Where to Eat and Sleep in Istanbul, Turkey

By Anya von Bremzen

Restaurants & Food Shops

A tiny shop with waffles and goat's-milk ice cream (try the sour cherry).

Located in a grand Ottoman mansion, this is the best traditional Turkish food in town.

Near the Galata bridge, this atmospheric breakfast dive specializes in buffalo-milk yogurt and cheeses.

A classic seafood place near the Black Sea with wonderfully fresh fish; window tables on the second floor have the best views.

Istanbul's tastiest pistachio and almond marzipans are soft and ultranutty.

Mehmet Gürs offers terrific Scandinavian-Turkish dishes at his avant-garde restaurant. The views are stunning, too.

The vast menu at Gürs's fast-food chain includes exemplary sandwiches.

Once a 19th-century palace, this extravagantly comfortable hotel has 170 plush rooms and a vast marble terrace overlooking the water.

With edgy East-meets-West interiors by architect Mahmut Anlar (who also designed Mikla), this hotel has 134 gadget-packed rooms.