Banyan Restaurant — Restaurant in Beşiktaş

Scam!! DO NOT GO HERE. Literally the worst New Years ever. I have never left a negative review in my life but this experience was the limit. We came from California, USA to Istanbul and picked this place for NYE. Everything was going good until midnight hit and New Years came. At literally 12:03 am the waiter came to us saying “you need to pay the half amount now.” No problem my husband gave him the credit card. The waiter ran the credit card 3x and said it’s not working. Surprisingly, the same thing happened to the table next to us and the one next to them. So many arguments happening left and right post midnight. They also said to them their card declined as well. Then the waiter told us and the table next to us that they only accept cash for the remaining amount. We asked why this info was not included in the confirmation email? To which they had nothing to say. We went to the manager and he also said we only accept cash for the remaining 50% of the payment. We also asked him why this info not included in the email? We didn’t have enough cash but we’re willing to pay whatever amount it was with card to which they said no. After argument with them they confessed that they don’t accept card is because they have to pay tax to the government. Are you kidding me???! they ruined our New Years for that??! Like even if that is the case let us know beforehand so we come prepared. Why at 12:03am into New Years?! We usually go to different countries for NYE, last year in Dubai, the year before Paris, the year before Singapore, and never had to deal with this kind of situation. Literally worst way to start the New Years over small amount of money. We were willing to pay more with credit card but nooo they only wanted cash so they could pocket some extra money from us. SCAM and greedy people at Banyan. Save your money and don’t come here especially for NYE. food was barely average. Go to the streets if Istanbul and you’ll find better food. The whole “Michelin Star” is a scam! How can you be Michelin and lie about accepting credit card? After all that argument they said that they’ll accept the card and the machine worked the very first time when they swiped our credit card. Hmmm not suspicious at all. They did all this for literally $64 USD. We were willing to give them even more than that amount with credit card. So that says a lot. On that note, DO NOT GO HERE. And note to management : WRITE IN YOUR CONFIRMATION EMAIL what you are telling people here in person. I would rather pay the whole amount upfront when booking to avoid this nonsense. do not ruin peoples New Years over money. Not worth it. Do better or else no one would...

It was our last day of Istanbul and my girlfriend and I wanted to save a special restaurant hence why we chose banyan given its reviews.

The decor and ambience of the restaurant is incredible with amazing views of the bridge and Byzantine mosque.

Unfortunately our experience was ruined by the service.

Firstly when our waiter was taking our order he had to stop 3 times to serve food to other tables which was very rude and surprising

We ordered 6 dishes - we received 2 within 1 hour 10 minutes. This delay was very annoying and when asked we were told they delivered our food to a different table.

At the end of the dinner we honestly expected a Michelin starred restaurant to appreciate and accommodate for our severe delays. When we asked our waiter, he went to the restaraunt manager and again we waited for 10 minutes to receive a response.

After finally talking to restaurant manager, we received a 10% discount of only 3 items which were deemed ‘late’ according to the restaurant, not taking into account the overall delay to our evening.

This overalls discount amounted to 100 lira (5 pounds) from a bill of £150. Given how late everything was and the service we would have expected a much more accommodating service given our experience.

The food overall was good and would recommend in terms of quality. However I feel the service was very lacking and does not reflect the food. Very disappointing and poor reflection on not only the Michelin standard but generally...

We were looking for a restaurant with a nice view to the Bosphorus and so we were so happy to find this place.

The food was okay, nice presentation but the taste could be better. The dessert was good though. The drink was quite expensive. We ordered two glasses of Prosecco, which was okay. But the Mojito were so sour.

We knew it would be overpriced, but the view is quite amazing so we didn't feel bad about the price. We didn't even checked the Bill when it came about 537 lira. (The most expensive dinner and drink we ever had in Istanbul). And the waiter said it didn't include the tax and service charge which has to be paid in cash.

So without any doubt, we paid and even tip the waiter. But the disappointment came afterwards. We checked the Bill when we were back at the hotel and were so surprised to find that they had tricked us.

They made us pay for the service charge twice since it was already included. And there was also a meal in the bill that we didn't order. So they made us paid extra 116 lira.

We will never go back to Banyan anymore. We never thought such a nice expensive restaurant like that would do such a thing. We were so disappointed.

Update: we went back to Banyan the next day and complain to the employees there. Surprisingly, they just asked how much was the money we lost and give it back right away. It's like it was something...