The Camondo Stairs curl down from Bankalar Caddesi in a spiral built for bankers in frock coats, not tourists with phones, though today it’s mostly the second kind who stop halfway to take the photo Henri Cartier-Bresson took in 1964.
At the bottom of that same staircase, a door opens onto stone walls, low jazz, and a kitchen turning out grilled octopus and tahini soufflé: Salon Galata, in a building that spent a century and a half being everything except a restaurant before it finally became one.
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Istanbul's Old Wall Street
Bankalar Caddesi, also called Voyvoda Caddesi, “Banks Street”; was the financial capital of the late Ottoman Empire, the address where the empire’s international lenders opened their Istanbul headquarters.
The neoclassical facades still line the street, a compressed history of nineteenth-century Ottoman finance that most visitors walk past on their way to Galata Tower without knowing what they’re looking at.
The building at Bozkurt Han has its own resume. Built in the 1870s, it operated as a beer hall, then housed a string of banks, then a pharmacy, before brothers Murat Kartoğlu and İhsan Kartoğlu spent about a year stripping the interior back to its stone bones and opened Salon Galata in 2019.
The exposed walls and original details in the dining room aren’t decoration. They’re what the restoration crew found once they pulled off a century of renovations.
The building did three jobs before it ever plated a meal; a nineteenth-century beer hall, a string of Ottoman-era banks, then a pharmacy.
Where Cartier-Bresson Once Stood
The Camondo Stairs sit right outside the door, a neo-Baroque, early Art Nouveau spiral staircase that Ottoman-Venetian Jewish banker Abraham Salomon Camondo built between about 1870 and 1880 to connect Bankalar Caddesi with Kart Çınar Sokak above.
It’s one of Istanbul‘s most photographed corners, made famous by Cartier-Bresson’s 1964 image of a man crossing it mid-stride. Galata Tower is a short walk from the top step, the same stretch our Karaköy Walking Tour passes on its way down to Galataport.
This is the version of Karaköy most guidebooks flatten into a single photo stop. The version most visitors miss is the one where you’ve reserved the sidewalk table before it goes to someone faster, and ordered the grilled octopus because your guide told you to, not because you guessed.
The same crowd that photographed the stairs outside walks past that door within the hour, never knowing what’s behind it.
Walk It, Don't Skim It
See the Karaköy the Camondo Photo Hides
The stairs are ten seconds; the neighbourhood behind them is an afternoon. Tell us you want the Karaköy backstreets; the doors, the stories, the tables locals actually keep. We’ll walk you down from Bankalar Caddesi to the water.
A Modern Turkish Kitchen With Parisian Manners
Breakfast here runs long: the Salon spread arrives with cheese, honey, olives, and a bread basket that keeps refilling, alongside omelets and granola for anyone who wants a lighter version of the same ritual. Order matters less than the pace, nobody rushes you out for the next seating.
- Starters: shrimp ravioli, zucchini-cheese fritters, crispy wheat balls with Roquefort.
- Mains: grilled lamb chops, steamed turbot, grilled octopus, pan-seared salmon, mushroom tagliatelle.
- Dessert: tahini soufflé, crispy profiterole, cheesecake.
- To Drink: small-producer Turkish wine by the glass, a raki sour cut with pomegranate and sumac, strong coffee.
There’s a jazz record turning somewhere in the background that nobody ever quite places, and the kitchen treats the whole menu as one continuous idea: familiar Turkish flavors, plated the way a Paris bistro would plate them.
Eat Where We Eat
Salon Galata Is One Stop On Our Food Walk
This is one of the tables we bring guests to on our private food tour. Chosen because we eat here ourselves, not for a kickback. Email us your dates and the flavours you’re after, and we’ll build the day around Karaköy and tables exactly like this one.
Stone Walls, Sidewalk Seats
The stone walls, the restoration crew uncovered do most of the talking. Soft lighting keeps the room from feeling like a museum, and the vintage photographs on the walls are the only decoration doing more than the architecture already does.
Outside, tables spill onto the sidewalk of Bankalar Caddesi.
The room reads romantic without trying, the kind of place worth booking for an anniversary dinner or a slow catch-up rather than a group photo, a quietly refined stop in Istanbul’s restaurant scene.
Ask for the corner sidewalk table facing the stairs when you reserve. It’s the seat that turns dinner into the view, and it goes to whoever called first, not whoever walks in looking for it.
It’s wheelchair accessible, has Wi-Fi, and allows dogs at the outdoor tables. Reservations are recommended, especially for dinner or weekend brunch, since the sidewalk seats go first.
Good to Know Before You Go
- Getting There: Bankalar Caddesi No 3/A, Bozkurt Han, Arap Cami Mahallesi, Beyoğlu; at the foot of the Camondo Stairs, a short walk from Galata Tower and the Karaköy ferry piers.
- Hours: Open daily from roughly 9:00 AM, closing near midnight most nights and around 1:00 AM Friday and Saturday. Hours can shift on public holidays.
- Reservations: Recommended, especially for dinner and weekend brunch. We arrange your reservations when you book through us.
- Price: Expect roughly ₺1,000 or more per person all-in (about €25), with mains starting around ₺700 and wine by the glass from about ₺280.
- Rating: 4.6 to 4.7 out of 5 across major review platforms, a Tripadvisor Travelers’ Choice pick for 2025, and ranked among Istanbul‘s top 250 restaurants out of more than 13,000.
FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
Eat Here Then Eat More with The Other Tour
The Karaköy most people photograph from the top of the Camondo Stairs is the same Karaköy they skip eating in. Trade the ten-second photo for the ninety-minute lunch and you’ll understand why this exact corner has been worth returning to since the 1870s, bank tellers to lunch crowd.
We build our private food tour around tables exactly like this one, chosen because we eat there ourselves, not because anyone paid for the introduction. The Other Tour has been operating since 2011 under TÜRSAB licensed operator #7651, and we don’t take commissions or shop kickbacks, ever.
Tell us you want Karaköy and Salon Galata on the route, and we’ll build the rest of the day around it.
