Balat Sahil Restaurant

One of the best seafood restaurants of İstanbul. Everything I had had a very strong nice taste. Memorable dishes were pastirma, onion dolma, mixed greens, lakerda, çinekop, levrek buğulama, kabak, and ekmek kadayıfı. Pastirma had a strong and nice çemen taste. Onion dolma was perfect. Lakerda too had an aromatic nice taste than usual. Levrek buğulama is similar to pil pil of Basque region. Deserts were strong too. The restaurant has great service thanks to their gentleman waiters. The historic ambiance is breathtaking. The place is kid friendly too. And they make efforts to find you a table in busy times. Overall, a real gem of İstanbul.

An authentic local restaurant serving amazing seafood. It was recommended to us by a local. The fish is absolutely fresh and the service by Ferruh was excellent. If you are a larger group (4+) have the turbot.

The mezes were flavorful and the service was pleasant. However, half of a Mırlan buğulama was 6,350 TL (about $150), which is very steep for a casual place. Overall, it is a decent experience, but it’s worth being upfront about fish prices, as they can be surprisingly high.

Upon recommendation from our food tour guide, we made our to Balat Sahir. No English menus but Ferrush took excellent care of us. We lost our minds on the selection of meze (who knew the humble green bean could be so elevated) and then again on the steames seabass (selected from the case). Atmosphere is classic warm Turkish nostalgia with photos from a bygone era. Ingredients pure and honored. I want to have 1000 more meals in this room.

Unfortunately, we had a very bad experience at this restaurant. Upon arrival, we were not given a menu, so we had no idea about the prices or available options. The staff simply told us to choose a starter, so we selected starter dishes. Then we were strongly pushed to order a certain type of fish – it was almost forced upon us, without any mention of the price. We assumed it was a regular dish, but when the bill arrived, we were shocked: 11,500 lira for just a few small dishes and a fish that wasn’t even particularly tasty. The quality of the food did not match the price at all. We truly felt misled, and it’s very unprofessional that there was no transparency regarding the menu and pricing. This kind of practice is not hospitable and certainly not fair to customers. I absolutely do not recommend this restaurant.

Best Kalkan in town by far , steamed with lemon sauce , simply divine , and ferruh was an excellent host , stellar meal & hospitality. A winning combination

Great experience in this local restaurant. Ferruh was an amazing host! Enjoy their incredible meze.

Delicious meze selection and really helpful friendly host, Ferris, despite our lack of Turkish 😁