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Taste of Istanbul Food Tours
Experience the true vibe of Istanbul by joining us on a foodie walk in the city that spreads across the historical city center and through Istanbul’s vibrant neighboring districts. We will lead you to the best traditional Turkish restaurants, cafes and shops throughout the city that we have carefully selected for being run by locals whose passion is to serve authentic and delicious Turkish food, accompanied with the typical warm-hearted Turkish hospitality. With Taste of Istanbul Food Tours, you will have the chance to explore the captivating sights, have the opportunity to taste mouth-watering delicacies of the Turkish cuisine and hear the stories that lie behind the classic dishes.
Unique culinary tours in Istanbul
We provide a unique culinary experience by presenting our guests with only the real taste of authentic Turkish cooking that uses fresh, local produce.
Book your adventure today
With a great variety of specially designed food tasting tours, we are sure you will find the perfect tour to suit you!
Taste it all
Some of the delicious Turkish foods you will be tasting include; the famous Turkish kebab, mouth-watering baklavas, freshly baked boreks, tasty seafood, delicious Turkish coffee, home cooked meals such as sarma and fasulye. Many more delicious Turkish foodie treasures await you on each one of our Istanbul culinary tours!
View Our Tours
With a great variety of specially designed food tasting tours, we are sure you will find the perfect tour to suit you!
What do our guests think about us ?
Below are the reviews of Taste of Istanbul Food Tour on Airbnb Experiences and TripAdvisor.
700+ reviews
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Didem was such a great guide, very knowledgeable and easy to chat with. The tour felt personal and we learnt a lot of the history along the way while enjoying… read more amazing food. Would 100% recommend, this was a highlight for our trip to Istanbul!
February 17, 2024Lovely tour guide and ended up being a private tour due to low tourist season. However, the food itself looked very different to the pictures and the food / tour… read more guiding was poor value for money vs the other tours we did in Istanbul.
I’m afraid the food we had felt low quality or the venues we went to didn’t look or feel good quality either. The only one we enjoyed was the coffee. The rest was dishes we could’ve gotten ourselves in London or venues that felt basic with little or no explanation of why it was special to bring us there.
What could have made it better is if the guide had better quality storytelling skills about the food – it’s background, why it’s popular in Turkish culture, how people eat it, how people prepare it, the history of the food. She was very approachable and friendly, but we mostly talked about our personal lives rather than the food. And towards the end of the trip, it felt like we were just walking around with very little explanation and more us pushing the guide for more info. She was very friendly and asked us lots of questions about ourselves, but our preference was to learn more about the food and enjoy the quality and variety of the food.
To compare, we went to a show and dinner experience and for cheaper price, we tried far better food with wider variety and much more explanation and story telling than this one – which was supposed to be a food tour.
Overall, we have been to many food tours around the world and the value of this experience needs to increase – either with better quality food stops, more unique variety of dishes or better guiding of the tour.
January 12, 2024Of all the small group tours we have done around the world, this one was indeed one of the best and most enjoyable. Absolutely fantastic tour for a group of… read more 11 with 5 children – guided by Didem. A great introduction to the fascinating city of Istanbul, it’s culture past and present, history and delicious food scene. Our tour guide Didem was an absolute pleasure – engaging, kind, so informative and passionate about tourism and the food scene. We all enjoyed ourselves immensely and would highly recommend this tour. We left with full bellies and great memories!
January 5, 2024 -
Very good tour to enjoy Istanbul in a different way. Didem, our guide was very interesting and precise. She gave us so many details on Turkish culture and spirit. It… read more is the best to find hidden places and treasures.
Thank you very much.
January 2, 2024Wunderbare Erfahrung! Ich entdecke eine Stadt am liebsten mit einer Kombination aus Geschichte und gutem Essen, das man nur als Local findet – beides wurde voll erfüllt. Klare Empfehlung!
December 30, 2023I was on the tour with Didem and she was a wonderful guide. We went to some amazing places and Didem did a magnificent job telling the stories about the… read more places we ate at and the people making the food. We went to some hidden spots in the Grand Bazaar that I would have never found on my own. This tour was truly one of the highlights of my trip to Istanbul.
December 30, 2023 -
Ulku est une très bonne guide, qui parle très bien de son pays et de sa culture. Le tour est très agréable en partie grâce à elle. De notre point… read more de vue, il ne s’agit pas d’un tour culinaire à proprement parlé, mais d’un mix entre visite culturelle et nourriture. Je déconseillerais ce tour aux personnes qui ne mangent pas de viande ( la compagnie n’avait même pas transmis à la guide que je ne mangeais pas de viande !!). Nous avons trouvé que le prix de cette visite est excessif par rapport aux produits goûtés durant ce tour,même si les produits sont bons.
November 9, 2023The tour was excellent. Didem was knowledgeable, kind and I greatly enjoyed the spots she took us to. They’re not spots I would have thought to visit on my own… read more so I appreciate the hidden gems included in the tour.
October 28, 2023 -
Maravillosa experiencia guiada por Didem que nos ha cuidado y tratado de forma exquisita. Una buenísima forma de conocer lugares de la ciudad a los que nunca irías… read more a no se que fuera acompañado por una persona local a través de la riquísima gastronomía turca.
Totalmente recomendable.
Gracias por todo!
October 21, 2023WOW. We’re doing a 7mo wedding instead of a big wedding in California and Didem was incredible, overly nice to the point where I’m still asking her for recs and… read more tips for the rest of our time in turkey . I couldn’t recommend someone higher to bring you on a tour of Istanbul, we hit all the local places and everyone loved her plus the food was amazing 11/10 ⭐️
October 17, 2023Everything was great. Food, walk, stories, hidden places one will not find on g00gle maps or guides. Also get to see some local food artisans that tourists don’t… read more get to see or know. Highly recommend.
October 4, 2023 -
Our tour with Ozcan was amazing! We learned so much and got to try the tastiest foods in Istanbul! Definitely a great tour, and we’ll be doing his Asia side… read more tour this week too! Can’t wait!
October 3, 2023What an amazing day with Ozcan. More than a food tour, I learned so much on Turkiye and its history, saw the highlight spots of the City and of… read more course amazing food. Couldn’t recommend enough.
September 26, 2023I left some private feedback for the host as I feel our experience may not have been a genuine reflection of how the tour typically is. We felt most restaurants… read more were not prepared for our arrival, and most of the places we ate at differed from the photos.
September 26, 2023 -
We had a great morning with Ozcan learning about the history of Istanbul through story telling, visuals and of course food. We tried dishes from places we would have likely… read more missed on our own and learnt so much! Highly recommend 🙂
September 26, 2023Book this trip and you won’t regret it! The tastes of Istanbul we discovered were amazing. Dede also provided us with useful tips on where to eat, shop, enjoy hookah,… read more etc… She even made a reservation for us.
September 20, 2023We absolutely loved our food tour with Didi, she was really friendly and showed us great Turkish food that we would have otherwise missed. There was nothing more I would… read more have expected. Be sure to turn up hungry, the amount of food you are given is beyond satisfying, you’ll need a big walk after to burn it off!
September 9, 2023 -
Didi leads an amazing 4 hour tour throughout Istanbul’s old town. She shared knowledgeable insights of the food, culture, and history of the area. Would definitely recommend!
September 8, 2023This tour was really wonderful. Our guideDuden was amazing, fun and knowledgeable. She made sure everyone felt welcome and included and really showed us an insider’s knowledge of the local… read more food. We ate truly delicious and authentic food.
September 1, 2023Such a good way to visit some of the amazing food sites of the city, and also uncovering lots of hidden gems we wouldn’t have found otherwise. Food was some… read more of the best we’ve had on our whole trip!
September 1, 2023 -
Didi was very nice and took us around the city trying new foods. She even gave us recommendations for our next day. Good snacks throughout!
August 31, 2023We loved this tour! The food was delicious and there was lots of everything. Didem, our guide, was simply wonderful. She was friendly and informative and shared some helpful background… read more and perspective on Turkish culture, both historically and today. She made an effort to answer every question brought up by the tour group and taught us a lot about Istanbul.
August 19, 2023This was such a great experience! The guide took us to so many cool places, many were “off the map”. We ate very well and saw some great places, and… read more everything was included! It really helped us acclimate to the city since it was our first time. It’s definitely worth the money!!
August 19, 2023 -
Didem was an excellent tour guide! Communication before the tour and the meet-up description was great, which gave me peace of mind as I was a solo traveler, and it… read more was my first time in Istanbul. The tour was very well planned and organized. The selection of places where we had meals and snacks was authentic and gave an excellent overview of Turkish cuisine and culture. I highly recommend this experience!
August 15, 2023Didi was a fantastic guide! She was very knowledgeable about Turkey’s history and of course food culture, but in a very relaxed and friendly way. We loved every stop and… read more tasting and definitely felt as though we were taken to less touristy places.
August 11, 2023Didem was amazing and the tour gave me an insider’s view of the city. She took us to places I would have never found on my own. She’s nice and… read more has lots of stories and anecdotes to tell!
August 11, 2023 -
We tried a lot of great local foods and had a great conversation while walking. Good way to experience Istanbul outside of the major places.
August 10, 2023Host was very knowledgeable and friendly, we had really good time and was good to see parts of the city we would never have seen as tourists, thank you.
August 8, 2023Great tour I got to learn so much about the history of turkey our tour guide (Didem) was so knowledgeable and worldly also her friend (Ozgur) very educated and nice… read more
I highly recommend this tour
August 7, 2023
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Had a lovely evening walk with the charming guide, Didem. Meeting point was easy to find. The food offered on the tour was freshly made, and smelled and tasted really… read more good. The walk was really nice, and provided a break in between all the stops, where the portions were just right that you get a good taste of what turkish cuisine is like, but not too big that you end up overstuffed at the end of the tour.
Make sure you read your fortune after your Turkish coffee. That made pretty lively and interesting conversations.
February 12, 2023A fantastic experience and delicious culinary offerings. – The evening food tour was an incredible experience. We sampled a wide variety of foods, all delicious, and got a great taste of local culture and history too. Our guide… read more Elif was lovely; welcoming, laid back, friendly, and gave us some great recommendations for dinner spots for our remaining time in Istanbul. As two foodies, we enjoyed every minute of the tour and the dinner recommendations made were also excellent. Highly recommend! A great way to get yourself oriented and acquainted with the city and the beginning of your trip.
February 7, 2023Unforgettably wonderful food (and city sights) tour!
The highlight was meeting not just quality people in the tour who really wanted to be there and emmerse themselves in… read more Turkish culture, but our local born and bred guide Ezgi. She has the most beautiful personality well suited to hosting visitors to her country and took the time to explain (in perfectly fluent English) customs and rituals as well as flowing with group dynamics and banter, reading the room and always being aware and accomodating of people’s needs and preferences. She took the experiance up several notches by this professionalism yet also gave a real genuineness in sharing parts of her own life as a local. After the tour she offered assistance with recommendations and advice for our remaining stay. If I lived here permanently, I would definitly make room for as quality a human being as her in my life.
December 4, 2022 -
Perfect balance of food tasting, gastronomy tips and local history. Very easygoing and relaxed guide who is ready to answer any questions you have. Definitely recommend – well spent 4… read more hours and well worth the money.
October 29, 2022One of the best tours we’ve ever done. What a fantastic experience and Didem was the most fabulous, enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide we’ve ever had! The tour was such a… read more joy and we ate soooo much and learnt so much about Turkish life
October 22, 2022We did the evening food tour with Elif. She was a wonderful host and we had so much fun trying new foods that we hadn’t tasted yeteven after traveling… read more in Turkey for 4 weeks. We learned lots of interesting tidbits of info that helped make Istanbul and Turkey come alive. Thanks Elif.
October 9, 2022 -
We had a brilliant morning with Didem showing us around the markets and to some of the old and unusual food outlets of the city. Each place we went to… read more had fascinating history and delivered amazing food. The walk through the markets was informative and we were given a whole variety of weird and wonderful things to try from the stalls. Would definitely recommend this as part of your visit to Istanbul.
October 7, 2022Ezgi was so nice and gave us so much information about Istanbul in so many ways. We felt we were talking to a friend instead to a guide. The food… read more was amazing
She is and open book
October 5, 2022Didem was amazing! My friends and I did the "Local Food and History Walk at Night, " which was a highlight of our trip to Istanbul.
We tried food… read more we would have never come across by ourselves, explored the Karakoy and Beyoglu area, and Didem even gave us recommendations for more restaurants to visit during our trip.
Highly recommended!
October 5, 2022 -
Out host, Ezgi was excellent! She took us to some secret spots and famous ones as well – overall, great food selection! She had a wealth of knowledge not just… read more about the food, but also about history, culture and the people of Istanbul and Turkey in general.
We appreciate how patient she was with our questions, and she had a very amiable personality which made the whole tour feel like we’re just hanging out with a friend.
October 4, 2022This tour was simply wonderful. Elif our guide was so kind and patient even though we were running late . She took us to the little places that… read more I would never have found myself . On the whole it was a great experience. Loved it .
October 4, 2022Our host was Didem who was wonderful, warm, friendly, professional and very knowledgeable. There was a wide variety of food to eat at lovely restaurants which we would never have… read more discovered if we had not been in this tour. The meetup was easy and Didem told great stories about Turkish culture that went with the food. Thanks for everything!
September 27, 2022 -
even as a Turkish that know the local food they manage to surprise me with amazing selection of great food and history information . ask for Didem. she… read more is AMAZING!!
Thank you
September 22, 2022We had such a great time on this food tour. We spent 3 hours eating and strolling through the new town Istanbul, going through a few passages along Istiklal St.… read more The food was so great and we were stuffed by the end, and Elif offered to take us to more places if we were still hungry! It was a great tour, highly recommend.
September 21, 2022My mother, sister, and I had a phenomenal time with Didem. She is truly a gem! She showed us all the highlights Istanbul has to offer and gave us amazing… read more recommendations for the rest of our trip. Her English is perfect, and she was able to articulate everything so clearly! Our tour was the highlight of our trip, and we will definitely be in touch when we come back! Although the trip required a lot of walking, she was very patient and even changed up our tour so that we could take optimal breaks and rest while still getting a full experience. Speaking of full! The value of the tour was so worth it. The three of us were struggling to make room in our bellies to try all the great dishes the tour includes!! Definitely make sure to pace yourself if eating food isn’t a great passion of yours. Our favorite was the mackerel Well done Didem, we love you!
September 21, 2022 -
Hands down the best walking food tour in Istanbul. The good is delicious, the guide is amazing and very knowledge and overall the atmosphere is great. Would definitely recommend!!
September 18, 2022We had a wonderful foodtour with Didem. Everything was flawless and we enjoyed every dishes and have learned a lot about Istanbul. Don’t hesitate to ask any recommendations !
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Thanks again
September 14, 2022Wow, what an afternoon! We had the most enjoyable time. From the choice of food and stops, coupled with stroll through the city & stories from the past – this… read more is a must do tour! Our guide Elif was do delightful & made the tour.
The value in this tour is amazing – you will not be sorry.
Thank you so much!
September 14, 2022 -
My favorite part of the tour was being with a local who knows the city, food and culture. Elif added even more being an architect and helping us understand the… read more buildings where we were enjoying the delicious, fresh and authentic cuisine.
I highly recommend this tour when visiting Istanbul.
September 13, 2022This was an exceptional tour and our highlight in İstanbul! We went to so many amazing food spots that we would never have been able to find by ourselves. Our… read more host also was incredibly knowledgeable and provided so many interesting history and cultural facts. Couldn’t recommend this tour enough!
September 4, 2022My husband and I had a wonderful tour with Elif. She brought us to places we would never have found on our own. We were fortunate to be the only… read more ones on the tour which allowed us to explore organically between stops. Elif took notes of our questions and sent us detailed info with a recap of all the places we visited. Super impressed. Highly recommend. This is much more than a food tour and a great way to learn about Istanbul.
August 29, 2022 -
This is a terrific tour. My wife, 20yo son and I all had a great time, even though we aren’t normally into any kind of group tour.
From an… read more almost hidden 100 year old Turkish pizza place to the birthplace of Turkish Delight, from a working class home-food restaurant that you’d never be able to go to without special knowledge to a hidden courtyard in the grand Bazaar with history, diamonds and cats, we spent 3-4 hours at 7-8 places we’d never find on our own. Not too fast, not too slow.
Didi was a generous, enjoyable and knowledgeable host, who is happy to answer questions and provide recommendations not only during your tour but during the rest of your stay in Turkey.
If any of this sounds good to you, sign up and enjoy. It’s well worth your time and the price.
June 3, 2022I joined the group by luck, after getting stuck in the restaurant and lovely Didem helped me out. After that she was kind enough to let me join her tour.… read more And tour was amazing her knowledge and trivia and of course food stops where amazing. Really opened my eyes about what this city can offer and how much you can miss without super guide.
Also another big plus was that after the tour ended she kept in touch and her recommendations were amazing, were do go , what to see etc. 110% improved my visit
May 30, 2022Wow! This was the best tour I’ve ever done. If you’re reading this you need to book this right now and on your first day would be best. Not only… read more does this tour offer AMAZING value for money, you basically get 6 meals, but you also learn a lot about the city and tips for what to do the rest of your trip.
Didem is THE BEST tour guide ever! She is a native to the area and has so many recommendations. I recommend doing the morning and night tour with her to maximize your trip!
The food at all the stops is included in the tour price. You get a ton of food and as much water as you can drink. See something you love along the way? didem was so kind and flexible letting us stop to shop as needed.
May 28, 2022 -
This is one of the best food tours I’ve ever been on. Four full hours of exploring, eating, and learning, our host Didem was an excellent guide. She was… read more warm, engaging, and knowledgeable, really knew how to bring everyone in and create a welcoming group atmosphere.
The food itself was incredible, spanning five stops and ranging from breakfast to lunch, home cooking, street food, coffee, and dessert.
My only note wound be to warn you that the bulk of eating is weighted on the last half of the tour. It could have been because of Ramadan timings but pace yourself!! My husband and I should have split some of the meals at the end (it was all too good!). Our last bite was at 2pm and he didn’t eat the rest of the day! Worth the food coma but plan for a nice walk to the Hagia Sofia and/or Blue Mosque afterwards, then a late afternoon nap.
April 30, 2022Loved my tour with Didem – she went above and beyond with the service and really catering the tastes of our group since we were a little more adventurous.
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I did the evening tour and couldn’t recommend it enough. We visited some fish shop, tasted some baklava, tried some turkish coffee, tasted Lahana Sarmasi as well as tried some mussels stuffed with rice and finished off with some quince dessert.
I had a fantastic time and would highly recommend anyone interested in tasting the variety of Turkish food available in Istanbul to do this tour.
April 14, 2022Great tour!! We had an amazing time. Our tour guide has great taste in food and shares all his knowledge of Istanbul as well as local’s lifestyle. We would recommend… read more this tour to anyone who wants to learn more about Turkish food and history. Be sure to bring a healthy appetite)!
January 2, 2022 -
I did the Taste of Two Continents Food Tour. It was beyond excellent! While multiple people booked a food tour that day, I was the only one on… read more this "route" so I had a private tour with Ozcan. And I couldn’t recommend the agenda more! The vendors/restaurants that we went to were incredible (just look at the pictures!) and being able to cross the Bosphorus and experience the Kadikoy Fish Market was a highlight. I would highly recommend this tour for all you’re able to see and eat, while doing so like a local with a knowledgeable guide.
Ozcan was my friend for the day in Istanbul, and I could not have had a better time. What an incredible day to put in my travel memory bank!
January 1, 2022This was an awesome tour that I did soon after I arrived in Istanbul for the first time! Dudu was an amazing guide who took me to all of the… read more places necessary to know for any travelers coming through Istanbul! I would definitely recommend this tour to any solo travelers who need a guide for food, transportation, and history of the different major neighborhoods in the city!! 10/10 day, and bring really comfortable shoes because you’ll be on your feet all day!
December 13, 2021