The first impression of the drive from the airport to Istanbul
was quite mixed. Mostly because of the weather, a misty gray that would remain
for the night (but not really bother anything from occurring). Also your
passing mostly empty fields and industrial area, but at some point you get over
a hill and see the giant city of Istanbul splayed out in front of you, and it
is quite mesmerizing. The endless minarets from the various mosques – the giant
Blue Mosque standing out among all of them. The maw built into the hills around
the Bosphorus. I got an up close and personal view of this on the drive to my Airbnb,
which is up the hill from the river level. What I would soon learn is that
there are two levels, essentially, the river level and then everything else.
While there are some ups and downs in the everything else, it si more or less
flat after you get past the 300 steps.
My dinner the first night was at Murver, an upscale
a-la-carte spot about a 20 min walk (from river level). The walk over was nice,
past the posh Galataport mall / open area, which was really well lit and shiny.
Murver was on the rooftop of the Novotel, and had a really nicely designed menu
of about 10 starter options and 10 mains. This is where coming alone has its drawbacks.
I took two of the starters, a confit duck in harissa mix, which was nicely
sweet and really good as a dip for bread, and then a fire roasted celeriac
which some tangy Turkish sauces. Both great, and not too big to where I could
still enjoy my main of braised beef cheeks with beet root, which was out of
this world. Even the dessert, a black cumin and tahini ice cream with pumpkin
cake, was awesome. These are the types of places I don’t go to enough, favoring
the combination of tasting menu spots w/ food markets to balance cost, but it
hit the sweetspot.
Also hitting the sweetspot was Flekk, a bustling cocktail
bar on the edge of the buzzing Taksim neighborhood. Taksim is a bit mainstream
(but also where a lot fo the clubs are), but Flekk was a bit off the main drag,
next to a bunch of other bars & coffee shops. At first it was too crowded
where I had to get my first cocktail outside. Wasn;t an issue since there were
about 3-4 groups waiting, like me, and a slew of smokers coming in and out (lot
of smoking in Turkey). After about 25 min I got a spot at the bar, which was
great to watch the Flekk mixologists work. Nothing too fancy or crazy – just really
good cocktails all featuring their homemade bitters of every conceivable
flavor. My favorite was a mezcal based horchata type cocktail – too sweet to
have more than one, but that one was the best glass of milk I’ve ever had.
From there I went to Taksim proper, getting to walk down a
massive promenade that is made pedestrian only at night. It was a buzzing place
of life – tons of people of all ages mixing (this was around midnight). I went
to two places mainly, both of which were really well set-up with great music,
but sadly too empty. The first was called Temple Club, which had all the
elements of a great EDM spot. Basement of a restaurant, with a dark but super
airy room, with an affordable bar and a great DJ. At most there were 20 people,
but usually less. I asked the bartender what was up and she said that despite
it being a weekend, Friday is just generally far less crowded than Saturday.
After going to another spot called The End, I think I have to agree. Granted, The End is closes at 8 am while most other clubs close at 4am, so I think it si truly catering to people looking for a last stop. Same setup with a good DJ and a good space, but not enough people. Running into random people in both spots and around that main Taksim drag gave some vitality to the night anyway, as did the perfect doner to end it off. I lived off doner kebab and adana kebab on my list time in Istanbul. I waited until 2:15am to have one this time, but man was it so damn good. After seeing it in Korea, Japan, Bangkok – Doner/Kebab/Gyro is the world’s late night drunk food, so there’s a certain bliss in having it in its true home.
