Divella Bistro Restaurant — Restaurant in Fatih

WOULD NOT RECOMMEND.

I decided to leave a review only after a few days in Istanbul to make sure I have a good idea of the culture in this area. Please do not be fooled by good reviews in restaurants here. I have learned that many are fake, and even the hotels are in on it. Hotel staff recommend places that are overpriced and obvious tourist traps, even when asked to recommend lower priced places that are less touristy.

THE REVIEW We had lunch in this restaurant on our first day in Istanbul.

Firstly, the food is not bad but nothing fantastic. We ordered the lamb kebab, eggplant and stuffed mussels. The stuffed mussels were average. The lamb kebab was nice and tender, and the eggplant was the best of the lot.

But I am giving 1 star for three reasons.

First reason. I don’t mind being asked to leave reviews on Google Maps (I usually do anyway) but it left a bad taste in the mouth when the staff asked to mention his name in the review AND to give a 5-star review (shouldn’t this be up to me to decide). I get the impression that this is a common practice in Istanbul.

Second reason, when deciding on what to order, the staff only pointed out all the priciest stuff on the menu.

Third and main reason, our total bill came up to 2090 Turkish lira. As it was our first day there, we only had notes in 200 cash denominations, so I gave 2200, expecting a change of 110. It never came. It became a bit of a waiting game, with us sitting at the table waiting at the table, and the staff hanging around looking at us. We eventually decided to just let it go and stood up, and that’s when the guy who had been serving us quickly came over to say goodbye and open the door for us.

Horrible tactics. WOULD...

A group of five of us travelled from Athens to Istanbul and had dinner at Divella. We were overcharged and when we expressed it to the owner, immediately there was extreme tension, we were all angry and we left the restaurant in a tense atmosphere. For us it was upsetting, not so much for the money but for respect reasons, we felt disappointed and that we cannot trust people in the city. The following day, the owner contacted us because he wanted to apologize and he wanted to return the whole amount back to us. It was a pleasant surprise for us of course, again not for the money but for the whole unfortunate incident. We went back to the restaurant, he explained his situation and we explained ours, he apologized and he gave us the money. Of course we did not accept the whole amount but only what had been overcharged. I must say I was pleasantly surprised by his move. I truely believe it was an unfortunate incident, we all have bad moments and among different cultures things like that happen. The food and wine we had was tasty and of good quality, the atmosphere in the restaurant is relaxing, it is located at a very good spot, but most of all, the owner took the initiative to make things right and he proved that he had not acted on...

The restaurant itself looks really nice, and its superb 4.8 stars on Google maps were the very reason my wife and I, tired and extremely hungry, nearly eating each other at that point, went here for dinner.

The waiters were nice, their English was so that we did understand each other, and I don't ask for more. They served the meat casserole really quickly, and before that they served us this famous (from other reviews) bread with salted olive dip without asking, so I guess it's free. Nice! And everything was good and tasty, and the only downside was the price. But hey, it's the restaurant street, of course dining here would be overpriced!

And then I did the math. The meat casserole is 580, we ordered 2, so that would be 1160, plus 150 for fresh orange juice (despite the fact that we ordered the 70 lira juice, damn these language barriers). 1310 liras in total.

But we paid 1518... Where did the two hundred liras go?

It may be too petty of me to whine about just a two hundred liras vanishing into the thin air, but it feels like a scam. Whether the bread we didn't ask for wasn't free, or that person in the reviews was right about the service fee, I don't know. What I know is you should be careful and...