Ali Ocakbaşı Karaköy — Restaurant in Beyoğlu

First I must say the food was absolutely delicious. We were lucky to have gotten a table with the ideal night view right as we arrived. We struggled a bit with ordering. The gentleman didn’t speak much English, couldn’t give me any recommendations, and unfortunately did not take our order correctly. The reason I feel like I want to take a star away was how he handled it. After we had finished other plates, we asked if the lamb chops were still coming, if not we would like to pay and leave. He didn’t quite understand me, so he just left. I tried to get his attention again, we made eye contact, but he just ignored me every time. Because of the communication difficulties I could not find out if he had ordered it or not. Finally after a couple more tries I got a gentleman that could help me. They sold out of the lamb chops. That was fine and we wanted to just leave because we were tired. The place was packed so we waited a long time for our food all together and were ready to leave. The chef was very apologetic and insisted on offering another dish. I couldn’t give a five star rating because of this experience. I pointed at every single item I wanted to order and the server repeated each back to me. He acted like we didn’t order it. If he could have just notified others to help or tell me he didn’t understand that would have been fine too. We just barely got any service from him, while other English speaking customers enjoyed their night and chatted with the servers, I struggled to even get anyone to check on my food. Instead of letting us leave were sold a different dish with more waters. To us we just wanted to have a meal. We didn’t even know this was a Michelin starred restaurant. Please check if you should increase the amount of staff you have. I guess he was too busy with too many tables to give us the...

Was originally trying to find a restaurant serving Iskender kebap but when the reviews mentioned the pistachio kebap.. well we booked (on line) right away. Had a bit of trouble finding it. Signage is a little subtle (see photo). We initially walked past and got harassed by hawkers down the street trying to divert us to the wrong restaurant. Fortunately someone else directed us correctly and the very pleasant “doorman” helped us to the elevator.

Emrah and the staff were very attentive and pleasant. The mese presentation was marvellous (and a bit overwhelming). If you are on a budget be a bit careful as it can be very easy to over pick:). Also the very attentive staff somewhat urgently opened us another bottle of water to fill our glasses even though we didn’t ask. And when we were asking for the bill we somehow ended up with tea.

All was very good but you need to be assertive if you don’t want something (and not be charged for it).

More expensive than other nearby options but we still felt it was very much good value.

The kebap was everything other reviews said it was.

And the views were spectacular.

We were invited to go up to the rooftop patio for further views. It was here that we noted that smoking was allowed, which made us glad we were not placed there, and why we give 4 and not 5 stars.

Would otherwise...

Service is quite bad and disappointing if you don't bring your camera and pretend to be an influencer. First they push you mezzes and then forget to bring the bread. I had to wave for 5 minutes to get bread to eat with the mezzes. Then another 10min waving at waiters to order food.. for 3 times was told to wait a bit, while the table next to me had amazing servic3. Then the lamb ribs were horrible. Only bones and fat. What a scam! Some kebab have a description on the menu that they "forget" to bring to the table... while table next had the most beautiful and complete plates. Dessert kartmer was ok. But the table next to us, with wannabe influencers and a gopro filming it all, had a MUCH BETTER SERVICE. They putted pistachio and lots of ice cream. My version with no pistachio and almost no ice cream. Also forget about turkish hospitality. No one offered for turkish tea (something that in every single place happens). Well, table next to us got it all without asking. It's a shame that a place with potential has this kind of attitude. It's horrible to feel being treated differently and to have such a bad service and attention bc I was not filming it all. So if you want to come and have a good service and experience, record it all and pretend to be an influencer and you may not be...