sahra uygur restaurant/SAHRA面馆/中餐 — Restaurant in Fatih

This Uyghur restaurant is a hidden gem in walking distance to the subway station in Aksaray. It is a small place with simple decor, the kitchen is upstairs and the food is delivered through a food elevator.

Their employees are helpful, hardworking people of Uyghur descent, they can communicate in English, Uyghur, Turkish and Mandarin. It is so authentic, most of the customers are from China. Depending on the hour, it can be cramped, but in my experience, you can always find somewhere to sit and they prepare your food quickly.

It is one of the best restaurants on the European side of Istanbul. All of the food they make is addictively delicious, fresh, served in big portions. The prices are surprisingly low for such excellent quality. They take payments in cash or via IBAN.

Thoughts on the dishes I have had:

Beef Noodles in Clear Soup (清汤牛肉面/Dana Etli Sulu Eriste): It is decent, and might be the best option for people who are trying Uyghur food for the first time, or people who prefer mild flavors to spiciness.

Fried Rice Noodles with Chicken (鸡肉炒米粉/Acili Tavuk Pirinc Eristesi): My favorite food in this restaurant. The perfect level of spicy. The chicken meat and vermicelli are cooked very deliciously. 10/10!

Spicy Chicken Noodles (辣子鸡拌面/Acili Tavuk Eristesi): The spiciest dish on the menu, which made me feel uncertain whether I should try it or not, but I am glad that I did, because it tastes spectacular! It was hotter than the other options, but not to the extent of being inedible. Some of the chicken pieces have cartilage, so be careful while eating. Recommended to those who crave super spicy food.

Stir Fry Noodles (干煸炒面/Kavurma Lagmen): Extremely tasty, it has some red meat and mild peppers so it is not spicy by default. I requested them to add more spice which turned out well.

They were all great, and I want to try all of the options on their menu because I am sure they would not disappoint. I am giving 5 stars for how delicious every food I had here was.

As for constructive criticism, I will say that they would benefit from renewing the menu with higher definition pictures and descriptions about the dishes' ingredients, adding a sign outdoors that would make it easier to find, and accepting credit...

This place has all the things I love about mom and pop type of restaurants:

Unpretentious, basic decor but interestingly unusual in its set up. The kitchen is upstairs and serves the food via a food elevator. The restaurant sitting area is literally a glass cube with square tables and chairs. Everything was simple but clean.

The lack of distracting decor allows the main event to take center stage, which is the AMAZING FOOD that they serve here.

Noodles! 🍜 we had cold noodle dishes, soup noodles, stir fried noodles (lagman), and noodles in sauce. All of them were pretty spicy 🌶️ (beware), but the flavors were incredible. The noodles and sauce were tap dancing 🕺🏻 on my tongue and by the end of the meal, it was hard to describe how satisfying it felt.

Hospitality - Munira, the owner who took care of the guests, was a friendly, no-nonsense kind of lady who speaks fluent Chinese, Turkish, Uzbek, and impressive English. She shared with me part of her story how her family came to Turkey and started this restaurant from nothing and now owns three restaurants on the European side. Very impressive and hope they continue their success here in Istanbul.

Price - a noodle dish can range from 100-150 TL. I mean, in this economy…how do they keep those prices so low?? Incredible there were four of us and the bill came out to 500+ TL. That is supreme value. Oh yes, CASH ONLY! don’t forget.

I’m only sad that I took photos AFTER the meal so I can’t show you how luscious those noodles looked.

One comment - I wish they sold ayran, a yogurt drink, to help temper the spicy ness of the noodle sauces. Please, add some...

Went there with my friend and we were feeling not welcome . Hot as it was , when we went inside , the ladies didn’t try to even say a hi , and let us wait strangely standing . The waiting time for the food was pretty insane . After I finished the noodle and our main dish was not even half way done . We order the spicy chicken with potatoes, and it was also supposed to be served with noodles , but where was our noodle ? The chicken pieces were so dry and tasteless but super spicy . We couldn’t even be able to try too much and we requested that to be taken away . Instead of helping us , the lady in dress simply gave us a packing box rudely on the table , which was unwelcoming at all . I have tried Uyghur food in many different countries , but it was the worst among all . If you are near the restaurant area , you may give it try , but if you reside far , highly not recommended to waste your time for some unoriginal food with...