Her Alem Ocakbaşı — Attraction in Şişli

This was the best food and service that we had in Istanbul by far after eating at kebab places across karakoy, galata, kadikoy, and Sultanahmet! Yes, there are people smoking everywhere, so if you can't handle that, this may not be the place for you. But smoking in turkey is so common that you know this place is just full of locals, so stop by on your way into the city from the airport, but probably not on the way back to the airport if you don't want to smell 😅 before your flight.

There are some reviews that claim scam for tourists but we were provided a digital qr menu that had turkish first and then english in parenthesis. The staff will bring over water which is free and a tray of mezze that you can choose from and you can see the prices in the digital menu. Most we saw were 155 lira. If you arent sure, just ask! The staff is more than friendly and very passionate about the food they serve.

We enjoyed a starter mezze with bread and then ordered the eggplant kebab and the lamb ribs. It was so good. The lamb ribs were on the fattier side but we LOVE that type of lamb rib. The host showed us how to properly eat the eggplant kebab and for dessert he recommended the katmer with ice cream, which is truly the superior baklava and put us into a food coma.

We spent 2000 lira in total for 2 (obviously not the cheapest meal) but we found the pricing to be fair among sit-down restaurants that werent durum, doner or cafeteria style restaurants that charged similar or more for food that was average. We were also charged a 10% service fee, but as Americans, we are less phased by that unfortunately and honestly, the service we received made it...

In one sentence "They robbed us". If you're a tourist I suggest not to go there even if you have nothing to eat. First, we didn't check the bill there and they put something there with 1200 TL that we didn't order and I don't know what that is. Second, when we decided to pay the check, they brought a broken machine that our credit cards - 2 different cards, which worked everywhere in Istanbul- couldn't pay with that, and we didn't have that much money TL in cash. They offered us to pay in USD and that moment we checked the exchange rate and it was 27.62, but they said we accept it at 26 and no more. 😐😨😨 We didn't have any other options, so we paid.

Telling the truth, the food was very delicious and the staff (except the saloon manager, the great thief) were friendly.

That was our worst experience...

4.25

💶 Price/Value: not the most affordable restaurant, but still good price for value in this area.

🕯️Ambience/Athmosphere: usually quite busy, nice ambience though. You can see the kitchen hand have a terrace setting.

🧀 Food: specialised on kebab of different sorts. They offer a wide array of side dishes and starters, that can be highly recommended.

🍷Drinks: basically everything you would want, including quite nice local beer from tap.

🗣️ Staff: a bit busy, but very quick and attentive. Only a few waiters speak any English.

Seems to be a restaurant that targets a more local audience, so I guess you will get a more authentic...