Where could you lunch around the Grand Bazaar?

We just finished off a month of lots of fine eating -Christmas and New Year’s following the Bayram from the month before. So, let’s focus on lunches -rather than big dinners…

I have no intention to write a very long list of places here and I will thus limit your choices to three of my favorite places as well.

Inside Fes Cafe

Fes Cafe is one of my most favorable picks. There are two branches of Fes near Grand Bazaar. The one that I am referring to is outside of the Bazaar. It is very near the Nuri Osmaniye Entrance of the Bazaar and is on one of the parallel blocks going down the Sultan Ahmet Yokusu towards the Bazaar itself.

Fes is a very nice little cafe that serves mostly authentic food as well as some typical cafe food. But, the typical cafe or pub food are not your English pub greasy food. Everything you get a bite of here is extremely delicious. My all time favorite is the manti, which is not on the menu. But, ask for it and they will get it done for you. For those who have no idea what manti is like, it is the traditional Turkish ravioli, but is much different from a traditional pasta. You have to taste it to know what I am talking about.

Fes also has a small boutique attached to main cafe area. Here they sell a nice and compact variety of high quality, delicate garments, such as robes, towels, Turkish tea glasses, design plates and design mugs.

The second branch of Fes is located inside the Grand Bazaar. This is a little coffee shop, where you do not get lots of variety in terms of food. They serve mostly cheesecakes and tea and obviously coffee. But, the area in which this little coffee shop is located is full of small boutiques selling soaps, robes, rugs and other sorts of authentic stuff -which I love…

Aslan is the second restaurant on my list. This is indeed a restaurant. It is open buffet traditional home cooking. So, you go up and next to the window pane and finger point to what you may be willing to eat… Everything is quite delicious. Most locals who work near or at the Bazaar also go to Aslan for lunch. Aslan is located on a parallel street to Fes; is also outside the Bazaar.

Havuzlu Restaurant as it is known and called amongst the locals is actually inside the Bazaar. It is called “havuzlu” because it has a pool inside. “Havuz” means pool in Turkish. The food here is not awesome, as it is somewhat greasy. But, it is nonetheless a very traditional and a highly recommended place.

If you can make a little detour and leave the Bazaar area for lunch; do go to Pandeli near the Egyptian Bazaar. That is another story on its own…

[Images from Fes Cafe]