Ağababa Döner & Yemek Restaurant — Restaurant in Ümraniye

Being a tourist in Istanbul from the UK, and having seen their incredibly well produced videos on Instagram, it added onto one of my reasons to visit Istanbul. I'm currently staying in Fatih which is the tourist part of the city, where thy majority of the sites are. Here's the thing, this place happens to be deep into the Anatolia side of the city, deep inside the residential parts of the city where the common folks of this city live. After seeing the location on Google maps, and knowing how much taxi fare it would cost me to get there from where I'm staying, I decided to go because I was that intent (going there & coming back cost 600 liras for taxi in total). When I got there, was greeted by friendly waitress (very beautiful too ☺). I was seated. I placed my order, got myself the mixed platter, as I got to try everything, including the square sheet of beef donner. The chicken shish was tenderised, the lamb shish was too. The kofte was very good. Everything about this place was phenomenal, this is something that deserves to be in the main city for tourists as we'd love it. I noticed the prices were reasonable, if not, then cheaper than the places in Fatih. I made conversation with a number of managers there, they were happy that their Instagram videos were spreading on Instagram (and YouTube), and the marketing tactics were working, as they had other customers from foreign countries too. Quiet recently, I noticed there is a new trend going on in Istanbul, where this concept of square shaped donner is being more adopted, and being beef, as its become easier to slice & serve ? Before arriving to Istanbul, I thought this was the only place or the innovator, as I didn't come across others that did this. I ordered more of that square donner sheets, because it tasted that good. All in all, I'm happy with my experience eating here. I wish them all the best, and hopefully they'll open more branches in the...

I drove 1.5 hours to try this place after seeing it all over TikTok and unfortunately, it was a letdown. The taste, pricing, portion size, and service were all disappointing. To top it off, I found a hair on my table definitely not the experience I was hoping for.

One thing that felt off was the menu had no prices. Even more strange, before I was even handed the menu, I was asked where I was from. It made me wonder if they change their pricing based on whether you’re local or a tourist. I can’t confirm that, but it didn’t sit right with me.

The server was unfriendly and abrupt. He showed me the appetizer menu and asked, “What do you want?” in a blunt, almost aggressive tone no greeting, no explanation. I did order the grape leaves, which turned out to be the highlight of the meal perfectly balanced between sweet and sour.

As for the main dishes, my daughter and I ordered the Iskender kebap and the döner over rice. The Iskender had a little more flavor, but half the plate was just plain yogurt that overwhelmed everything else. The döner over rice was exactly that just dry meat over plain rice, with no sauce or seasoning. And the portion sizes were noticeably smaller than what’s advertised online.

On a positive note, the food did come out fast, which was appreciated. But the drink I ordered some kind of blackberry lemonade didn’t show up until halfway through the meal, and only after I asked for it.

Overall, the experience just didn’t match the social media hype. Definitely not...

Clean, amazing staff, lovely food.

We came here after seeing this place on TikTok- and we actually arrived very close to closing time. However, the staff were wonderful and didn’t want to leave us hungry with all our luggage. They seated us and didn’t rush us, and then packed leftover food for us!

The food was impeccable- definitely worth the hype. Iskender kebab meat was cooked til edges crisp and the juicy parts were still tender. Rice was not dry, sticky and tasted a bit like the kebab. The whole dish was cohesive and very filling for 100g.

The staff are honestly the star of the show, which is a shame to say when the food is amazing too!! The staff stayed back to help us book a taxi, which was honestly lovely.

Thank you staff, we will be...