Istanbul Food Tour With a Licensed Guide
Market stalls, street food and meyhane tables, on a route planned around what you like to eat.
Food Tours and Prices
Twenty-four tours, from a morning food walk to a full day that ends with fresh fish in Bebek. None of them is fixed: tell us what you eat and what you avoid, and the tour changes around it.
Licensed guides, TÜRSAB member #7651Guiding Istanbul since 2011145 Google reviews rated 5.0560 TripAdvisor reviews rated 4.856 guides across TürkiyeHow a Food Tour Gets Planned
You talk it through with us, and the plan stays open to change.
Tell Us What You Eat
Send your dates, how many of you are coming, what you love and what you avoid. Name a tour from the menu, or describe your own.
We Suggest a Guide
We match a licensed guide to your pace and your language, and tell you why. If you already want someone, ask for them by name.
We Talk It Through
You go back and forth with us until the route and the pace suit you. The quote follows that conversation.
We Book the Tables
We make every reservation, including the famous tables that book out well ahead in high season.
Meet Binnur, One of Our Food Tour Guides
Binnur Eren Kurtoğlu has been working in tourism for about ten years. Long before she became a licensed guide, she accompanied hundreds of groups across Türkiye as a group leader.
Over the past two years, Binnur has especially focused on food tours. In Kadıköy, she likes taking guests into the local market energy, away from the tourist atmosphere.
Some guides give you Istanbul as a timeline. Binnur gives you Istanbul as a feeling.
From her profile
What a Guide Adds to a Food Tour
The best eating in Istanbul happens at market stalls, in meyhanes that never needed a sign, and in lokantas where the pots decide the menu.
A Guide Who Eats Here
Our guides are passionate eaters as well as licensed professionals, and they order the things you would not know to ask for.
The Right Place at the Right Hour
The eating order is planned around opening hours, ferry times and the pace you want.
Ordered in Turkish
Dishes are ordered in Turkish before you have to point at a menu, and explained as they arrive.
Off the Usual Route
Market stalls, back-street lokantas and meyhane tables you would not find alone.
Your Diet Comes First
Tell us you are vegetarian, vegan or allergic to something, and it is settled before you sit down.
Your Own Guide
The guide, the pace and the order of the day belong to your group alone.
Where We Eat in Istanbul
We publish honest write-ups of the places we take guests, and the places we go ourselves on a day off.
Galeyan Restaurant
Executive chef Yunus Emre Akkor’s Ottoman cooking, minutes on foot from Hagia Sophia.
Gülhane Şark Sofrası
Testi kebab in a garden on Gülhane Park, two minutes from the tram.
Metet
It grills over charcoal in Kuzguncuk on the Asian shore, and stops serving when the döner runs out.
Basta! Street Food Bar
Two chefs trained in France, and the reason people cross the water for a dürüm.
Thomas on the Shore
A wooden boat tied up at the Bebek shore, and you drink on board.
Lokanta 1741
Michelin-guided cooking under the brick domes of the Cağaloğlu Hamamı.
Going deeper: the historic restaurants, fish by the water, the Michelin stars, and what to drink beside it all: Turkish coffee, Turkish drinks, and the yogurt.
More Ways Into Istanbul’s Food
Read before you book, or keep planning on your own.
Questions Before You Book a Food Tour
How Much Does a Private Food Tour Cost in Istanbul
We’re an upscale tour company, and our guides are personally handpicked, vetted, and trained by our founder, Fethi Karataş.
While our website lists culinary experiences from US$125 to $355, our standard private guiding fee alone is €350, with food, drinks, and transportation charged separately.
There is no single rate because every food day is quoted after a short conversation about what you want from it. What decides the quote: the length of the day, how many of you there are, the language you need, whether a private vehicle is included, and what is on the table, from street food to a Michelin-guided dinner.
Is a Food Tour Worth It in Istanbul
If you eat adventurously and research well, you will eat well in Istanbul on your own. What a private food day adds is order and access: the right neighbourhood at the right hour, dishes ordered in Turkish before you have to point at a menu, market counters no listing shows, and someone beside you to answer what am I eating, honestly.
Is Street Food in Istanbul Safe for Tourists
Broadly yes. Turnover at the busy stalls is fast, most of the cooking happens in front of you, and the classics, simit, gözleme, balık ekmek, roasted chestnuts, are eaten daily by millions of locals. Use the usual judgement: busy stalls, cooked food, and bottled water if your stomach is delicate. On a guided day you simply eat where your guide eats; our street food guide shows what is on offer.
Do I Need Reservations for Top Istanbul Restaurants
For the famous tables, yes: the Michelin-starred restaurants and the best-known meyhanes book out well ahead in high season. For the lokantas and market places where much of the best eating happens, you walk in. On a booked day we handle every reservation for you.
Can a Food Day Handle Dietary Needs
Yes. Turkish food is generous to vegetarians, a meze table alone can carry a dinner, and we run fully vegetarian and vegan days, from an organic market to the vegan spots we trust. Tell us about allergies and restrictions when you write, and every stop is chosen with them in mind.
Send Your Dates and What You Love to Eat
Name a tour from the menu, or a guide if you already have one in mind. If not, describe the day and we will suggest the rest.
Sending this books nothing. We talk the day through with you first, and the quote follows.
