Yarımada Balık Restoran — Restaurant in Beyoğlu

I visited this restaurant the night before the city lights were turned on. The space is quite limited, and not all tables are by the window. As a solo traveler, I was seated at a table away from the window, so unfortunately I didn’t get much of a view. There was an empty window-side table marked as “reserved,” but later I saw a couple from another table moved there — clearly, the "reserved" sign was just for appearances.

At one point, I awkwardly squeezed over to the corner of their table just to snap a quick photo of the view — which felt a little embarrassing. And in the end, I realized the night view photo I took later from the ferry between Karaköy and Kadıköy was even better than the one I got from the restaurant. Honestly, I couldn’t help but wonder why I crossed the Bosphorus just for this dinner. 😅

I originally wanted to give 3 stars, but I’m adding one more because the staff (possibly the owner) was considerate — when I tried to order more food than I could finish, they gently suggested what I had was already enough. It didn’t feel like they were trying to upsell, which I appreciated.

Overall, I’d say this place is only worth it if you can get a window-side seat. Otherwise, the experience is pretty average, and the...

Made our day.

We were just at the best restaurant in town. The restaurant and the attitude of Artur are simply wonderful. The value for money, the quality of the food, the honest service, and the unbelievably awesome view are just too good. It's like seating in the first row watching over the epic landscape of Istanbul started with the Topkapi Castle over to the Hagia Sofia and all other impressive mosques while eating delicious food.

Our day did not start as perfect as it ended. We were really down today because of the massive number of tourist traps, rip-offs, etc. Everytime we sat down in some random restaurant and didn't google it for some time, we unfortunately got bad quality and overpriced food and service. Everything felt expensive and like a scam.

The Yamada Balkin Restaurant and the good service of Artur just blew away the bad impressions of today, and now we're going to bed extremely happy.

I highly recommend anyone visiting Istanbul to visit this restaurant and fully trust Artur's recommendations. I swear you won't forget...

me and my boyfriend had dinner here tonight and WOW, just wow! where do i begin… the view is breathtaking, the second you step in you feel like you’re in heaven, the service is immaculate, all the waiters were extremely nice and helpful with everything, they helped us choose the food, the portions, everything! the food was 10/10 and i recommend especially the dessert (cinnamon and apple, don’t remember the name :/) and the shrimps, incredibly good, incredibly!!! the chef was super super nice and friendly as well, so we recommend saying hi :) it is a bit difficult to find, but trust google maps and follow the map, there are no neon lights, just a sign indicating a door, it’s there! i can’t recommend this place enough, and we are already looking forward to our next visit to Istanbul to come back to this...