Buyruk Esnaf Lokantası | 1980'den Bugüne | Lezzet Adresi | Osmanlı Mutfağı | Sirkeci Lokanta — Restaurant in Fatih

Balkan Restaurant is one of the best places in Istanbul to have traditional Turkish food. Good service is enough with a reasonable price and comprehensive option, spotless and affordable. Balkan Restaurant is a Self-service. It has different dessert choices as well. Seats are available on the ground and underground floors. It will be better if they can keep the toilet clean by checking frequently. Before you sit, you will take all your food and drinks. Mostly it is crowded by the workers working around there, and it is sometimes full of tourists. They accept credit cards bank, transfers, and cash for paying your meal. It’s like an open buffet, you can choose from anything you like from the display, and you pay based on the foods you choose. Except for the fish, all the meat options are there, Except for the fish all the meat options are there including turkey. There is no alcohol!!! It is tough to find such kinds of restaurants all over Istanbul. There are some, and it isn't easy to find such places all over Istanbul. There are some, but the quality is not...

Delicious food. For 2 people we paid around 1,200 TL for rice, 4 mains, soup, salad, ayran and bread. All the food was still hot when we got it, which was a common complaint I read at other esnaf lokantas. The staff were really kind and helpful and not pushy for us to come in, which was a relief as when you walk pass restaurants en route, there is a lot more typical inviting/selling culture.

The beans and a bowl of hot spicy lentil soup were our favorites.

The staff serving the dishes were joking around with us, patient and gave us some recommendations. The staff know enough English to help us out with the food selection

I really enjoy the aspect of getting to try a range of different food, and also getting to look at it was a huge bonus.

Note not everything on the menu is what they'll sell, I think it depends what is made on that day and what they have left at the time you arrive.

We got there around 8pm and didn't have any issue getting a table inside. They also have some overflow tables outside in front of another...

Found this delightful cafeteria style restaurant serving genuine Turkish food, quite by chance today, while walking around for a reasonably priced place for lunch. Every restaurant in the area was overpriced as can be expected, since we were in the touristy area around Sultanahmet. We saw a vast selection of dishes on display in Balkan Lokantasi, most of which we did not recognise, but decided to take a chance. However, each dish that we picked was fresh, tasty and filling. Each dish is served as individual portions and between the three of us, we selected over 8 types of dishes - meat stews, chick peas, lentil soup, etc and each was very reasonably priced between 20-35 TKL. I would definitely recommend if you would like to taste good and decently priced food other than Kebab, Doner, Pita, etc, while in...