For the love of Turkish food
By Talal Al Rashed
Recommended meal: Lunch
Location: Nisantasi and Bebek
This little place offers some of the most delicious snacks and dishes using only seasonal
ingredients and changing every day. As much as the dishes are familiar, the way they are
prepared are considered revolutionary compared to similar places around the city.
Recommended meal: Breakfast
Location: Karakoy
Acclaimed no.1 breakfast in Istanbul, Namli uses the freshest ingredients to prepare breakfast
as it’s in fact a market that sells those products but has a kitchen and a large seating area
Turkish breakfast selected over the country like a deli style.
Recommended meal: Breakfast
Location: Bebek
Love this place! Everyone does. It’s on a rooftop overlooking the street and the Bosphorus, with
a beautiful terrace. I call it, the place to have pancakes in Istanbul and the place to wake up
falling in love with the city. From the name of the restaurant, you can sense its international feel
with a small touch of Turkish hospitality like everywhere in Istanbul.
Recommended meal: Lunch
Location: Dinner
It’s the only place I travel from Europe to Asia for, crossing the Bosphorus with
4 lira ticket to the busy district of Kadikoy on the Asian side to enjoy the seasonal dishes from the
many regions of Turkey. It’s an experience by itself that can give a very comprehensive idea
about Turkish cuisine from all Turkey’s regions.
Recommended meal: Dinner
Location: Harbiye, Lutfi Kirdar Convention Center
It is where Ottoman cuisine served at its best with silver service and chic ambience. The
restaurant is a classic of Istanbul elite plate, with business and diplomatic crowd inviting their
guests and business partners visiting Istanbul because they are sure that there is no
compromise in serving the authentic Turkish dishes in the most elegant way possible. Highly
recommended to try at least once and then venture into the cities other Kebab and doner places.
Recommended meal: Dinner
Location: Pera, near Istiklal street
A rooftop, lounge where traditional Turkish mezze prepared in a modernised style; they
serve some of the most delicious items you can ever have in Istanbul. The view of the golden
horn and the historic peninsula is breathtaking and the crowd is sociable and ready to have
conversations as the tables are near each other and the music is always mood-uplifting.
Nezih
Recommended meal: breakfast
Location: Rumelihisari
Gaziantep is the city of the most renowned cuisine in Turkey; this place brings to Istanbul
Gaziantep’s delicacies. The breakfast is one of the biggest and most delicious, recommended
for groups and brunch who would like to have a morning Bosphorus experience.
Recommended meal: Dinner
Location: Gumussuyu, near Taksim
Topaz restaurant is known as the Jewel of Istanbul. It serves a neutral fine dining menu that is
appealing to everyone: a good balance between international and ottoman dishes served in a
contemporary way. Amazing ambiance with one of the best view of the Bosporus bridge.
Recommended meal: Lunch and dinner
Location: Kurucemse
Istanbul is cosmopolitan enough to have excellent non-turkish restaurants ran by owners from
different countries. This elegant, cosy winter garden restaurant located inside the peripheries of
Les Ottomans Boutique hotel. Swiss food at its best served on the Bosphorus for a change,
rather than in a ski-resort in the Alps.
Recommended meal: Lunch
Location: Kurucesme
To me, one of the places to eat fish is Turkey, and Park Fora offers one of the best experiences
to enjoy seasonal mezzes and fish in an elegant setting on the Bosphorus. The restaurant is
located in a beautiful park on the Bosphorus. It is a little pricy just like most of seafood places with
style, however Park Fora, unlike most of the others, offers a great value-for-money.
By Talal Al-Rashed
Talal is from Kuwait and based in Istanbul and Dubai. He is a food & hospitality connoisseur and a Glion graduate from Switzerland. Follow him on Instagram and snapchat.
![I found this picture so appropriate that manifests the beauty of my world, my reality, my job and to announce that I am hosting a workshop in DUBAI on the 30th of September at 11am on 'How to start your own blog and be successful on social media'. We've opened a second date since the first date in October got filled in 48 hours. So, for those who want to join, please DM me or contact me on info@traveljunkiediary.com for more information. Spaces are limited so this is a first come first serve workshop.
Love,
Michelle
[Click link in bio]](http://scontent-sjc2-1.cdninstagram.com/t51.2885-15/s320x320/sh0.08/e35/c0.135.1080.1080/21690526_824919851015042_8088657813443706880_n.jpg "I found this picture so appropriate that manifests the beauty of my world, my reality, my job and to announce that I am hosting a workshop in DUBAI on the 30th of September at 11am on 'How to start your own blog and be successful on social media'. We've opened a second date since the first date in October got filled in 48 hours. So, for those who want to join, please DM me or contact me on info@traveljunkiediary.com for more information. Spaces are limited so this is a first come first serve workshop.
Love,
Michelle
[Click link in bio]")
![I struggled to choose a caption for this image because they say that you are what you share on social media, and so, I wanted to make it count.
Being a 'blogger' or a 'traveler' has changed significantly over the past few years. You can’t go on Instagram without stumbling upon hundreds of carefully selected, beautifully crafted images.
The truth is, today, things are not the same as they used to be. Travel has changed and grown. The internet has given us a chance to see the world through people's eyes and to dream of places many of us never even knew existed.
But social media has also changed travel and the nature of blogging. Sharing my travel online has today somewhat been a constant pressure and the staging of every single photo has become the business of every instagrammer.
I have felt the pressure of keeping up and carefully selecting what I chose to share.
I've even promised myself that I would be a leader, not a follower, and stay far away from online traveling trends that would warp my ability to offer my readers the very best & honest tips and insider reports.
The key...is confidence... I had the chance to make every possible mistake and figure out a way to always recover from it. Once you realize that there is life after a mistake, you gain your confidence and that, never goes away,
It goes straight to the heart and once you have that, no one and nothing can take that away from you . . I hope I’ll always have the courage to live a life that’s true to who I am and not the life that others expect of me... 💕[Click link in bio to read the full article] 💕.](http://scontent-sjc2-1.cdninstagram.com/t51.2885-15/s320x320/sh0.08/e35/c0.135.1080.1080/21373823_662059130656487_3200545646851391488_n.jpg "I struggled to choose a caption for this image because they say that you are what you share on social media, and so, I wanted to make it count.
Being a 'blogger' or a 'traveler' has changed significantly over the past few years. You can’t go on Instagram without stumbling upon hundreds of carefully selected, beautifully crafted images.
The truth is, today, things are not the same as they used to be. Travel has changed and grown. The internet has given us a chance to see the world through people's eyes and to dream of places many of us never even knew existed.
But social media has also changed travel and the nature of blogging. Sharing my travel online has today somewhat been a constant pressure and the staging of every single photo has become the business of every instagrammer.
I have felt the pressure of keeping up and carefully selecting what I chose to share.
I've even promised myself that I would be a leader, not a follower, and stay far away from online traveling trends that would warp my ability to offer my readers the very best & honest tips and insider reports.
The key...is confidence... I had the chance to make every possible mistake and figure out a way to always recover from it. Once you realize that there is life after a mistake, you gain your confidence and that, never goes away,
It goes straight to the heart and once you have that, no one and nothing can take that away from you . . I hope I’ll always have the courage to live a life that’s true to who I am and not the life that others expect of me... 💕[Click link in bio to read the full article] 💕.")
