Venues similar to Writers Bar

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

Lobby-floor jazz room at The Marmara Pera, four nights a week of local and international sets.

Open-air terrace with private Bosphorus-front cabanas

Four Seasons Bosphorus lounge on one of the best terraces on the water

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

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

Pre-revolution Havana glamour in Istanbul's upscale Nişantaşı

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

The Black Sea's original beach-club institution, open June–September.

The former Babylon Kilyos, now curated music festival beach.

Kilyos kite-school beach club, family-leaning, summer only.

Grand Tarabya's second-floor bar, a Bosphorus-bay cocktail terrace.

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

Cognac, cigar and Friday-night jazz inside the Ottoman shipyard

Bodrum-born seafood room with a serious Hi-Fi bar inside

Ten-tap Somx microbrewery with a vinyl wall and DJ booth on Jurnal Sokak

Microphone-free fasıl ensemble in a restored 20-year house, the real version of what Sultanahmet sells tourists

Hi-fi listening room above Michelin-star Arkestra; rotating record collectors, low-lit cocktails.

Late-night jazz bar with live trios and curated vinyl at the renovated Hilton Bosphorus

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