Saltanat Grill kebab & fish house — Restaurant in Fatih

Saltanat BBQ House, still miss you.

I stumbled upon this restaurant through Trip Advisor while on a vacation to Turkey, the primary reason of going here was that it was so close to our hotel and my wife and I were tired from walking all day. When we reached the restaurant, I thought "Why is it so highly rated and empty?" but I was happy with the quiet environment as we needed it.

The restaurant has both outdoor and indoor seatings, we preferred to sit inside since it was more cozy and somehow felt romantic - for a restaurant that offers Shisha, that was amazing! The staff are very friendly and will gossip with you if you're the talkative type.

The menu offers a vast selection of Kebabs, Ottoman specials etc. We didn't dig deeper into the menu as our focus was one thing alone - to try Kebabs & Chicken. We ordered the Doner Kebap and Sheesh Tawouk, for refreshments we went for the Lemonade (which I'll get into soon). After placing the order, the staff brought us complimentary Hummus (which was AWESOME). The order itself took some time to arrive but when it did my only reaction was "Wow". The presentation of the food is amazing, there were wedges, salad, a nice ball of rice, kebaps and dipping sauces.

But was the taste as good as the presentation? Even better! We loved the food so much that we returned for the next 3 nights till the end of our trip. Ok so I wanted to dedicate this section to the Lemonade, I've drank many different kinds of Lemonades over the years in Bahrain and some have been godly while others not so, but the Lemonade at Saltanat was beyond comparison. It's probably the best one I've ever drank in my whole life, I still miss it dearly. The following days we tried various other dishes like the Ottoman special chicken casserole which was truly unique and delicious.

We had the habit of ordering Apple Tea after dinner at the restaurant but on our last night we didn't order it. However, to our surprise the staff brought us the Apple Tea for free that night! It was really a special feeling and truly showed how loving/caring Turkish people can be. As always, we gave extra tips and were on our way.

It's not the Hagia Sophia's, Hippodrome's, Topkapi's etc that'll bring us back to Sultanahmet, if we ever visit Turkey again, but the sole reason will be Saltanat BBQ House. Even as of typing this review I feel sad, sad because I won't be able to just get up one evening and go for dinner at this restaurant. I miss the food, the ambiance and the...

Went here because it was close to our hotel and the reviews on Google! Ambience was good, and that was it! We ordered a mixed Kabab plate - food was good, nothing too special. The one lamb chop in our kabab platter was undercooked and poorly seasoned. We also got some calamari, which was too chewy.

Do not base prices on older pictures of menus in these reviews. Either inflation, or because we were obvious tourists, the prices were much higher than I expected - 220 TL for the calamari appetizer, 340 TL for the small mix kabab platter! And a 10% service charge is added on!

Had the food been spectacular, I would not mind the price, but as it was not, I put our experience down to paying the price for eating in an obviously touristy area in a place that caters to foreigners.

Edit after the response from owner: personal attack from the owner below validates the feeling I had at the restaurant - we are being scammed as tourists, by a place that only cares of bilking the most from...

So - good news and bad news.

Good news being that the hummus is very, very good.

The bad news are:

I had dinner 2 nights in a row (the second time it was raining heavily and couldn’t get the reservation I wanted).

First night the waiter came back and declared that I hadn’t given him enough cash to settle the bill. When he saw the look on my face they suddenly “found” the missing 50 lira note. But food was decent and gave them the benefit of the doubt.

The second night the Shish kebab was very disappointing - 1/3 of the lamb was simply too chewy to eat. And I got charged for what they presented as “complimentary” hummus and Raki.

If you decide to take your chances there, I would advise that you:

1. explicitly ask whether something is complimentary or not
2. count your money so mistakes don’t happen
3. pay in cash - during 6 days in Istanbul this was the only place I didn’t feel comfortable...