Atika

 
4 ****
  
The terrace of this new restaurant is its main selling point.  Which sounds like damning with faint praise, but it’s such a feature of the place that it should be on the menu.  A refurbished ex-consulate, the perfect location hiding at the back of the street facing building is a sophisticatedly opulent setting to [...]

Abracadabra

 
3 1/2 ***
 
Abracadabra, housed in a gorgeous seafront, 4 storey wooden house is a creative food company that hosts food art events and acts as a meeting point for artists. Oh, and it’s a restaurant too.  The passion the creators, Ahmet and Dilara, the inspired chef, have for food has gained them a reputation in [...]

Çukurkeyif Bahce

 
3 1/2 ***
 
For the last couple of months, Çukurkeyif Bahce has been Çukurcuma’s best kept secret.  Now word of mouth has started to reach the newspapers and it won’t only be frequented by those lucky enough to have heard the whisper from someone who knows someone who’s been.  It’s so well hidden, you wouldn’t even [...]

MuzedeChanga Reviewette

5 *****
 Art doesn’t move me much.  Three galleries of Dali at the Sabancı Museum, sketches, paintings, the great man’s life and works; where’s the restaurant? I spent longer perusing the menu at MuzedeChanga than the art.  As at Changa, the starters and desserts caught my eye more than the mains.  A beautiful fennel in olive [...]

Albura

3 ***
  
Albura is best described as updated, Ottoman influenced, Turkish cuisine plus nachos for those scared of all the flavours and freshness of real Turkish food.  Which might sound disparaging but a menu that caters for kids is probably a godsend on some people’s holidays. 
 
For the rest of us, the showmanship of the Testi [...]