Kadıköy Food Tour: What to Eat on the Asian Side and a 4-Hour Route

A food tour in Kadıköy takes about four hours on foot and centres on the market streets by the ferry pier: stuffed mussels, lahmacun, regional Anatolian dishes, fresh fish, pickles, cheese, Turkish coffee and baklava, with ice cream in Moda to finish. You can walk it yourself with the plan below, or join a guided tasting walk: our Istanbul street food tour through local neighbourhoods, with baklava and coffee, runs 6 hours from $90 per person.

Kadıköy is where many Istanbul residents do their own food shopping, and that is the reason to go. The streets behind the pier are lined with fishmongers, delicatessens, pickle shops, coffee roasters and small restaurants that cook for locals rather than tour groups. This page is only about eating there. For the neighbourhood's sights, street art and evenings, see our things to do in Kadıköy guide.

What to eat in Kadıköy: the short list

If you have only one afternoon, aim for these:

1. Midye dolma. Mussels stuffed with spiced rice, sold by the piece from street trays with a squeeze of lemon. Eat them from busy sellers only.
2. Lahmacun. Thin dough baked with minced meat, onion and pepper, rolled up with parsley and lemon.
3. Regional Anatolian dishes. Stews, stuffed vegetables, kebabs and soups from southeastern and eastern Turkey, of the kind you rarely find in the old city.
4. Fish from the market. In season, sea bass, bream, anchovy (hamsi) in winter and bonito in autumn, grilled or fried.
5. Meze. Cold starters in olive oil, white cheese, melon and fish salads, best ordered in a small group to share.
6. Pickles (turşu). Kadıköy's pickle shops sell jars of cabbage, peppers and beetroot, and many pour a glass of sour pickle juice.
7. Cheese, olives and pastırma at the delicatessens, a good place to put together a picnic.
8. Turkish coffee, freshly roasted and ground in front of you.
9. Baklava and Turkish delight (lokum).
10. Ice cream in Moda, eaten on the seafront at sunset.

Getting there: the ferry is the first course

The best way to reach Kadıköy is by public ferry from Eminönü or Karaköy on the European side. The crossing takes about 20 minutes, and you pay with an Istanbulkart. Buy a simit (a sesame bread ring) and a glass of tea on board, stand outside, and watch the old city skyline fall behind you. Current fares are in our Istanbul public transport fares update.

Other ways over:

• Marmaray, the rail line under the Bosphorus, from Sirkeci or Yenikapı to Ayrılık Çeşmesi, a short walk or metro ride from Kadıköy.
• From the airports. If you are staying in Kadıköy, Sabiha Gökçen is the nearer airport; see Sabiha Gökçen to Kadıköy and Istanbul Airport to Kadıköy.
• By private car with a driver, which suits a family or a group that wants to add the palaces on the Asian shore.

Come hungry, but not starving. The point is to taste a little in many places.

A four-hour walking route through the market streets

This route starts and ends at the Kadıköy pier and covers about 3 km, most of it in the pedestrian streets of the Çarşı (market) area. Allow longer if you sit down for a full meal.

The market streets are busiest on Saturday afternoons, which is the most lively time to go and the hardest for a group to move through. Weekday late mornings are quieter for tasting.

The fish market and the meyhane

The fish stalls of Kadıköy's market are where Istanbul's home cooks buy, and the fish is laid out by season. Anchovy arrives in the cold months, bonito in autumn; sea bass and bream are farmed and available all year. Several small restaurants on and near the street will cook what you see, either grilled or fried, with salad and bread.

In the evening, the same area fills with meyhanes, the traditional taverns where meze come first and the main course is often fish. A meyhane meal is slow and shared. Order a few cold meze, then hot starters, and decide on the fish at the end. Many meyhanes serve rakı, the aniseed spirit, but you can eat without drinking, and soft drinks and ayran are always available.

Anatolian cooking: why food lovers cross to Kadıköy

Many visitors come to Kadıköy for one restaurant family above all: Çiya, which has three restaurants a few metres apart in the fish market street. Çiya began with kebab and lahmacun and now cooks dishes from across Anatolia and its neighbours, from Mesopotamia and Ottoman cooking to the Balkans and the Caucasus. The menu changes with the season, so the best way to order is to look at the trays and ask what is new that day.

The wider lesson applies across the market: Kadıköy's best kitchens cook home-style food, displayed in trays. Point at what you want, take small portions of several dishes, and share. For a hands-on version, our Istanbul cooking class page explains how to cook some of these dishes yourself.

Sweets, coffee and Moda

The second half of a Kadıköy food walk is sweet. The market streets have shops selling baklava, Turkish delight, candied chestnuts and halva, and the coffee roasters grind Turkish coffee to order: ask for it "orta" (medium sweet) or "sade" (no sugar). For more on the drink, read our blog post on Turkish coffee and tea in Istanbul.

From the market, walk south along Moda Caddesi to Moda, the old residential quarter on a point above the Sea of Marmara. Buy an ice cream and walk down to the seafront park for sunset over the old city on the other side of the water. Moda's cafés and small restaurants are a good place for a last meze plate before the ferry back.

What a Kadıköy food day costs

Restaurant prices in Istanbul move quickly with inflation, so we do not print menu prices that would be out of date within weeks. Some useful points instead:

• Street food (simit, midye, lahmacun) is the cheapest way to eat in Istanbul and much cheaper in Kadıköy than in Sultanahmet.
• Home-style restaurants in the market price dishes by the plate; sharing four or five plates among three people is normal.
• Meyhanes cost more, mostly because of fish and drinks; fish is priced by weight, so ask before you order.
• Tipping around 10% is usual in sit-down restaurants; round up at street stalls.
• The ferry costs one Istanbulkart fare each way.

For a guided tasting walk, our street food tour costs from $90 per person for 6 hours. A private day with a licensed guide, which can be planned around Kadıköy and the Asian side, costs from $199 per group on our private Istanbul tour with a licensed guide. See private Istanbul food tour for how a private food day is set up.

On your own or with a guide

Kadıköy is easy to walk alone, and the route above works well for curious eaters. A guide earns their fee when you want to understand what you are eating: which pickles go with which dish, how a meyhane menu works, which regional dishes are worth trying, and which street seller has the freshest mussels today. A guide also orders for you in places where the menu is only in Turkish.

Special diets are easier with help:

• Vegetarians eat well in Kadıköy, with olive-oil vegetable dishes, lentil soups and börek. Our vegetarian food tour page lists what to order.
• Halal. Restaurants in Istanbul serve halal meat as the norm; if you avoid alcohol, choose a lokanta or kebab house over a meyhane.
• Allergies. Nuts are everywhere in sweets, and many meze contain yoghurt or sesame. Tell your guide at the start.

For the street food of the whole city, not only the Asian side, read our Istanbul street food guide.

Tours that cover this

• Istanbul Street Food Tour: Local Neighbourhoods, Baklava and Coffee: from $90 per person.
• Private Istanbul Tour with a Licensed Guide: 1, 2 or 3 Days: from $199 per group.
• Beylerbeyi Palace and Çamlıca Hill Half-Day Morning Tour: from $52 per person, a good Asian side morning before lunch in Kadıköy.
• Full-Day Bosphorus Cruise and Two Continents Tour in Istanbul: from $88 per person.

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