Published: 2026-08-28 • 3 min read
From Turkish breakfast to baklava: the dishes you must try in Turkey, where to eat them like a local, and how meze culture, real kebab and Turkish coffee actually work.
Turkish cuisine ranks among the world's three great classical cuisines alongside French and Chinese, heir to the Ottoman court and every region of the empire. Eating well in Turkey does not require expensive restaurants — it requires knowing what to order. This is the guide we give our own travellers.
Less a meal than a weekend ritual: cheeses, olives, tomato and cucumber, honey with kaymak (buffalo cream), pan-fried eggs with sucuk, fresh börek, crunchy simit and endless tea in tulip glasses. A proper village kahvaltı can fill an entire morning.
Every city has its own: spicy Adana and mild Urfa, both chargrilled; Bursa's İskender over bread with tomato sauce and molten butter; Cappadocia's testi kebab, cooked inside a clay pot that is cracked open at your table. The street-corner döner is only the gateway.
The meyhane is Istanbul's classic tavern: dozens of small cold and hot plates — hummus, haydari, dolma, garlic prawns, marinated fish — shared over rakı while the table stretches on for hours. It is the most social eating experience in the country.
Pide is the baked dough "boat" filled with cheese or meat; lahmacun the thin crispy flatbread with spiced meat, rolled up with parsley and lemon; mantı are tiny dumplings under yogurt and paprika butter; and balık ekmek is the grilled-fish sandwich by the Galata Bridge.
Pistachio baklava from Gaziantep is the benchmark; künefe — melted cheese between crisp pastry threads soaked in syrup — is eaten hot; and Turkish delight (lokum) from the Spice Market is the edible souvenir par excellence.
Turkish coffee, ground ultra-fine and slowly brewed in a copper cezve, is UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage; it comes with a glass of water and — they say — your future written in the grounds. Black Sea tea, meanwhile, powers the country at all hours.
Are there vegetarian options? Plenty: olive-oil vegetable dishes (zeytinyağlı), meze and legumes make up half the Turkish repertoire.
Do you tip? In restaurants, 5–10% is customary when service is not included.
Can you drink alcohol? Yes, freely in tourist areas and meyhanes; rakı is the national drink.
Our tours include selected meals and free time to explore on your own: Essential Istanbul, 5 days or Charms of Turkey, 10 days. Dreaming of a tailor-made food-themed trip? Tell us about it.
