Galata Kahvesi — Restaurant in Beyoğlu

⚠️ Dangerous experience at this place – Threatened with a knife by the chef, beware.

I had visited this café-restaurant several times during my stay in Istanbul because I found one of the servers, Yahya, extremely kind and welcoming. Honestly, Yahya was the best server I encountered during my entire trip in Turkey, and thanks to him, I decided to come back multiple times.

However, my last visit turned into a very negative and disturbing experience. This happened on Monday, April 28th, around 7:30 PM. (Yahya was not present that evening.)

At one point, I went to the restroom to throw away a piece of paper and an empty water bottle. The door was open because I didn’t need to close it just to use the trash can.

Suddenly, the chef walked by, slammed the door violently, and yelled at me to close it. I tried to explain calmly that there was no need to shout — I was simply throwing something away. Instead of calming down, he yelled at me again and gave me an aggressive, threatening look, as if he wanted to start a fight.

When I returned to the main area, I explained what had happened to the server who was there (different from Yahya). Meanwhile, the chef picked up a large kitchen knife (around 20 cm) and started swinging it aggressively while staring at me with anger — clearly in a threatening way. Shockingly, the server did not intervene, and only told me to “stay calm” and said he would “talk to the chef later.”

What made the situation even worse is that the server tried to gaslight me. While I pointed out that the chef had threatened me with a knife right in front of him, the server kept saying, “Yeah, but you also need to calm down.” When I insisted, “But you saw him threatening me with a knife!”, he replied, “Yes, but I saw you were also not happy.” Of course I was angry — anyone would be upset if they were threatened with a knife! Instead of addressing the unacceptable behavior, they tried to make me feel like I was overreacting.

After that, I tried to finish the juice I was drinking with my girlfriend, but the chef deliberately came behind me and started smoking a cigarette right next to us inside the café, making me feel extremely unsafe. I told my girlfriend we should leave immediately. As we walked out into the street, the chef followed us outside, watched us, and even laughed at us as we were leaving — which was extremely disturbing and intimidating.

This experience was absolutely unacceptable. It’s a real shame, because the service in the mornings — especially with Yahya — had been excellent, and the food was honestly good. But after what happened, I can no longer recommend this place at all. I did not feel safe, I felt directly threatened, and I was even gaslighted by the staff when I tried to report...

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