign.
- For everyone who asked where my burger press comes from: Nüans Züccaciye. Cookware, pastry tools, good brands; one of the most interesting shops in Istanbul.
- Bıçakçım: knives, cleavers, honing steels, sausage stuffers, whetstones; anything to do with cutting. Knives from Sürmene on the Black Sea, from Bursa and from Gaziantep makers, plus German and Japanese blades. It’s where I bring guests who want to buy a cleaver.
Inside the Spice Bazaar
- Galeri Set: lovely coffee cups, good as gifts.
- Hayfene (Ucuzcular) Baharat: my spice shop in the bazaar. Spices, nuts, dried fruit, and some hot sauces I can’t praise enough.
- Pandeli: right above the bazaar’s New Mosque entrance; a good lunch or late-afternoon meal.
- Cankurtaran Gıda: cheeses, sucuk, pastırma, olive oils and breakfast things from all over Anatolia. One of the best delis in Istanbul, in my view.
From the Grand Bazaar to Nuruosmaniye
- Dönerci Şahin Usta: just past the Kılıççılar Gate, making döner since 1969. My number one in Istanbul for gas-grilled minced-meat döner. The first cut comes off at 11 a.m.; I always try to eat the first or second cut, when all the flavor of the marinade is right there. The shop is tiny and there’s a queue, so you take your döner and eat it across the street. The classic way is in flatbread with onion and tomato; I usually skip the bread and get a portion and a half of meat.
- Çarşı Baklava: below the Nuruosmaniye Mosque, on the corner as you head down to the Çemberlitaş tram stop. It gets baklava delivered daily from Koçak, one of my favorite baklava makers in Gaziantep: thick pistachio şöbiyet and square baklava.
- Bena Dondurma: my secret paradise around here. Come early and you may catch it slightly soft; in Maraş and Antep they call that “firik.”
- Şeyhmuz Kebap Salonu: the kebabs are good, but I come for a quick lahmacun from the wood-fired stone oven; ask for it a little crisp. I like mine with sumac and lemon.
- Erenler Nargile in the Çorlulu Ali Paşa Madrasa: whenever I’m nearby I stop for coffee. They make Maltese coffee, lightly roasted with a different kind of foam; worth trying.
Hocapaşa, Sirkeci
Take the tram down to Sirkeci. Hocapaşa is a paradise of lokantas: home-style stews, kebabs, döner, pide, whatever you’re after.
- Şehzade Cağ Kebap: ask for “kosor,” cağ kebab that hasn’t gone back on the grill, so the lamb stays a little pink in places.
- Meşhur Filibe Köftecisi: right across the street, making köfte since 1893.
- Güvenç Konyalı: okra soup, etli ekmek flatbread and fırın kebabı. Lamb cooked slowly in the oven in its own fat, a kind of confit; it falls off the bone and needs no chewing. Common in Konya, rare in Istanbul.
I first published this guide in 2020. Prices and opening hours may have changed; check the map link in the list before you go.
Keep reading and listening
- The same neighborhood on our podcast YBYK (in Turkish): episode 27, the priceless food stops of the historic peninsula
- A food and shopping guide to Beyoğlu
- A few things about döner
- Kastamonu Market in Kasımpaşa
