Ayık Çorba Kebap — Restaurant in Kadıköy

I started writing this while still waiting for the desert, thinking that if the çorba and kuzu et sis were any indication, it would be spectacular. Now that the desert is in, happy to say I nailed it.

The service, the taste, the blend of flavours, literally everything is superlative.

Such kind hosts, patient and explaining the dishes, spot on with the recommendations and also giving us something new to taste, an awesome appetizer (çig köfte if I remember well). The place is also very very clean and it's obvious they take pride in keeping it spotless 👍

The çorba is absolutely delicious, we had the house signature (garlic based) and the lentil & chicken one. Top flavouring and seasoning.

The second course, the classic Adana kebap and a lamb skewer dish, both perfectly seasoned and most tasteful. 2 large platters of different salads accompanied the course.

Dessert time! Could not recommend more both dishes they serve. One is the sutlaç with its smooth texture, intense flavour and mix of crunchiness. The other one is the katmer, a savory fine pastry with a delicate cream filling (kaymak I think) and a pistachio powder on top put there with a special touch that I called Fıstık Bae 😁

The conclusion is simple: do not dare to simply walk by this place if you are looking for a bite (or more) to eat! Get in there, on the terrace or inside, as you prefer, and it's guaranteed to have not only a delicious and plentiful meal, bit also a culinary experience.

P.S. It's our third time coming here, each year we visit Istanbul, we make at least a trip to Moda and if it's lunch or dinner time, this is our place. This time I felt it was the right time to share the...

Had a mixed experience here. Visited twice on our recent trip to Istanbul. The first visit the waiter was fantastic and gave us a couple of free dishes and we had a great experience, the food is very good.

The second visit on our last night the service was not as good, a young guy who didn’t really engage with us was not as good as our previous waiter.

The soups, particularly the Beyran are out of this world. Worth going there for that alone, it’s not cheap but for that quality of soup it’s worth it.

The kebab dishes is where we had a problem. Me and my son wanted to share a kebab, and we ordered one that was 1.5 x bigger. Ie extra large. When it came to the table it was a normal sized small wrap cut in half, two mouthfuls and it was gone. Extra large it was not. Anyone could see it. We queried the bill when it arrived as it was simply ludicrous to suggest it was a big portion. They decided to argue the point, wouldn’t back down and even brought out some beefy security guy to stand at the counter. We paid the bill but would not return, we felt part of a tourist scam. The dish was tiny and they charged us way over the top. Real shame as the first...

Went in for a quick meal with a friend. We were looking for something with decent rating in the area and chose this place Even though older waiters visibly do not speak english, we were served by them, and not younger members of staff, who were speaking english at at least communicative level. We ordered a kebap platter. The meat, for how little of it there was, was decent, but instead of pieces of pork belly, we got a couple of chunks of pure fat. We got a huge amount of bread, which didn't have much flavor. After asking to remove the desert from our order, we were given the bill straight away, with the desert price included in it. No way of processing the refund, since again, older waiters who were taking care of us spoke engligh. We decided to ignore it and take a dessert to go, but instead we were served it on the plate after waiting for 10 minutes. Definitely overpriced and looking at average rating,...