Places in Istanbul

Sushi, Mediterranean and cocktails transitioning to legendary nightlife on the Bosphorus

Creative hub in classic-elegant Palazzo Corpi

Glamorous open-air Bosphorus entertainment complex

Electronic music festivals on the Black Sea

Former Ottoman bank transformed into boutique luxury

Legendary cultural hub and live music venue since 1999

Morgans Original in a restored warehouse

Craft cocktails in Caferağa's creative heart

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

Upper-tier fish house on Operatör Cemil Topuzlu

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

Gile chef's tribute to Marmaris roots, Gault & Millau 2026 Best Street Food

Karaköy's benchmark grill, Suadiye rooftop edition

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

Ex-Periferi chef's own kitchen: bold menu, intimate room

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

Burgazada's Rum meyhane legacy lands in Bostancı

Beymen's new fine-dining icon, Roman & Williams design, Michelin-starred consulting chef

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

Chef Marcello Micci's Tuscan kitchen on Bağdat Caddesi with 120-person garden

Beyoğlu's serious 400-cap live room, international bookings (Sextile, Hugo Kant), no tribute bands

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

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

Adile Sultan Palace dining in the Michelin Guide

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

Intimate nightly jazz, blues and soul off İstiklal

Kadife Sokak classic with a downstairs stage and a different band every night

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

Long-running Italian-influenced bar tucked behind Bebek Hamamı

Historic ferry pier dining with unobstructed Bosphorus Bridge views

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

Emre Şen / Morini team's all-day Mediterranean at İstinye Park

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

Barrel-room entrance, 100+ craft beers, garden in back, serious since 2012

Shellfish-forward seafood in a 200-year-old Ottoman elephant warehouse

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

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

Fifty-plus years on Bağdat, the Anatolian side's classic pub

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

A quiet Aegean-air meyhane behind Beşiktaş fish market

Michelin-starred chef Emre Şen's new Istanbul canvas

Where fine dining meets nightclub energy

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

Sakız Gülü corner with a hidden garden and rooftop terrace; deep beer pour, neighborhood crowd.

70-seat fish house at the Göksu estuary

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

Small family trattoria with Michelin 3-pearl mention

The Asian side's oldest real Italian, since 1990

Chef Utku's southern Italian in a Caddebostan villa garden

1951 iskele-side meyhane, Can Yücel and Nazım Hikmet's haunt

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

Compact meze-first meyhane steps from the marina

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

Marina-facing grill, seasoned Fenerbahçe regulars

Cihangir garden-club where DJs push funk, disco, chill house past midnight

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

Modern meyhane in historic brewery walls with lentil 'ice cream' signature

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.

Nevizade's 1941 original, no singing, just rakı

Beyoğlu's long-running blues dive run by Mehmet the Blues

Italian fine dining honored by the Italian government since 2012

Tiny family pizzeria with perfect thin crust

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

45-seat Amalfi-inflected Italian room at The Ritz-Carlton

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

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

Turkey's first female-run meyhane, Tatavla's living memory since 1946

Old-style neighbourhood meyhane near Akaretler

Fifth-floor Taksim meyhane where Tatavla Keyfi plays rebetiko Fri-Sat

Fifth-floor warm dive defending old Beyoğlu's spirit

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.

Wood-coal döner with Kepsut thyme and Konya lavash

The former Babylon Kilyos, now curated music festival beach.

Reimagined '5 Cocktails & More', craft cocktails with sushi pairing

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.

The Moda sushi favourite on a quiet Erenköy side-street

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

Modern Neapolitan with imported San Marzano tomatoes

Low-ceilinged Kadife Sokak room with a downstairs fireplace, the quiet, cozy counterweight to Barlar Sokağı

Contemporary luxury at Zorlu Center

Istanbul's most authentic Mexican, Tanyeri-González family since 2005

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

Rooftop seafood house with Marmara view

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

The Tarabya fish crescent local without the tourist markup.

Asian hospitality excellence with stunning water views

Late-1800s building, seasonal mezes, Greek-Turkish soul

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

Faux-supermarket-fronted late room running consistent house and disco edits till 04:00

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.

Hand-built tiny Şair Nedim cocktail room, speakeasy live music Fridays, smoke inside

1920s meyhane where Yahya Kemal drank rakı

1901 former Franciscan nuns' residence transformed into cozy suites

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

Cobblestone Mumhane gastropub, outdoor tables, neighborhood crowd

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

Adana street-kebap heat on an Erenköy side-street

Turkish fashion house's boutique hospitality

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.

New-gen meyhane inside 110-year-old Ragıp Paşa Mansion

Bahariye's beloved meyhane in a French-bistro-style room

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.

Turkish DJs, live-jazz, and funk in classic-elegant Beyoğlu

Cihangir's treasure transforms from fine dining to nightclub

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

Three-floor Ottoman waterside mansion, a pre-Reina icon still hosting Istanbul's see-and-be-seen crowd

Alleyway bar run by Turkey and world bartending champion Onurcan Gençer

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

35+ years of pier-side fish, buckets in front of diners

Library-fronted speakeasy, no sign, no social media, referral entry only

Kapadokya-rooted wine bar bringing cellared bottles to the avenue

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