Konyali Restaurant — Restaurant in Fatih

Perfect place! Food, ambiance and service 12 out of 10! Top notch! Food is delicious. Also Honest people! We wanted to tip extra 10% on the bill, and the waiter told us “it is already included, you don’t need to tip”. Me and my husband said: “then we definitely tip more, because you have been honest”. Often restaurants add a secret 10% service charge and they do not even mention it. This makes us upset and we choose not to tip at all to this type of secret-service-charges. However positively, this restaurant waiter (brown/grey hair with glasses, we forgot his name) was very honest. We liked the honest approach!

Also service is high quality/ I dropped my knife and without me even lifting my head, there was another knife immediately replaced under my hand. You cannot even have this service level at Michelin star restaurants.

Our only feedback was that it would be a good idea to separate the terrace into two: smokers and non-smokers. For a non-smoker, it is not very nice to be surrounded by smokers, the food gets a bit stuck in the throat/ we told it, and the waiter agreed, and said he would mention our suggestion to...

Ate here today (at Topkapi Palace). Food was regrettably very, very average. The meat was slightly on the tough side. I think the dishes are 'westernised' because they served the kebap with mash potato and steamed vegetables. The bread was not fresh. It was dry. As dry as this sentence.

The service was unimpressive and uninterested, though polite and attentive, which is standard Turkish fare. I asked for water and they brought me a bottle, which was expensive. The food is very expensive considering the quality. A cup of Turkish coffee cost 10.5 TL (4 euro). The shish was 44 TL from memory (could be wrong).

They also slapped me with some unexpected additional charges, which brought my bill from the expected 60 TL to 80 TL. There was an 11% tip, some sort of tax, and some sort of service charge.

The view was spectacular, but one can get a spectacular view of the Bosphorus pretty much anywhere else in this part of Istanbul.

Verdict: do not eat here.

(P.S. the waitresses were wearing some sort of tacky 'Ottoman-style' dress complete with slippers, whereas the waiters were in regular shirt and...

Konyalı Lezzet Lokantası-Sirkeci Konyalı Diner is one of the oldest proper Turkish brands. It was established in 1897 and is still going strong. The other brands that come immediately to my mind are Ali Muhittin Hacı Bekir (sweets and Turkish delight) and Rebul (lavender eau de Cologne, possibly the world's best). Konyalı has one other branch inside the Topkapı museum. My review is about the Sirkeci branch but quality wise it should be the same everywhere. While you are visiting İstanbul, chances are high that you will be around the Old Town, Topkapı Palace. Sirkeci is downhill from it and Konyalı is opposite the main train terminal. Be there at 12:00 before the crowd comes in because there are limited tables. My favorite menu is Turkish döner and pilav. This pilav is no ordinary white rice dish, it's got raisins, pistachios and almond cooked together and it's delicious. You will finish this meal with Turkish baklava and decide to come back again. The prices are acceptable by Turkish standards and very cheap converted to...