Choose Your Own Kebab Adventure

The rich legacy and diverse flavors of Turkish cuisine — touched by Mediterranean, Central Asian and Iranian influences, among many others — is what many visitors most remember about calling into port in Türkiye. After all, who could forget that first strong yet layered taste of your first real Turkish coffee or raising a delicate glass of the ubiquitous apple tea enjoyed almost everywhere?

But if you try only one Turkish specialty in Istanbul, make it the country's venerable and humble kebap (also called kebab). Perhaps Türkiye's most legendary food export — and a favorite among late-night revelers in cities all over the world, where it roasts on vertical rotisseries as döner kebab everywhere from Manhattan to Berlin — kebap is Turkish for "roasted." The name refers to a dish of marinated meats cooked on a skewer, preferably over a charcoal grill.

As you might expect in a country that brings as much to the table as Türkiye, however, döner kebab — one version of the dish, made with lamb on a spit — only scratches the surface when it comes to the diverse kebaps you can sink your teeth into in the dish's motherland.

Read on for a few of the best ocakbaşı (grill side) restaurants across Istanbul’s lively neighborhoods, from Ortaköy and Fatih to Taksim and Nişantaşı, and get ready to sample various styles of kebap in the city that knows them best.