Bar in Istanbul

All-day venue that flips into a cocktail bar with workshops and guest DJs after sunset.

Late-2025 waterfront bar with a beachfront terrace

Cihangir rooftop institution since 1993 with a real Bosphorus view

Brick-lined snug pub with live blues, rock and jazz seven nights a week

Bar side of Four Seasons' Bosphorus seafood room, terrace to the water, Mediterranean pours

Seasonal kitchen and an opinionated Turkish wine cellar on the quiet Mühürdar slope, adults-only, no menus in seven languages

Compact neighborhood cocktail bar behind the avenue

Paris-bistro-in-Bomonti, Kojo Hospitality's French-Turkish fusion with a kitchen that gives the bar a reason to exist

Neighborhood bistro that turns into a late cocktail room, the kind of address Bebek residents list when asked for 'somewhere normal'.

Cocktails + rakı/meze + live music on the Akaretler row-house strip

German-style beer garden with Weihenstephaner on tap and a real backyard

Gül Sultan mansion, Bosphorus, rakı, fish

Asian side's most serious craft beer list, deep Gara Guzu shelf

Moda side-street all-day bar, proper cocktails at kind prices

Tucked-in Sakız Gülü wine bar with a tight, evolving Turkish-focused list.

Gayrettepe English-pub-style brewpub, 8 house taps of real ales and lagers, the craft-beer brewery for Levent's after-work crowd

Sea-view rooftop meyhane reworking Greek, Sephardic and Turkish meze with a real bar.

Long-running Italian-influenced bar tucked behind Bebek Hamamı

Cocktail-gastropub from the Joker No:19 crew spilling onto the Avenue, garden, relaxed, serious drinks

Living-room-sized wine bar with charcuterie that punches above the General Yazgan address

Onur Balk's award-winning mixology with global street food

Divan Group's gastropub in a historic Akaretler row-house

Watergarden havuz katında meyhane-pub melezi; küratörlü şarap, ekspert kokteyl.

Tight Moda Caddesi bar with a deep beer fridge and a surprisingly serious cocktail menu, distinct from the Şaşkınbakkal Fil

Sarıyer Çarşı fish-meyhane known for kalkan and meze depth.

Dimly lit Esat Işık room pairing classics-first cocktails with a short, serious kitchen

Expertly crafted cocktail menu refreshed every ten days

Quiet Jurnal Sokak şaraphanesi pouring small Anatolian producers and Georgian qvevri

Waterside mansion cocktails for the Yeniköy yalı row.

After-work cocktail room on Büyükdere for the Levent towers

Topağacı neighborhood bar with a sharp cocktail list and a proper local crowd.

Small Bebek room with 20+ wines by the glass, Bosphorus-edge tables, and the early-evening crowd that owns the neighborhood.

1871 Pera wine house in the Hazzopulo Pasajı arcade, intellectuals' canteen, not a museum

Three-storey 19th-century Greek house turned wine room

Two-floor bistro-bar a few steps off Ortaköy pier, Bosphorus view, locals over tourists

Small Teşvikiye cocktail room with a considered signature list.

Home-party-style Topağacı bar with assertive cocktails and a real neighborhood crowd.

The city's flagship Bosphorus-side shisha-and-cocktail lounge, a Kuruçeşme nightlife fixture

Nişantaşı sibling of the legendary Beşiktaş gastro-pub with craft beer and whiskey.

Street-level micro-bar on Esat Işık, creative cocktails, vinyl-leaning music, no-frills Kadıköy at its best

Terrace tucked below Rumeli Hisarı's ramparts, shadow of the fortress on one side, the Bosphorus narrowing on the other.

Late-night Kireçburnu fish-meyhane open until 02:00.

Tepebaşı rooftop with Golden Horn view and ethno-house program

Second chapter from the Urban/Boden team, classic and signature cocktails

Cold War–era Soviet space-program aesthetic on Topağacı Meydanı.

Velvet-curtained rooftop over Galata with French bistro kitchen

Narrative-driven cocktail room on Moda Caddesi where each drink is a paragraph, not a prop

2024 World Class Turkey champion's sustainability-led cocktail room

Hidden 350m² walled garden of lemon and linden trees

Pigalle ve MiniBar ekibinden izakaya esintili Japon tapas barı, vinil geceleri.

Istanbul twist on Raffles Singapore's original Long Bar, nightly live music

Old-guard yalı seafood and rakı bar, salt-baked levrek, Bosphorus directly underfoot

Cihangir duplex tapas bar with a balcony and neighborhood regulars

Kireçburnu waterline fish house, rakı nights the neighborhood still uses.

The former Babylon Kilyos, now curated music festival beach.

Intimate Fenerbahçe-park-side cocktail room tucked off Bağdat on Faruk Ayanoğlu, the quiet alternative to Suadiye

23-year Nevizade meyhane named for a Can Yücel poem

House Cafe stable's tiny day-to-night cocktail room on Atiye Sokak

House Cafe's neighborhood-bar sibling, coffee by day, DJ nights Thu-Sat

New-generation Teşvikiye meyhane – contemporary meze, raki, serious pours.

Tiny Tünel wine room famous among regulars for its mulled wine and queer-friendly door

Michelin-listed seafood institution whose sunset cocktail bar is a genuine Bosphorus ritual

Three-storey corner building on the Moda tram line, evening-favourite room with sharing plates and a confident cocktail list

Red-velvet audiophile bar with craft cocktails and vinyl, beneath the Listening Room.

House-music rooftop facing Galata Tower

Jigger Istanbul's flagship, signature cocktails with Turkish bitters

Kalamis Marina views with creative cocktails and proper kitchen

Twenty-four-tap craft beer bar on Ferah Sokağı, the Sarıyer original's central outpost

The Tarabya fish crescent local without the tourist markup.

Bağdat Avenue branch of historic Beyoğlu Pano; fasıl music, straight rakı, serious wine cellar

Cevdet Paşa cafe-bar with Bebek-old-guard regulars

Turkey's original craft brewery in a three-story seaside Bebek mansion, Kölsch, Smoked Lager, and a full kitchen.

Gastro-jazz lokanta run by jazz musician Eren Noyan with a proper stage

Yeldeğirmeni corner spot with house-recipe cocktails and craft beers

Şemsettin Günaltay's after-work gastro-pub with a cocktail menu that actually tries

Istanbul's only genuine Irish pub since 1996, off Nevizade

Bosphorus-mouth fish-house where the strait opens to the Black Sea.

Chef Fatih Tutak's Silk-Road cocktail room above GALLADA, designed like a vintage grand yacht on the Bosphorus.

Zorlu PSM's 120-seat jazz box, live programme, intimate room, cocktails with the set

Intimate Teşvikiye cocktail bar with a tight signature list and quiet confidence.

Dim, music-first Sofyalı cocktail room from the new wave, opens late, closes at 02:00

The cognoscenti's mixology lab, sustainable program, workshops, bottle takeout

Three-floor 1960s gastropub on Bankalar corner

20th-floor Marmara rooftop, 360-degree Bosphorus panorama with house-infused mixology for Taksim-edge cosmopolitans

Gault & Millau-listed yalı for marinated lüfer and rakı

Quiet oasis in leather armchairs with book-jacket shelves

Chef Kaan Kayhan's waterfront meyhane on the Yeniköy pier.

Candle-lit meyhane in a stone building beside the Armenian church.

33 years of rakı-sunset at the mouth of the Bosphorus

Tarabya marina fish-house with a working bar program.

Corner pub off İstiklal where free live music spills into the street

Istanbul's pre-eminent 1980 classic bar – stained glass, live music, real regulars.

Lal Dedeoğlu's French Passage hideout, kitchen counter, candlelight

Aegean meze and charcoal grill on Yeniköy's Köybaşı strip.

Haydarpaşa-station-themed cafe-bar that turns into a wine and beer hangout after dark.

1980 Sıraselviler wine cellar, Cihangir's reference for natural pours and serious staff advice

Tiny Karakolhane corner pub run by Koray and Elif; deep beer list, zero pretense.

Sakıp Sabancı Müzesi terrace bar under century-old plane trees

Tomtom side-street cocktail lab with bartender-led menu

Seventy-bottle wine bar tucked into Giulio Mongeri's 1922 Art Deco palas

Alleyway bar run by Turkey and world bartending champion Onurcan Gençer

Gault & Millau-awarded Italian with a refined Bosphorus-side bar

Kapadokya-rooted wine bar bringing cellared bottles to the avenue

Rixos Tersane's wine cellar, Turkish boutique producers on the Haliç.