Meze By Lemon Tree

It's hard to beat the meze at this place. Stick to the small cold and warm plates (avoid the large, main dishes) and you won't be disappointed. They bring you fresh bread for the small meze which is delicious. The cold plates are made fresh everyday and you choose what you want from the options that day. Highly recommended.

It lives up to it's high rating. Food quality, flavour and presenation was superb. I felt the price was reasonable for the quality. The staff were attentive, informative and great to interact with. It was a great way to finish our trip and I recommend it if you are in Istanbul.

The restaurant is in front of thr Pera place hotel, it is small but with elegant and fancy environment.The dinner menu is amazing with 5 cold meze, one hot dish, 2 main dishes and a shared dessert. All the food are fresh and tasted. Thanks to this restaurant, we had an unforgettable night in Istanbul

We took degustation menu for two (it is just called degustation). All 5 cold starters were amazing. My favorite were meat and eggplant. The warm starter, calamari, was just ok. Incomparable with cold starters. Can be skipped. The octopus was really tasty. Banana desert was too sweet for my taste, but my partner loved it. It was too much food for 2 persons. The waiters were very attentive and pleasant. They also told us in the end that 10% tip was not included in the bill. There must be some nicer way of communicating that. What I didn't like was that they charged us water - 7 small glasses (~0.1) (not sure how were counted) 15 liras. This was nothing compared to the bill, but I would expect the water in this kind of the restaurant to be for free. At least not this pricey, or sold as a bottle because they just come and poor you water in the glass.

The best meal I had in Istanbul, by far! Great combination of hot and cold mezze. All dishes are absolutely delicious and fresh. The restaurant is small with great vibes. Friendly and welcoming staff. Good value for money. I totally recommend it!

Had a great time eating here thanks to the food, atmosphere and service. First time trying mezes in Istanbul and we were glad we picked this place. Was able to get a table without a reservation at 6:45pm but some people were turned away later in the evening. We ordered our 6 mezes from the display and our favorites were the cerviche and chilli and capsicum cream that we really enjoyed on our bread. We also had the seabass with almonds and apricots which was delicious. Service was perfect and the waiters were always prompt.

Absolutely delicious. Had the degustation fixed menu: there was so much food and all of it delicious. Excellent service and those cold meze are to die for - I could have stopped there and been very happy. I had the monkfish stew as a main course and it was outstanding. Small restaurant, good vibes and would definitely return again.

This place is great, definitely go. We got the Mezze 1 menu, with a mix of warm and cold dishes. The cold Mezze are all brilliant, highlights included the fried zucchini, pesto beef brisket. The wine recommendation from the waiter was perfect. The warm Mezze (we had calamari and hommus) weren't as good as the cold Mezze. If I went again, we order a la carte and just get cold Mezze.

A cozy place tucked in a corner near the modern art museum. Walked in right at the time when the place opened up. Ordered the salad , Meze mix , lamp chops and the seafood pilaf. Everything was delicious , just the right portion size and well presented. The staff is very courteous , ambience is very cozy and a place destress and enjoy some good food. Versatile menu and something for everyone to enjoy. Do check this place out if in the neighborhood !

in a word - FANTASTIC!! We went there under a recommendation from our instructor at the Istanbul Cooking School and he was spot on. WOW, what an amazing dinner we had. We decided to splurge and go for the 200tl tasting menu for 2 which included 5 cold mezze, one warm one, 2 entrees, and a desert. It was a ton of food and thank goodness they had doggie bags so we could bring some of it home. All of it was absolutely delicious. We also really love the cozy ambiance and the local neighborhood feel of the restaurant. It wasn't a tourist trap at all. Highly recommend!

We arrived late and very hungry. Meze was the first restaurant we saw as we walked out of the hotel so we decided to give it a try. It was late and we did mot want to eat a lot so we ordered seafood pilaf which was very flavorful and was made with corn. I could see other main dishes sitting on adjacent tables and they all looked delicious. Servers were very attentive and friendly.

What an amazing meal. Starting with the cold plates including sea bass ceviche, snail and a beef under a wonderful pesto. The on to the warm plated cheese pasty with a spicy side sauce. Finally our main plates of octopus, beef skewer and monk fish which was the best of the three. Will most definitely return and a must do in Istanbul. Oh yeah the meal for 3, including drinks and desert and service about 140$ US. Well worth the price.

Had the Degustation Menu and it was sooo delicious!! Lots of food. You start with 5 cold Mezes and out of the 5 I chose, the red pepper with hazelnuts was a memorable cold Meze. I've never had that in any Turkish restaurant in the States. Then for the warm Meze I chose the shrimp which was in a buttery curry like soup which was rich and flavorful. Next was octopus for the main dish; this was bigger than I thought and I wish I had more room but I wanted to save room for the amazing desert. The amazing desert was layers of bananas, hazelnuts, pistachios, other nuts, clotted cream, mulberry molasses and the kicker- a little bit of chili pepper! All these flavors were dancing in my mouth causing extreme happiness

Wonderful Restaurant. Really good Food and good Wines! Nice Service, very friendly. Last Visit in May 2013. Still Great!

This was an exceptional restaurant! I would highly recommend eating here if you are ever in the area. The food and atmosphere created a delightful experience.

Loved our dinner experience here! We started with some cold meze plates, specifically the smoked salmon with ginger and carrots, and the seabass ceviche. Both were delightful and very fresh. For our entrees we got the whole octopus and the seabass. The octopus was some of the best grilled octopus I've ever had! The flavor was perfect, and it was extremely tender and paired so well with the onions and greens. For some reason, the were very few other customers when we went, but it was a nice and quiet meal.

We enjoyed a lovely evening at Meze by Lemon tree. For two people we ordered six meze which is plenty. I suggest focusing on the Mezes when visiting this restaurant. The servers were very kind and helpful. This recommendation was written by Katrin S. If you enjoyed my recommendation, I'd appreciate a "helpful" or "cool" given.

The food is VERY tasty and the service is spot-on. We did find it lacking in experience though. While this is somewhere I would bring my mother, it wasn't for us. We found most people in the restaurant were tourists. The couple seated next to us was from the same neighborhood in the US as us. The whole experience was like eating at a Turkish restaurant in our neighborhood at home.

This place had that extra touch to it that makes it worthy to be visited again. Don't be fooled by the simple interior, although classy and elegant, at first sight it doesn't look of that much. However, the quality of the food is insanely amazing - everything I put in my mouth was as fresh as it gets, and the fact that they had a simple meze menu which the friendly staff will happily show you makes it even more of a pearl as the things they have, they make them insanely well. Also, the people going there is a mix of local Turks and tourists who have had this place recommended so don't be scared of the location close to İstiklal. Go, go, go!

In anticipation of our trip to Istanbul, we were quite excited about Meze by Lemon Tree, given the reviews we read on Yelp, Tripadvisor, and various travel books. This was our first dinner in Istanbul. Although the food at Meze by Lemon Tree was good, it was not great. The restaurant itself is lovely. A small, modern-looking restaurant across from the Pera Palace (if you are taking a taxi to the restaurant, we recommend telling the taxi driver you are going to the Pera Palace hotel), the service was friendly and helpful. Definitely make a reservation -- we saw numerous parties get turned away at the door because of lack of reservations. Although the restaurant is called "meze", there are a number of larger, main dishes on the menu. For us, the main dishes were fine, but we would recommend focusing on the restaurant's meze options.

Excellent seafood in a hip part of town with great service and a family atmosphere.

Nice restaurant with reasonable prices. Most of the dishes were ok BUT there was one outstanding dish that needs to be applauded. The pan roasted beef slices, fried shredded potatoes with yogurt and tomato sauce was absolutely delicious. If you go to Istanbul, come here and only order this dish.

This is the best food I've had in Turkey. Subtle updates to traditional foods plus a cozy atmosphere make this place unforgettable.

This was my favorite restaurant in Istanbul. We opted to to the four course meal: 5 shared cold meze, one shared warm appetizer, an entree and dessert. We enjoyed every dish. The meze course in itself was a full meal, so come hungry! At the start of the meal the waiter will bring you to the glass case filled of cold meze and explain each one to you...so hard to pick! The tabouli, and radish/sea bass ceviche were my favorite meze dishes, but all were unique and actually tasted much better than they looked in the case. Our shared warm appetizer was a shrimp casserole. It was slightly creamy and cooked just right. I definitely recommend this one. For the main course my husband had beef slices with yogurt over potatoes. The meat was so tender and tasty but there was a bit too much yogurt for my taste making it really heavy. My dish was the sea bass with almonds and apricots. I've never had sea bad prepared this way and I loved the balance of flavors. Both of our dishes were very sizeable and I was sad I couldn't manage to finish this course. We had the pudding for dessert. Very tasty, but I was too full at this point to fully enjoy more than a few bites! This meal came at a pleasant, relaxed pace. We made a reservation only one day ahead and were told they could squeeze us in from 7-9pm. This felt like just enough time. I would allow 2.5 hours in your schedule just in case, but definitely reserve ahead of time. The tables were a bit close together, but our neighbors were very friendly. Definitely make time to try this place out when you are in town!

The best meal I had in Istanbul hands down, impeccable service, amazing food will be on my list here.?

This place is fantastic and I highly recommend that you try. Every one of their delicious meze dishes shone. It's a lovely bright laid out place. I can't say enough good things about this restaurant we were really impressed. Just excellent. Pretty much one of if not my favorite restaurant on Istanbul.

I just returned from Istanbul and this was one of the most delicious meals that I had. I wouldn't describe it as typical Turkish cuisine...but I'm no expert. The meze was fantastic and the staff wonderful.

Both the food and service were fantastic. We got the Degustation Menu, which offers a great chance to try most of the dishes. I can't get the banana dessert out of my mind. To make things even easier, you can book a reservation using the Fork app. This place will be at the top of my list on my next visit.

Wow! Fabulous food and service in an elegantly intimate setting. We opted for the Degustation, which began with five mezze: a creamy ball of paprika covered cheese with walnuts, thinly sliced silky beef in pesto, a wonderfully tangy ceviche of sea bass, mildly spicy cheesed stuffed peppers, and amazingly fresh breaded calamari strips. The main courses were tasty lamb chops and sea bass wrapped in paper and stuffed with dried apricots, pistachios, and strawberry(?). Ali noticed that I was not eating my scoop of potato salad, being something of a potato salad snob. However, when I tried it I found it was infused with coconut and olive oil. Spectacular! Dessert was a heavenly creamy pudding concoction topped with chocolate and slivered hazel nuts. Ali's attentive service complemented and elevated our dining experience. The rave reviews here and elsewhere are well deserved. Fabulous! Efsane!!

Delicious traditional Turkish mezes with a twist an unexpected flavors in so. Stuffed peppers were to die for. Aubergine phyllo twist was impeccable. Definitely need a reservation; we saw people turned away and it was full within 30 mins after opening. Owner was incredibly welcoming and friends who chose the mezes said staff were very helpful. Service was impeccable.

Wonderful service and food. A must when you visit istanbul.