Old Sultanahmet Cuisine Restaurant — Restaurant in Fatih

I hate restaurants with street hawkers trying to get you in the restaurant. We were hungry and it was late, so we gave in and tried the place. The place is cute inside and all the staff are very friendly. The food and service were actually REALLY good. So why only 2 stars?

-1 star for serving water without ordering it. We were studying the menu and suddenly we had two filled glasses of water. Standard rip off of restaurants serving something not asked for to tourists. I was going to order water anyway, but still, they should have asked or not served it until it was ordered.

-1 more star for the 10% “tax”. Tax is required by law to be included in the price on the menu. There is nothing on the menu stating that tax is not included, so beware of this tourist rip off. We were going to leave a 10% tip anyway, then they asked if I wanted to add a tip to the bill. I questioned the 10% and figured there would be no additional tip and that I would be posting this warning to other diners.

-1 additional star for smoking inside. Again, it is against Turkish law to allow smoking inside restaurants unless the restaurant meets specific ventilation guidelines. People were smoking and vaping indoor.

One more thing I would really recommend if you eat here, keep track of what you order and check the receipt. One thing I did not do was check their addition on the bill total (always in favor of the restaurant). I have since read that this is another tourist ripoff to watch out for and since the serve stuff not ordered and add a 10% “tax”, it would not surprise me, but I cannot positively say this place did that.

Had it not been for these three things, I would have given the...

We ordered 2 soups as entre and 2 standard dishes: a kebab and a kofte.

At first the staff were nice and pleasant but the service and food were the main issue.

First without asking they served us water, next the soups were nothing more than instant soups from brands like Knorr, prepared in a microwave, so a blend taste with no flavour.

For the main dishes, the rice was mushy and the meat was overfilled with spices, a failed attempt to hide the horrible taste of the bad quality meat.

The atmosphere was ok except for the choice of music which instead of traditional local Turkish we got the usual top global songs on Spotify.

And last the check , hand written, also they bumped the prices in comparison to the original menu and like salt on wound the automatic added 10% tip was so undeserved and if not for my wife's insistence i wouldn't have paid it.

Overall a bad experience and I don't recommend...

Sooooo. About this old chic restaurant Old Sultan Ahmet Cuisine before I come here to eat i read all the reviews of the guests before me. I saw many good reviews and also some not so good about this place but after I tried myself I will tell you my thoughts about it.  This place has an amazing old structure like in old days combined with new elements. The staff is very friendly and helpful. Hmmm let's talk about food because that's why I was here.  If you order everything starting from salads or grilled food etc. Me and my wife were very satisfied about all we ordered.  The wine and beer was very enjoyable.  So if you want to come over and try the cuisine of this restaurant don't look at some of the bads reviews because in my opinion some were a little bit haters.  So dear travelers enjoy your stay in Istambul and your meals at Old Sultan...