Arada Beyrut — Restaurant in Beyoğlu

I spent about 5 minutes reviewing the local selection of restaurants, electing to visit the cafe across the street from my hotel until my last morning in Turkey. I choose a local lavender Cafe 6 minutes away since I enjoy lavender. I walked to the cafe and before reaching the door I saw an extravagant garden-esk restaurant named Arada, a Lebanese restaurant. After a moment staring at the two, wanting a traditional Turkish breakfast, I choose Arada.

After being sat at a two person table at the side of the room, I waited for the waitress to bring a menu. I was eventually instructed I could find the restaurant menu online via the QR code in front of me 😁. I scrolled through the menu, reviewing each item they had but not really interested. I desired a traditional Turkish breakfast, which was nowhere to be found. A couple minutes later I was informed the only item available on the menu was the traditional Turkish Lebanese mixed breakfast. ( So why the menu?) I had reviewed the mixed breakfast option but it was extremely intimidating, as the picture displayed a table full of food and I was alone.

Nonetheless I agreed, and the fun then began. The waiter asked if I would like Turkish tea. I said yes and she brought out a traditional Turkish tea set, proceeding to explain the process and how to control the tea strength.

A couple minutes later a sequence of 3 waitresses came by with platter after platter of food. They each left dishes of various types of hummus, eggs, jam, pastries, bread, cheese, yogurt, olives, yogurt, and vegetables. One of the waitresses provided different choices from the olives and jam selection. I elected to follow the suggestion of the waitresses and let her guide me through this journey.

To say I was intimidated and excited is an understatement. I slowing grabbed a piece of bread and broke it. Unbeknownst to me this is when the real excitement began. With each dip into a hummus dish I was greeted with a new unique flavor.

My first dish was that of a slightly familiar hummus flavor, with added fresh garlic. This i knew and felt the restaurant was serving decent food. The next was your traditional hummus, but much fresher. 100x better than your common store bought option. My third test was of the beetroot. This was when I realized I was on an exploration of new flavor combinations never having touched my pallet.

With each bowl tested, each olive eaten, and every bit of cheese bitten, the hairs on my neck began to raise. Each flavor introduced me to a new sense of excitement. The succession of flavors of beetroot, Olive, fennel, garlic, fig, carrot, kiwi, apple, and so many others brought a never before tear to the eye. Any hesitation I once had over this immense meal rapidly subsided.

Over the course of a 1.5 hours i was transported to a new world. A world of Lebanese and Turkish flavors unlike the American world. One of excitement, one of undiscovered flavors, one served even better with companions. Any length of time in this world is never enough.

As I grew more full over time i became disappointed. The realization that my journey would soon end was not something to look forward to. Even so, I was excited to have experienced such an other worldly experience. To say I would recommend Arada is unworthy of the food, the restaurant, and the traditions they are carrying on.

Visiting Arada is alone worth coming to Istanbul. This is a MUST stop location if you are in country for any length of time. Compliments to the chef, the staff, the owner,...

This is a honest review. The food is really good, but the place lacks clarity on the way it works. If you go there before lunch, you only have the breakfast set menu as an option, even though they let the full menu outside. The set menu was 999TL/person when we visited the place (it will likely be more than that by the time you’re reading this review) and you can’t share it, meaning that each person on the table will have to pay that. Because of the lack of clarity, I saw 4 different groups entering the place, seating and then leaving after the waiter comes and explains how it works. I saw a few groups that tried to understand if they could share one set menu with more people and the answer was always no.

The service was inconsistent, one waitress made us feel like she was doing us a favor, but the rest was friendly and helpful.

The food is tasty and high quality, but it’s a loooot for one person. It’s good because you try a bit of everything, but there’s a lot of waste. I’ve seen several tables that left almost half of the meal.

My recommendation for the restaurant: leave more options on the menu for breakfast to avoid food waste and welcome those who don’t want to spend that much money for breakfast.

My recommendation for people interested in going there: go if you’re very hungry and try to use this feast as brunch rather than a breakfast, this way you feel like you overpaid for breakfast as the food...

Arada Café is a lebanese restaurant on a quiet street in busy Beyoglu. We tried many different dishes from the menue as we were a large group. Starters were fattoush salad, eggplant salad, baba ghanoush and various complimentary arabic dips along with bread. Fattoush salad was good and fresh, but we had better fattoush salad in the past. Baba ghanoush was nice, but too much lemon and barely any garlic. Dips were nice but nothing really memorable. Mains were chicken shawarma, chicken with lemon, burger, chicken kebap, eggplant with yoghurt and falafel wrap. Chicken shawarma was good in taste, but we definitely had better shawarmas in the past. Chicken with lemon was overloaded with parsley. Burger was nice but nothing special. Eggplant in yoghurt was very good as well as the falafel wrap. Homemade fruits cocktails were good. Staff was very friendly and attentive. Interior and outdoor terrace were modern and nicely decorated. Especially the outdoor terrace is very enjoyable to sit on. Prices are normal for tourists but very expensive for locals. Looking at value for money, food is probably a bit overpriced for the quality you get in return as we have been to excellent lebanese restaurants in the past. Nevertheless definitely...