Altan Şekerleme — Local services in Fatih

As a tourist, I've always wanted to try authentic lokum but found the bazaars intimidating and the high-end shops like HM and others over priced. This place has none of those. In fact it caters to locals and sells their high quality lokums without the marketing and touting, I would say a traditional candy shop. Walked in at 645pm just before they are closed, still managed to be shown around the shop, tried a bunch of lokums. Prices are definitely reasonable, 400TL/kg for lokums, and 800TL/kg for the ones with pistachios (I skipped the candies and chocolate coated almonds) . The ones with pistachios were amazing and we liked it despite not having the sweet tooth. They sell by weight and they have different packages (they weigh before packing and tell you the weight) : a simple paper bag for grab and snack, 300g boxes, 500g boxes, 1kg boxes. They can even tie a ribbon on the boxes which are meant for gifting. We left with about 800TL of approx 1kg lokums (mixed) and highly satisfied. Highly recommended if you are interested in lokums but are scared of being touted or paying too much. It also a short walk from...

I used google and Altan Sekerleme was up there in top 3 best Turkish delight in Istanbul. I truly expected it to be very delicious and I bought 7 packs (of 500gm each). Unfortunately we visited Istanbul during Ramadan 2018 so I couldn’t have tasted it at the shop otherwise I wouldn’t have bought that much. We were served by the shop owner, an old man who was kind and helpful. Now the Turkish delight had absolutely nothing special about it and to be honest didn’t taste good at all, it was more like a normal jelly sweet. I thought maybe that was just me but neither my kids or my wife liked them too. Back home I distributed the packs to friends and family and no one praised the Turkish delights, rather some wanted to leave me their pack after they tried the sweet...

The Turkish delights are okay, if a little bit dry.The main issue, however, lies in the quality-to-price ratio. Firstly, the prices were not displayed, and we only learned the total cost after everything was packed. The employees spoke broken English and couldn't provide the prices, which led to a quid pro quo, and the total was twice what we intended it to be. A quality that could be found on every street corner, yet the prices are comparable to Hafiz Mustafa's, the most renowned and pricey Turkish delight shop in Turkey. When we asked why the prices where nowhere to be seen, the employees' excuse was that it was out of...