Pangaltı Meyhanesi

Pangaltı Meyhanesi is what the new generation of Istanbul meyhanes should look like, old-school in service code (white linen, table-side raki, attentive captains) but with a kitchen pushing meze beyond the canon: mussel-wrapped sarma, marinated seafood, leaf liver. The wine and rakı list is shorter than at the bigger meyhanes but better edited. Located at the Pangaltı–Kurtuluş seam on Eşref Efendi Sk, it draws an older, neighborhood-loyal crowd that the modern Karaköy meyhanes have stopped serving.