Istanbul Restaurant — Restaurant in Exeter

Updated 5th April:

Just noticed the restaurant is now on Deliveroo, Ordered Tavuk Sote for lunch - and it was just as good as having it in the restaurant. Pitta was soft, fresh and warm; the chicken was also tasty, juicy, and perfectly succulent. Simply delicious.

The quality of food never lets me down :D

Solid 10/10, IMO this restaurant is definitely one of the best (if not the best) Turkish restaurants in town. If you ask me, I would strongly recommend giving it a try!

My first visit to this restaurant was on its second day of opening. I ordered the lamb shish and apple tea, and today, on my second visit, I tried the kuzu sote. The food is amazing—perfectly seasoned and juicy. Most importantly, there was no burnt or overcooked lamb at all! This was quite a surprise for me, as I often get overcooked lamb at other kebab restaurants 🥲

The prices are similar to other kebab restaurants, with most dishes ranging between £13-£19 and offering good portions. However, they also serve complimentary dishes, which makes the pricing excellent value (both of my meals came with a lovely starter and tasty pitta bread). The staff are very kind and welcoming, the atmosphere is great and they even have some cute small candles on the tables!

Overall my experience with this restaurant has been extremely satisfying and thus I think it worth a strong 5 star. Great job Istanbul Restaurant and please keep it up! Can't wait to visit you guys more...

The food here is absolutely delicious! We had a cold mezze to start - SO nice. The meat in our mains was tender and tasty. Oh and we had some cocktails which were also very nice! (Not weak and full of ice, like you get at many other restaurants).

The staff are really friendly and polite, very accommodating. The manager even gave us complimentary Turkish tea and Baklava at the end which was very kind and hospitable. They are very proud of their heritage and food and so they should be.

We were surprised to see a steady flow of people late into Sunday evening, clearly a popular place for people to gather and enjoy one another's company.

The only thing I would recommend as an improvement, would be to encourage those who are sitting outside to smoke on the other side of the road. We wanted to sit outside, but unfortunately there was a group of people quite heavily smoking right outside the front door. Each time the door opened, the smoke also blew in to the restaurant. I loved seeing and hearing the banter outside as it made for a great atmosphere, but the smoking was a shame.

That being said, we will definitely come back! Thanks to all who served us...

There is genuinely not enough words to express the fabulous opportunity we had at Istanbul tonight. The chef and waitress Asal were incredibly helpful in assisting us with the menu, recommending dishes which would suit out taste buds. When the food arrived, we were astonished at the incredibly generous portions that were laid out in front of us. We decided upon the mixed platter for 2 (as a family of 4) and struggled to get through the tender, juicy and flavoursome meat. The accompanying salad was just the perfect accompaniment, and not just an add on. Every item on the platter - the meat, mushrooms, onions, tomato, roasted chilli and rice were incredibly flavoursome. I couldn't fault anything. For dessert, we had another vedy generious portion of caramel topped tres leche cake (forgive me, I have forgotten the Turkish name for it) and it was incredibly decadent! I enjoyed every bite.

Throughout the evening, we were well taken care of by our friendly and personable waitress Asal and also the lovely gentlemen from the kitchen. I thoroughly recommend this hidden gem if you are...