Çiya Sofrası

Went because of the hype the Netflix show Chefs Table caused and I had a great experience. The food was very savory. It was unique flavors I had never tasted before and was not what I was expecting. The baklava was the best I have ever tasted. It was very flaky and melted in my mouth. Our host was very hospitable and kind and explained this entire menu to us. I will eat there again when I visit Istanbul.

I went with my daughter (who’s especially into traditional dishes) and one of her friends. Everything we ate was absolutely delicious, the dessert was amazing, and the service was genuinely great. But there’s one thing I don’t get: how can a place this good, fresh, and high-quality still get such ridiculous negative reviews? What stood out to me even more is that most of the negative comments seem to come from people from Turkey. In my opinion, this restaurant fully deserves 5 stars — I’d give more if I could. Thank you, ÇİYA🫶🏻

I decided to eat here as it was featured in one of my cookbooks, everything we ordered was delicious! Felt like hearty home cooked meals. Staff friendly and the 90s feel to the interior was cozy and comfortable. I also found it reasonably priced for a place with such hype.

Had lunch here yesterday and had the pleasure to try a number of different dishes. - eggplant casserole - tasted more of green peppers than eggplant but seems fresh and tasty - eggplant and lamb casserole - delicious but had very few small pieces of lamb - zucchini fritters - really delicious - kidney beans - firm beans with yummy seasoning, not in any kind of sauce, so dry but good still - baklava - crispy and fresh All were enjoyable and the service was excellent. It was fun to look inside to see all the food in the making.

A must try in Istanbul! 😍 Authentic Turkish cuisine served by the most hospitable staff! What more can you ask for? We were a group of 9 people and asked for a sample plate of the best things they got, and boy were we lucky. Everything was delicious! 🤤 10/10

We had to try it due to the hype. It was confusing at first as we were told it's sold by kilo but this is just for the salad. Due to the great selections, we asked a waiter for 3 recommendations. He suggested the artichoke, chicken and beef dishes plus rice wrapped in pastry which is more than enough. When the bill came, we realised the two dishes recommended are LT700 which is on the higher side compared to most other dishes on the menu. See invoices attached for the dishes we had. The food was delicious though but you can have it for much cheaper if you select other dishes. The baklava was also really buttery and lovely. In the end when the bill came, the waiter mentioned the bill excluded tip, implying we should tip on top which was cheeky. We spent a total of LT2,600 for the meal, plus additional for the tip.

The food Is awesome, you can choose between multiple Turkish dishes. You can also order half portions (so you can easily try more -- but you pay them 0.6X and not 0.5X). Some dishes are paid by weight. They gave us some free tea. 4 stars because the price is a little bit too high.

The food was good, but not hot enough. Had a lovely lamb shank covered in Orzo and some smaller plates. We were encouraged to order from the selection in front of the chef as you first enter the restaurant. Not surprising as we were there quite late around 9pm and they obviously want to get rid of the stuff already cooked. But it was not warmed up and in hindsight we should have queried it. The food was not cold but barely tepid. Plus no prices we were seen or mentioned and when the bill arrived we thought it was expensive. Like the rest of Istanbul, a great place but you just pay too much for almost everything. But a mention for the chef who provided great service and even provided a free small plate for us to try.

mmmmm we ordered the lahmacun, meat platters and a salad. We had to come here as it's on Netflix's Chef's Table. The quality of the food is pretty good. Service is a bit of a miss. Value is pretty good compared to most places in Turkiye.

Food 4.0/5.0 Service 3.0/5.0 Value 3.0/5.0 Decor 3.0/5.0 Overall 4.0/5.0 It's pretty darn good for what it is. Right in the middle of a tourist hotspot so expect prices to roughly reflect that. Note there are 3 locations, including the marked 3-story location on a corner, a kebap store across the street also on a corner, and a 2nd sofrasi store on the kebap side of the street. Most of the people on a weekday lunchtime walked into to the "2nd sofrasi store".

I went to Kadıköy with my family during our trip to Istanbul and we heard we had to get lunch at this popular spot so we walked in without a reservation for lunch around 12:30pm. The place has plenty of seating: outdoors, indoors (two levels) so we were able to get a seat right away outside. We got some menus and water to drink. This place is super cool since it has entrees that you can order a la carte but also they have a buffet style with very healthy, traditional dishes from different regions of Turkey that you can also try (you get both menus to browse and can also stand up to go towards the station and see if something catches your eye!). We opted to get something from the set menu. For food we tried: - lahmacun: amazing! The quality of the dough was top notch. Perfect bake with a nice crispy edge but fluffy interior. The lamb and beef mix was so well seasoned with so many spices that were balanced by the sweet acidity of tomatoes and a squeeze of citrus lemon. Very good to share if you just want to try a little. - chicken shish: tender, juicy, well seasoned. Came over a bed of pita that soaked up some of the chicken flavor and juices. Generous portion! Very fresh ingredients and felt very healthy. Comes with some grilled veggies on the side. - pistachio kebab: this was my favorite dish that I tried here since I felt that it was so unique! Tender and juicy ground beef and lamb with spices and with chopped pistachios incorporated into the mix. The flavor and textures of this dish were unreal! I would come back just for this. The umami of the meats and the nutty sweetness of the pistachios was to die for. This came with a thinner unleavened bread that was super stretchy and soft. Loved it! - shepherd salad: simple, fresh, delicious mix of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and olive oil. - candied tomato and walnut: for dessert we tried some of their candied items that came with some creamy kaymak (cream) for balance. We all agreed the walnut was the superior one since the tomato was a little too sweet for us. Very good! - kunefe: probably my favorite Turkish dessert that I have during the trip. The combination of kadayif or shredded dough gave it a light but crispy texture that satisfyingly disintegrates in your mouth. The creamy murky salty cheese really balances the sweet syrup. Topped with some nuts, this is amazing! Highly recommend. Overall, I loved this place! I wish we had tried items from their buffet since they seem so unique and you can objectively find good kebab in several places in Turkey. What makes this place special is that they offer dishes from other regions that you cannot easily find in Istanbul. Next time I return I will definitely try some of those instead. A point for which I gave it 4 stars and not 5 was that the service was a little slow- we may have been placed in a very hidden corner in the busy restaurant since someone gave us menus and we were not really acknowledged for about 35 minutes until a manager noticed. He was very kind and helped get our orders sorted. Usually I would not mind a wait but, when you are a tourist with a packed schedule, you do not always have the luxury of time. I look forward to coming back in the future and trying more of their more regional dishes from the buffet and definitely getting another kunefe!

Visited Çiya Sofrası as it is a restaurant featured on the World's 50 Best discovery list and as the chef was featured on Netflix's Chef's Table. Menu is based on recipes collected from all across Turkey an the menu might vary daily depending on what they have available. The restaurant itself also features 3 locations all adjacent to or across from each other. Party of 7 seated upstairs. There honestly is so much space and seating between all three locations. No reservation as we just walked in. Honestly didn't look at the menu as we had friends who were local and asked if they could just order. What I would recommend though is just get whatever sounds interesting as everything we tried was delicious. The big airy bread and the beets were a must as well as the stuffed intestines. The kebab we ordered was also so good that we got a second one. It's also very large and shareable. In fact, everything should be shared. A lot of desserts to choose from and my favorite was the bitter orange.

Incredible meal on the Asian side of Istanbul! We enjoyed kebabs and the Anatolian dishes served at this establishment. Seated outdoors in the middle of summer, you get the vibes of this part of town. Service was prompt and efficient. Would come again.

I really didn't plan to come here initially because I have a feeling that all these hyped restaurants would disappoint me but I was in the neighborhood with some hungry friends and figured might as well give it a try. I ordered the spicy lamb kebab and the skewered kebab (with veal on tail fat). Honestly they are not bad per se but they are not better than the other places I've tried. The main problem is that they are really expensive about 20% more than other places. I did like the spicy lamb kebab but it's weird when the description says it's a mixture of lamb and beef. The veal one is a slight letdown because it needs more fat. Not sure what tail fat means but I wish each piece is interleaved with more fat. The service however is not very good. Somehow no one smiled and they seemed like they don't care whether you eat there. The place is in a street crowded with a lot of restaurants and there are some outdoor seating and more indoor seatings. I think the hype gave more more expectation than typical restaurants and because the food is below expectation I'll give it 3 instead of 4.

We had come here with high expectations, which were then tempered after having read a few, very recent Google reviews. If you're looking for a nice homely meal, Ciya is a great place. However, we found the food mediocre at best and a touch overpriced for what it is. We started off with some cold appetizers / meze, which were priced by the weight. The employee wasted no time in scooping generous portions onto our plate (hahaha). The meze was just okay, nothing spectacular. The salads were quite a miss, the grape leaves forgettable, and the muhamara and eggplant yogurt average. We ordered a lamb vegetable stew which was tasty but quite expensive for such a small portion. It was hot and homely, and was served with a rice pilaf. Only after did we realize we were charged 80 lira for such a small portion of rice! My boyfriend chatted with the server, whose argument for charging us was that we ate the rice we were served (my boyfriend's response was that he'd eat anything served to him) - and eventually got it waived. We also ordered a chicken shish from the Ciya Kebab place next door. It was tasty but the green pepper is super spicy!! Beware. We died and had to gulp down copious amounts of water. We ended with a kunefe, but were sadly disappointed. The kunefe was fine, honestly, but it just paled against the most amazing kunefe we had ate yesterday at Kapi Karaköy. The dessert was far too sweet and the pastry was not as crisp as we'd like. That said, it had a super rich butter flavour. Overall, the meal was adequate but overpriced given its portions and quality.

If you want to get a taste of local cuisine, this is the place. The food was delicious and full of flavor, and the service was fast.

Really excellent food but the service left a bit to be desired all things considered. I was seated immediately at a table outside and ordered a couple items - one of the salads to start and then one of the lamb meat dishes. I asked the server which he recommended and he basically just shrugged so I ordered at random. The English menu was very confusing in terms of what each dish was and how it differed. For example it would say "lamb kebab - 300 lira" and then "chicken with yogurt - 140 lira" so I'm like clearly the lamb is a heartier and fuller dish but I don't understand exactly how. With that said, the dish I ended up with (again, no idea) was delicious and the pita I was given was a nice complement to soak up the delicious juices of the meat. The vegetables were roasted to perfection. I liked the salad I got as well but it wasn't anything special. There was further confusion when I got the check as there was a note on the menu about service being included but I didn't see it on the check so I had to ask to see if I should leave a tip. Overall not the best experience from a diner's perspective but the food was great.

The food was amazing but I wish I had better service. Perhaps if I spoke the language maybe I wouldn't have been avoided by the waiters. We wanted a table in the inside but we were told the table was going to be for a large party. While sitting out in the cold we saw at least two different people with a party of 2 being served. Afterwords while walking up the street we saw the other locations and thought maybe we should have kept walking and we probably would have gotten better service. Either way the food is so good I would take my chances on returning.

i went here multiple times during my visit to istanbul and it's one of my favourite restaurants in the city. the food is top tier and the service and ambiance is excellent as well. i'd go back here whenever im back in this city

We got seated at the upstairs area on the corner with a beautiful view. Staff was very friendly. Service was very quick. Ordered the appetizers that consisted of hummus, tzatziki, and eggplant sauce and other things as well. Absolutely delicious. The hummus was outstanding. Ordered the yoghurt kebab. This was a meat kebab on top of a bed of shredded pieces of bread with yogurt sauce. Very very tasty. Ate the whole thing clean. Also for dessert we had complimentary tea, and pumpkin slice. Very delicious as well. Highly recommend this place

LOVED LOVED LOVED this restaurant! The restaurant was featured on chefs table and I can totally understand why! We were looking for a light meal and this restaurant has a Mezze bar! We got some dolmas, bulger balls, and dips! Everything was actually amazing! My favorite were the dolmas, they were perfectly seasoned and well cooked! They also have a hot food menu that you can order from and next time I come to Istanbul, I would come here for a bigger meal

Found this place b/c I saw it on Chef's Table on Netflix...it was certainly one of the better turkish food stops during my trip to istanbul, but not amazing. The ride to this place is not bad but the ride back to western side of istanbul was horrible. The taxi's dont pick u up unless u are willing to be 'off' the meter or pay a set rate. (I'm not penalizing a star for that...food for me was just, 4 stars)

One of the best restaurants we had in our trip to Istanbul. The kabobs were so juicy and delicious. The flavors were truly amazing. This place was featured on chefs table for good reason.

Food here is wonderful! We tried almost everything on the menu and really enjoyed ourselves. Mezze variety is high so it's easy to come here and try a little bit of everything which I highly recommend. We had a guide and were doing a tasting so she ordered everything and was eating it along with us. Netflix featured this spot on their Chef's Table series. I loved that they ingredients are fresh and local, made like in grandma's kitchen old-world style true to tradition and that they feature different things during different times of the year when items are in season. Everything we had was wonderful and I can't even begin to remember it all but we tried fresh bread, hummus, eggplant, lamb, pizza, and several desserts as well as Turkish tea and coffee. We met the owner as well who was very kind and welcoming and unassuming (clearly not a lover of attention but a lover of what he's doing). We were here during lunch time on a Sunday and so it wasn't busy, but I hear it can be very busy at night time. Also, all the staff were wonderful and the inside and bathrooms were very clean.

Oh, yes indeed. DO come to eat here. Our group of 21 was seated quickly and a number of wait staff were very quick to start bringing out platters of goodies. The meals were served "family style," and there were SO MANY plates to choose from that just sampling each one was enough to really fill your belly. The spicing was very nice; the aromas and the furnishings all added to the experience. Yes indeed. Do come to eat here.

The food was very good, especially the adani kebab. The salads and bread were also nice. We sat outside people watching while we ate which was very enjoyable. I would definitely recommend this restaurant.

Terrible service, overrated and overpriced. Very rude waiters, stay away. I had lahmacun and it was as mediocre as it gets. You can find better food for half price.

What can one say about the world renoun restaurant featured in Netflix and many magazines any countries? It's even included in some of the food tours of Istanbul. The restaurant has three sections. There's a meze bar on the front right, there's a hot food buffet on the front left, both sold by weight, and there's a full menu to order from. We did the mezze bar, and ordered from the menu for entrees and desserts, and ended up with eggplant, or as the locals say aubergine, four different ways. I don't even like eggplant, but this chef is amazing. Best hummus in Istanbul, and easily the best food. Beef stew with quince was a winner as well, it was all amazing.

This place was featured in Netflix series chef's table and I have had it on my list for years but every time I'm in Istanbul, I never make it there but I am very glad I did make it this time and the food was incredibly fresh unique and delicious. The mezzes here are very high quality and authentic with amazing variety. My absolute favorite item and must try is the lahmuajun, the meat version or the vegetarian version both are incredibly perfect with texture, taste, color and super thing.

Mükemmel yemekler, iyi servis. Çeşitler bol ve denediğimiz her şey lezzetli ve yağı tuzu yerindeydi / Good food, good service. Variety of options from Turkish cuisine. Every dish we tried was delicious and just on the spot... Definitely recommend it. This place was features on New Yorker magazine a while back

I had a great meal here -- my first visit to the Asian side of the city. There are several affiliated restaurants on this street -- this is the most formal/upscale of them, but they all look very good. Definitely try some of the more adventurous or regional dishes here. I especially liked everything containing pomegranate.

If there's a good reason for visitors to Istanbul to journey over to the Asian side of the city, it's to check out Ciya Sofrası, located on a pedestrian street in the bustling district of Kadıköy, filled with restaurants, fish markets, and other stores! The food here is inspired by recipes collected from home cooks (by its famous chef Musa Dagdeviren), and the menu always changes, depending on what's available and in season! The restaurant has two parts--on the left of the entrance are a huge variety of ready-made hot dishes, and on the right is a mezze bar that's self-service (you just weigh your plate when finished). But on top of the amazing, amazing food, I have to emphasize just how great the service was as well! As we entered the restaurant, one of the servers offered to help us right away, and took us to the display of food to explain what everything was! She even helped us to order half portions of dishes so we could try more things! And wow.. what a meal this was. First, the mezze--I definitely got a bit of everything they had to offer, but some of the standouts to me were the bulgur flavored with pomegranate molasses, the hummus (which had a very distinctive sesame flavor), the broad beans, and the greens in yogurt sauce--everything was just so flavorful (and vegetarian to boot!). In fact, I would've been completely happy just making a meal out of all the different mezze dishes! But how could we resist trying the hot dishes as well? On the server's recommendation, we started with the artichoke topped with veal shank and the "cherry kebab"--ground beef meatballs stewed with cherries! Both of these dishes reflected seasonal ingredients and were absolutely delicious. I also loved the dried eggplant and pepper stuffed with a ground beef mixture and served with yogurt--the dried vegetables (not typically used for dolma) definitely added such a distinctive texture to the dish! But my favorite of the hot dishes were definitely the vegetables--we got a plate with four of the vegetable dishes they had on the day of our visit: green beans, nettles, zucchini, and another "greens from thorny plants." This was simply delightful--every dish was again so flavorful, and you could really taste and appreciate the freshness of the ingredients, which is what this restaurant is all about!

I thought the food here was excellent. Tasty soup to start, then a hearty stew and green beans. Looks like there is a daily menu with plenty of interesting options. My daughter enjoyed a simple pide that she declared to be, "the best pizza ever!" I'm glad we kept the leftovers since she gobbled those down the next day. I would come back.

We decided to have our first meal experience in Turkey at this restaurant and it was good. We were staying on the European side so to get here we had to take the tram and then connect to underwater metro line. It wasn't difficult to get here but definitely it's not a place we would have considered coming to multiple times mainly because it's still a bit of a hassle to get here from Sultanahmet. They have two restaurants named Çiya across from each other as well as Çiya kebab. Not sure how similar or different the two main Çiya restaurants are from each other since we didn't visit the other one. We got to know this restaurant as most other guests after watching the Netflix series Chef's Table and just as others mentioned I think we expected more but overall it was a good experience. We were in Turkey during Ramadan which is a busy time for restaurants in the evening. We specifically had asked our hotel to call the restaurant to check whether or not we needed reservations for dinner and we were told they did not take reservations for small parties. This was definitely incorrect (not sure who's mistake it was) since the restaurant host asked us for our reservation as we walked in the door and we almost didn't get to sit for dinner as they were at full capacity. Luckily they were able to pull one of the two tables from a party of only two people who didn't need all of that space. The couple who was so gracious to give up the extra table also helped us decipher the menu which was only in Turkish. Everything after that small (but critical snafu) turned out great. We started off with some cold mezes which you choose and serve yourself at the counter. They weigh the plate and charge you accordingly. The stuffed grape leaves were absolutely delicious and probably the best we had in Turkey. In terms of hot food we had the stew of cubed lamb with creamed collards (?or some sort of green), the stuffed intestines and the adana with eggplant. All of the dishes were so good but my favorite was the definitely the lamb stew. The intestines were different and kind of an acquired taste but very flavorful. We wanted kibbeh but they ran out right before we could get our order in, definitely a popular item. Lastly we had a mini lahmacun which was meh. The ayran was home made and also the best we tasted in Istanbul. For dessert we had the baklava and some other green triangular dessert, both less than memorable. The baklava didn't taste fresh and the green dessert had a cheesy taste that was off putting. We also got to try their home made herb sherbet which was light, refreshing and not too sweet. During Ramadan you may ask for pide (a bread reportedly baked only during this religious holiday) instead of their regular bread. Service was attentive and fairly quick despite being so busy for dinner. Prices were reasonable.

Delicious food and services alongside some of the best pursuers and muscles I've ever tasted.

We stumbled upon this place without realizing that not only was it featured in Netflix' Chef's Table series, my brother and his partner told us about the place wen they visited Istanbul months before. We had lunch and thought it was a good meal but nothing really spectacular to merit a Netflix feature.

Great place to eat kebaps. My favorite was the cheese one. Ciça was ok. I wouldn't recommend ordering the yogurt one.

I love exploring food, and when we were in Istanbul this last time, I read about this place in a magazine. My mother-in-law cooks very delicious traditional Turkish food so it's a challenge to eat out something different other than fast food. This is a place where they serve Anatolian food which is very different than Turkish food, even though they use the same ingredients and base foods. We had the lamb stuffed artichoke, the rooster, and another vegetable dish. The rooster was a sort of esme or hummus like dish which was different but a bit bland compared to all the other dishes we had. We were left hungry so we ordered a kabob with pistachios that was amazing. The vegetarian lahmacun also was a bit bland but I am comparing to traditional meat lahmacun. Just get the real thing.

Little bit expensive but tasty traditional kebabs, soups. It's in the heart of Kadıköy. Generally crowded. Adana and ali nazik is my favourite

Kadıköy Çarşının en gözde mekanlarından biri. Fakat son zamanlarda fiyatlar arttı ve yemek lezzeti biraz bozuldu diyebilirim.

At the urging of a friend who'd fallen in love with this place on a trip to Istanbul, I took the ferry across the Bosphorus to check it out. The place is large with comfortable spacing for the tables, and the portions also generous. I had a dish of turnips, beef, cream and spices that was over cooked to the point of losing its flavors, but the presentation was beautiful. I had much better luck with an enormous beef and pistachio kebap, which came with copious fresh herbs, the onion salad and flat lavash style bread, and grilled tomatoes. There is also a grain cooked with tomatoes that I have seen numerous places which I find bland and mushy, but hey. The kebap was by far my favorite part of the meal; incredibly flavorful and just the right consistency as it's knife chopped, like tartare. Finally, I tried their pumpkin sweet, which is a wedge of pumpkin candies in honey syrup, then drizzled with tahini and ground nuts. The consistency is surprising, crunchy and crystallized outside and gooey like a ramen noodle egg inside. It was also so sweet as to be too intense for me after 1 bite. The tahini was great though and tasted like halvah. Fantastic table service and obvious pride in their restaurants. Enjoy!

So I was not aware about chefs table s05 before going here. And so I only tried their kebab. Next time I should try their home kitchen menu (Sofrası). But my, the Adana Kebap was godly! They also had a couple of new takes on Kebaps. Like the sour Kebap with pomegranate molasses The service was very friendly.

How the mighty have fallen... I'm Turkish American, my wife is from Kadikoy (Istanbul neighborhood where the restaurant is located) and we visit Istanbul regularly. I know Turkish, Balkan, Middle Eastern, and Eastern European (at large) cuisine quite well. First came to Ciya in December 2019 and it was pretty good. We came back on Dec 22, 2021 and this place is now trash. We decided to take some old friends out to dinner and Ciya was at the top of our venue list due to it's acclaimed international reputation of being a great restaurant. I'll save most nuances and summarize. We ordered 4 soups, a lamb dish, and about 5 other items. The soups came out and were all incorrect. Taste was also sub par. Post soup and while waiting 20-30 min for our other items, the server never once asked us what we wanted to drink. They didn't even bring over the standard bottles of water. Half of the food eventually came and then the waiter told us that the lamb dish was unavailable because they gave the last of the available lamb to the table next to ours. What kind of "world renowned" restaurant runs out of food at 8pm dinnertime? The rest of the food was served cold, despite them being hot dishes. The server was short with us. Ciya wasn't even packed: there were only 2 out of 12 other tables with patrons when we were there. The bill came and the meal cost quite a bit more than run of the mill restaurants in the area. "Eff" this place. DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND IGNORE ALL THE OLD REVIEWS OF THIS PLACE. You're better off skipping this raging dumpster fire on your next trip to Istanbul. Total trash.

Ciya has the best Lahmacun and pistachio kebab I've ever had. Here's a blog about the restaurant: https://medium.com/@shayshao/d2182329e59c

Arguably my best meal in Istanbul. They don't speak much English, but all the dishes are displayed so you can just point to the one that looked interesting. Fortunately there was one guy that spoke English good enough to explain what the dishes are. These are dishes I've never seen anywhere else before, making it a real delight! On a nice day, definitely sit outside so you can people watch. Although if you're unlucky, you might be seated next to a person who's smoking. This restaurant was recommended by many people and I'm glad I chose wisely and decided to eat here on for the one meal that I had on the Asian side of Istanbul.

I have been missing Turkish food so much and especially ciya. It's been a while since I was in Istanbul, but this was one of my favorite places to dine. I discovered my most favorite dessert at ciya. It was a black anise soaked walnut with kaymak. I had quince for the first time at ciya and it was in a delectable savory soup.

I love this restaurant! It's always packed here so for sure it must be good. They have a lot of vegetarian selections and select meat dishes. Service is fast, staff is very nice and helpful. Generous portions and delicious food. Can't remember the names of the dishes we had but I'm the pictures will do lol

Overrated. Kebab with baba ghanoush - 3.5 stars This was good, but not amazing. At the recommendation of our friend, we sat in the branch that specialises in kebabs but picked several dishes from the branch across the road that has dishes out cafeteria-style that you select. We had a dish with stuffed liver, and another with some sort of offal, as well as the stuffed grape leaves and a lentil stew/soup. All were average, about 3 stars.

Ciya is really two restaurants across from each other in a small street in Kadikoy's open air food market. One features the wonderful food of southeast Turkey (Gaziantep) and the other, kebabs. The quality of food at both is excellent, although I prefer the lokanta with the steam table choices with their savory/sweet flavor palette and wonderful cold salads. I ate at the kebab place this last trip and ordered a very tasty lahmacun (like a pizza in a way but without cheese). Worth a visit even if you are staying on the European side. Take a 15 minute ferry across the Bosphorus (always a lovely ride) and walk 10 minutes to the restaurants (do bring a map - the alleys can be confusing). Stop to admire the food stalls along the way and grab a Turkish coffee cooked over charcoal. The Anatolian side of Istanbul is not to be missed!

I didn't realize this restaurant had been featured in the show Chef's Table, so I was surprised that it was crowded enough for us to be turned away on a Friday night (we instead ate at Çiya Kebap that night, which was awesome in its own right). We tried again at lunch the next day, and could get a table for two right away. Çiya Sofrası specializes in forgotten Anatolian dishes. You're very unlikely to see any main dish from this menu at other restaurants in Istanbul. We opted to split a dish with lamb, pumpkin, chickpea, and mint in it, and then grabbed some hot and cold mezze from downstairs as accompaniments. The mezze bars rotate their offerings everyday to keep up with freshness and seasonality of ingredients. The cold mezzes are priced by weight, and it's all excellent: we ended up grabbing a little bit of most things in the bar. The hot mezzes are offered in half- or full-sizes, and we enjoyed the falafels and couscous balls we tried. Overall, yes, this restaurant was totally worth it. It exposed us to dishes we didn't encounter elsewhere during our trip, and the food was uniformly delicious. Try to avoid coming during peak hours because they will turn you away!

The drunken guy on the street spoiled the mood of my girlfriend which surely affected her first meal in the city! Trust me that did not affect the ratings!! I am a proper foodie.... I just did not see the hype!! It was big on here and even the Hilton recommended it! So the expectations were high and the food did not come anywhere close to it! Aladdin in withington( Manchester) has better food! There was no hot vegetarian food! Even the falafels were cold!! Please don't take a ferry just for this!! The guy charged whatever he wanted! No price list on anything!! So 80 liras down the line surely I felt robbed .... Not by the drunken guy!!

This spot obviously has great reviews on Yelp and Trip Advisor, so we were excited to check it out. However, we left still wondering what all the fuss is about. The service here was absolutely terrible. It took forever to get a menu and an understanding of how the ordering process works. In addition, the food did not particularly stand out. We had had much better food in other parts of Istanbul when it comes to price/value, flavor, and quantity. This spot definitely feels like 80% tourists, too, so whatever authentic vibe that might be here was lost. Honestly, walking down all the streets to get to Çiya Sofrası was more fun than actually eating here. Even if you're determined to eat here, I suggest being open to other options as you are walking around the Asian side.

Second visit! Great food to eat family style. Friendly staff. Good customer service. We ordered one of each of the meats. My favorite was the chicken. A rice dish and an eggplant dish.

Very weird that I can write yelp reviews about places in Turkey but this was my favorite place in Istanbul so I'm glad I get to do it. Bring people because basically it's all family style and you go up to a counter and pick a bunch of stuff out of lots of tasty looking pots. There's also a self-serve cold bar with a lot of mezze type stuff. There were a lot of really amazing dishes there and some get pretty organ-ey so watch out if you're not in to that.

This is hands down my favourite restaurant from my recent trip to Istanbul. It was recommended by our hotel, and definitely worth the ferry ride over to the "Asian" side of Istanbul. You enter this small establishment with the scent of freshly cooked food right at the door, that's because they are simmering the fresh food right at the door. All your senses are automatically awakened. You automatically want to start picking things to eat, but you have to overcome the first challenge of finding a place to sit. There are a few places downstairs, and a much larger area upstairs. This is no hidden gem, people know this place is amazing, and it is packed. We had a late lunch at around 2-3pm during the week and this place was buzzing as if it was midday. Its a bit odd at first because once you do find a place to sit, there is no menu. You are really picking the fresh foods made that day, AWESOME! You can first do cold dishes, select yourself, weight, and get a receipt (keep it!). Or, go directly to the hot side, select the dishes you want from the simmering pots of yumminess (large or small portion) and then go back to your table, and wait for your food to be delivered on silver hand made plates (I so wanted to buy some). The best thing to do is select several small portion options, and share amongst your group meze style. That way you get to try a bunch of different things. Everything was spot on, better than expected, and hit all the right food notes. Very quickly you realise this is no ordinary restaurant. In looking at the walls you notice the chef of this place has had many write ups in prominent journals. He publishes a 3 monthly food culture magazine and is known for bringing the, "forgotten tastes of the world's food culture", to the public to savour and remember. I so wish I could take this restaurant home with me.

This is the one of the best restaurant on my list in Istanbul. You definitely get your money worth. Well deserved for 5 stars.

Çiya Sofrası digs deep into the food world. The kitchen aims to create memories of "forgotten dishes, lost tastes, and of wiped-off cultures". The impressive spread allows us today to discover these forgotten tastes from the "vast lands from Mesopotamia to Ottoman lands, from Balkans to Caucasia, from Asia to Arabia". A meal at Çiya Sofrası is not just about eating. It is being a part of reliving the memories that we never had. How cool is that? Word is that Çiya is where Turkish foodies go and I believe it. Before we left for Turkey, a friend in Chicago who was born in and grew up there recommended us to go here. Locals sing praise for Çiya too. Walk into the bustling (but not chaotic) restaurant and your senses are immediately greeted with food. On the left is the section with pots and pots of main dishes. The right section has a great selection of side items. Grab a table or seat first if you want. After that, walk back to the section where the pots of main dishes are and feast your eyes as you scan through the dishes they have for the day. Select the items you would like and place your order with the employee behind the pots who waits readily for anyone who is ready to place their orders. If you have any questions about the dishes, don't be afraid to ask. Many of the dishes were new to my husband and i and the employee was ever helpful in naming the dishes for us. English is spoken here. The employee hands you your written order and you can give it to your server. The dishes are brought to you shortly. On the other side is a table of salads and side items. Grab a plate and take whatever and however much you would like, then weigh your plate. The employee behind the salad and side items counter hands you a note to be given to your server so he can add it to the bill later. The meal is inspiringly delicious from the flavors within a dish and between other dishes. At each mouthful of the lamb with quince and stuffed lamb intestines, we can only look at each other and nod our heads while chewing our food. In between swallows, we shares words of praise for the food. Even a seemingly simple dish of braised spinach is worth ordering again. The side items of falafel, oblong-shaped pastry that looks like a samosa, couscous, chopped flavored olives, bulgur-stuffed tomato, roasted eggplant, hummus, and baba ghanoush..... oh my..... We probably ordered a little too much food but dang, it was good. Our meal is memorable and a reflection of the food specialties of Turkey and the nearby lands. Çiya Sofrası is different and unique from the other Turkish restaurants we've been to and we only wish that every traveler to Turkey will go here to understand that food in this country is not only about kebaps. As we sit at the table at Çiya Sofrası, we become part of the forgotten tastes and lost memories that the restaurant is bringing back. At the same time, we imagine that we are eating what would have been served if a Turkish friend brought us home for his or her long lost grandmother's cooking.