İnciraltı Meyhanesi

When İnciraltı was established approximately thirteen years ago, the first and only definitive idea that emerged in our minds regarding the menu and the general line of the new space was that our tavern should be a “traditional Istanbul tavern”. The centuries-old Greek house where the place will be built, seemed to have skyrocketed from the old and beautiful times, away from the shadow of the skyscraper forests that had already started to grow. Therefore, we did not come up with an ingenious commercial idea by turning to the “traditional Istanbul cuisine”, but we have a respect for what is already obvious before us, but that nobody is looking back and interested in it anymore.

What is the “traditional Istanbul tavern”? Istanbul cuisine is multicultural: as Greek cuisine, Armenian, Sefarat, Assyrian, Circassian, Arab, Persian, Turkish, Kurdish, many other big and small cuisines and a combination of all these. Firstly it includes Byzantium, then Ottoman. Also, a rich culture of offal originating from the fact that Istanbul is a port city from past to present can be added to this.

İnciraltı’s food menu; On the one hand, we can still divide the classics into some of the last few good taverns that still try to perform their work with respect, and on the other, as forgotten flavors and recipes. We strive to produce reference recipes that we believe to be “the most accurate” and historical in both categories, without commenting and with the right ingredients. If our thousands of guests, regardless of age group, still meet spleen stuffing, mackerel stuffing, topical, brain pan, pickled fish, Circassian salad, mastabe, mackerel tarator, and dozens more dishes that we do not count, in Takralhi Tovmasyan, we owe these recipes. Thanks to such names as Marianna and Stefanos Yerasimos, Sula Buzis, İlhan Eksen. We offer them endless respect and gratitude.