İmam Çağdaş has cooked kebab and rolled its own baklava on Uzun Çarşı in Gaziantep since 1887, and the founding family still works both counters.
Signature: Ali Nazik kebabı, Soğanlı lahmacun, Havuç dilimi baklava
Order: Ali Nazik, then a plate of havuç dilimi baklava from the same counter.
Tip: Sit upstairs, order the Ali Nazik, and buy baklava on the way out rather than eating it at the table.
Metanet Lokantası in Gaziantep opens at 05:00 and sells beyran until the pot runs dry, which is why locals queue before the bazaar wakes up.
Signature: Beyran çorbası, Lahmacun, Patlıcan kebabı
Order: Beyran, the lamb and rice broth the kitchen has simmered overnight.
Tip: Get there before 09:00. The beyran is gone by early afternoon and the kitchen will not make a second batch.
Çulcuoğlu Et Lokantası sits at the exit of the coppersmiths' bazaar in Gaziantep, opposite the Suriye Pasajı, and the family has run it since the 1920s.
Signature: Patlıcan kebabı, Firik pilavı, İçli köfte
Order: Patlıcan kebabı with firik pilav, the smoked green-wheat rice.
Tip: There is often no printed menu. Ask what the grill has and let the waiter build the order for you.
Yesemek Gaziantep Mutfağı cooks the home dishes the kebab houses skip, from yuvalama to alaca çorba, a short walk downhill from Gaziantep Castle.
Signature: Yuvalama, Alaca çorba, Kuru patlıcan dolması
Order: Yuvalama, the yoghurt and chickpea soup Gaziantep eats at feast time.
Tip: Half portions are available, which is the way to taste four regional dishes in one sitting.
Hışvahan serves Antep cooking inside a restored 16th-century han beneath Gaziantep Castle, which now works as a hotel, restaurant and shop in one.
Signature: Yuvalama, Analı kızlı, Peynirli güveçte irmik helvası
Order: Analı kızlı, the twin-dumpling soup, followed by the semolina halva.
Tip: Develik is the dining room and Susamhane the event space. Ask for a courtyard table in spring.
Bayazhan pours rakı and grills küşleme inside a Silk Road caravanserai on Atatürk Bulvarı, one of the few licensed rooms in central Gaziantep.
Signature: Küşleme, Patlıcan kebabı, Antep mezeleri
Order: Küşleme, which the kitchen portions in limited numbers each night.
Tip: The upstairs meyhane runs live fasıl music. Reserve the küşleme when you book, it sells out.
Ali Usta Kebap ve Baklava opens at 06:00 near Karatarla in Gaziantep and works a kebab grill and a baklava counter out of the same narrow doorway.
Signature: Ali Nazik, Küşleme, Baklava
Order: Ali Nazik, smoked aubergine under garlic yoghurt and lamb.
Tip: Closed Sundays. Early lunch is quieter than the 13:00 rush from the surrounding workshops.
Muhsinzade grills chicken şiş and lamb liver over charcoal in the Külekçi bazaar lanes of Gaziantep, opening at 06:00 for the traders around it.
Signature: Tavuk şiş, Ciğer dürüm, Firik pilavı
Order: Chicken şiş off the charcoal, wrapped with firik pilav.
Tip: Shut by early evening. This is a breakfast and lunch counter, not a dinner room.
Ciğerci Mustafa grills lamb liver on Bayramoğlu Sokak in Gaziantep, where the local breakfast is skewers, flatbread and a glass of tea at dawn.
Signature: Ciğer kebabı, Kuyruk yağı, Zahter salatası
Order: Liver skewers with tail fat, eaten with raw onion and zahter.
Tip: Liver is a morning dish here. Order the tail fat alternating on the skewer, that is the local way.
Hışvahan is the most formal room in Gaziantep, an Ottoman han restored into a hotel and restaurant that plates Antep dishes under stone vaults.
Order: Peynirli güveçte irmik helvası, the cheese and semolina halva.
Tip: Book for dinner rather than lunch. The courtyard lighting is the reason to be here after dark.
Bayazhan turns a Silk Road caravanserai in Gaziantep into a meyhane, a winter dining room and a bar, with live fasıl music on most nights of the week.
Order: Küşleme, reserved in advance because the nightly allocation is small.
Tip: The non-alcoholic family section is separate from the meyhane. Say which you want when booking.
İmam Çağdaş is the benchmark kebab house of Gaziantep, running since 1887 and still judged on its Ali Nazik and on its havuç dilimi baklava tray.
Order: Ali Nazik and a plate of havuç dilimi to finish.
Tip: Prices sit above the bazaar average. That is the trade for the address and the age of the kitchen.
Çulcuoğlu Et Lokantası is the esnaf lokanta of the Gaziantep bazaar, serving kebab, pide and bottomless soup to coppersmiths and shoppers alike.
Order: Kuşbaşı kebab with firik pilav and the free soup refill.
Tip: Complimentary fruit and soup arrive unasked. Do not over-order the starters.
Muhsinzade is a charcoal counter in the Gaziantep bazaar where traders eat şiş and dürüm standing up, from six in the morning until early evening.
Order: A liver and mince dürüm wrapped in bazaar flatbread.
Tip: No English menu. Point at the skewers you want and the owner will build the plate.
Ali Usta Kebap ve Baklava runs a kebab grill and a baklava tray side by side in central Gaziantep, open from six in the morning six days a week.
Order: Ali Nazik at breakfast, which is normal here.
Tip: The baklava counter sells by weight. Half a kilo is enough for four people.
Yesemek Gaziantep Mutfağı plates regional home cooking near the castle, and half portions make it the easiest place in Gaziantep to taste widely.
Order: Ekşili köfte, the sour meatball soup.
Tip: Vegetarian dishes are listed separately. The kuru patlıcan dolması is meat-free on request.
Tahmis Kahvesi has poured coffee beside the Gaziantep spice market since 1635, and menengiç, the wild pistachio brew, is what to order here.
Signature drink: Menengiç kahvesi
Tip: Backgammon boards and live saz appear most evenings. Sit in the vaulted room, not the street tables.
Kahveci Seddar Bey serves a two-colour dibek coffee inside the Gümrük Han in Gaziantep, ground under a mallet in a stone mortar behind the counter.
Signature drink: Çift renkli dibek kahvesi
Tip: Closed Mondays, open 09:00 to 19:00 the other six days. Enter through the han gate, not from the street.
Papirüs Cafe occupies a restored Armenian mansion in Bey Mahallesi, and its vine-shaded Gaziantep courtyard is the calmest table in the old city.
Signature drink: Zahter çayı
Tip: The courtyard fills by mid-afternoon. Come before noon if you want a table under the vines.
Havara Kitap Kafe is a women-run book cafe in Karagöz, Gaziantep, built from reclaimed materials across several levels with a lending library.
Signature drink: Türk kahvesi
Tip: Service is partly self-serve and not always signposted. Order at the counter to save waiting.
İmam Çağdaş rolls its own baklava beside the kebab grill on Uzun Çarşı, and the havuç dilimi wedge is the one Gaziantep queues at the counter for it.
Tip: The takeaway counter is separate from the restaurant. Use the street door if you only want a box.
Worth the queue: Havuç dilimi
Tarihi Elmacıpazarı Güllüoğlu bakes baklava and börek at the edge of the apple market, and it carries the oldest baklava name in all of Gaziantep.
Tip: Ask for the börek in the morning. It comes out of the oven early and sells before lunch.
Worth the queue: Fıstıklı baklava
Boztoprak Baklava bakes fresh every day on Atatürk Bulvarı in Gaziantep and ships nationwide, which keeps the trays turning over very quickly.
Tip: The mixed plate is the way to compare şöbiyet, dolama and classic in one order.
Worth the queue: Karışık tabak
İmamoğlu Baklava is a small shop on Eski Saray Caddesi in Gaziantep where the trays are cut thin and the prices sit below the more famous names.
Tip: The shop is one small room with no seating. Buy a quarter kilo and eat it walking back.
Worth the queue: Burma kadayıf
Yusuf Ziya makes burma kadayıf and almost nothing else in a Gaziantep han on Suburcu Caddesi, rolling the pastry around crushed Antep pistachio.
Tip: Midday is when the trays are warmest. Later in the day the syrup has set firm.
Worth the queue: Fıstıklı burma kadayıf
Katmerci Zekeriya Usta stretches katmer dough to transparency and bakes it in a stone oven, the Gaziantep breakfast pastry in its canonical form.
Tip: Watch the dough being thrown before you sit. The counter opens at eight and the queue builds fast.
Worth the queue: Fıstıklı katmer
Metanet Katmer opens at five in the morning on Kozluca Caddesi in Gaziantep, pairing clotted cream and Antep pistachio inside paper-thin dough.
Tip: The five o'clock start suits anyone eating beyran across the street first.
Worth the queue: Simit katmer
Beyoğlu Katmercim works its dough in front of the counter on Kozluca Caddesi, and the Gaziantep katmer here arrives loaded with kaymak and pistachio.
Tip: Ask for a corner table so the katmer reaches you while it is still hot.
Worth the queue: Kaymaklı katmer
Katmerci Murat is a family katmer shop on Atatürk Bulvarı in Gaziantep, cheaper than the famous names and generous with the pistachio filling.
Tip: The şam tatlısı is worth adding if you are ordering for more than two.
Worth the queue: Fıstıklı katmer
Tahmis Kahvesi has roasted and ground coffee beside the Gaziantep grain market since 1635, selling menengiç and dibek by the bag as well as the cup.
Tip: Buy the menengiç ground. It is a terebinth paste, not a bean, and it needs no grinder at home.
Sources from: Türkiye
How they serve: Turkish coffee, Menengiç, Whole bean retail
Kahveci Seddar Bey crushes its beans by mallet in a stone mortar inside the Gümrük Han, then sells the same dibek grind across the counter in Gaziantep.
Tip: Ask to watch the mortar work. The grind is sold in small bags at the same window.
Sources from: Türkiye
How they serve: Dibek, Turkish coffee, Whole bean retail
Papirüs Cafe grinds its own Turkish coffee inside a Bey Mahallesi mansion in Gaziantep and pours zahter tea from the same courtyard counter.
Tip: Zahter tea is thyme, not coffee. Order both and drink the coffee first.
Sources from: Türkiye
How they serve: Turkish coffee, Herbal infusions
Mahlas Meyhane occupies a restored Antep house in Karagöz, one of the few Gaziantep rooms pouring wine and rakı against a full Antep meze table.
Signature pour: Anatolian red by the glass
Wine focus: Turkish wine and rakı alongside Antep meze
Food: Antep meze, hot starters
Tip: The stone courtyard is the room to ask for. Meze arrive as a tray, so choose before they land.
Bayazhan runs the most serious drinks list in central Gaziantep, a caravanserai meyhane pouring wine and rakı with live fasıl under stone arches.
Signature pour: Rakı with the meze tray
Wine focus: Turkish wine and rakı in a caravanserai meyhane
Food: Antep meze and grilled meat
Tip: Ask for the meyhane floor rather than the family section if you want the drinks list.
Gece Gündüz Bistro is Gaziantep's modern meyhane, a Bey Mahallesi courtyard with fasıl bands, DJ percussion and a cook-your-own grill table.
Signature drink: Rakı and meze
Food: Meze, ocakbaşı grill
Tip: The ocakbaşı tables let you grill your own meat. Say so when booking, they are limited.
Bayazhan keeps a bar and an upstairs meyhane inside a Gaziantep caravanserai, with live traditional music running on most nights of the week.
Signature drink: Rakı
Food: Antep meze and küşleme
Tip: Weekends need a reservation. The family section is alcohol-free, so specify which floor.
Mahlas Meyhane pours rakı inside a restored Antep courtyard house in Karagöz, and its meze tray is the most local drinking food in Gaziantep.
Signature drink: Rakı
Food: Antep meze
Tip: Wood and stone keep the room cool. It is the better summer option of the old-city meyhanes.
Salaş Restaurant is an unfussy licensed grill on Türkmenler Caddesi in Gaziantep, built around kebab, cold meze and a table you can sit at for hours.
Signature drink: Rakı
Food: Kebab and meze
Tip: No frills and no reservations culture. Turn up early on a Friday if you want a table.
Muhsinzade rolls liver and mince straight off the charcoal into flatbread in the Gaziantep bazaar, and the counter opens at six in the morning.
Try: Ciğer dürüm
Tip: Eat it standing at the counter. There is no table service and the bench seats fill fast.
Ciğerci Mustafa threads lamb liver and tail fat onto skewers on Bayramoğlu Sokak, the Gaziantep breakfast that surprises most visitors first.
Try: Ciğer kebabı
Tip: Order onion, parsley and sumac alongside. Locals eat liver with all three, never on its own.
Katmerci Zekeriya Usta throws katmer dough over a marble counter in Gaziantep, then bakes it with kaymak and pistachio in a stone oven at the back.
Try: Fıstıklı katmer
Tip: Katmer is a breakfast pastry here, not a dessert. Come before ten for the freshest batch.
Metanet Katmer opens at five in the morning beside the Gaziantep grain market, feeding the same crowd that has just eaten beyran across the road.
Try: Katmer
Tip: Order the simit katmer if the classic sells out. It is the same dough with sesame on top.
Yusuf Ziya rolls burma kadayıf around crushed Antep pistachio in a Gaziantep han on Suburcu Caddesi and sells almost nothing else from the window.
Try: Fıstıklı burma kadayıf
Tip: Buy a small box rather than a tray. The syrup sets hard within a day.
Ali Usta Kebap ve Baklava opens its grill at six in the morning near Karatarla, so kebab counts as street breakfast in this part of Gaziantep.
Try: Ali Nazik
Tip: Closed Sundays. Order at the grill window rather than sitting down if you are in a hurry.
Almacı Pazarı has traded in central Gaziantep for around 250 years, and its stalls still carry the isot, pekmez, dried aubergine and green pistachio.
Tip: Buy isot here rather than at the airport. Ask for the coarse flakes, not the powder.
Elmacı Pazarı is the biggest food market in Gaziantep, a spice and nut bazaar named for the apple trade that once filled these lanes off Karatarla.
Tip: Come early. The nut sellers restock at dawn and the lanes are impassable by mid-morning.
Zincirli Bedesten is the covered market Darendeli Hüseyin Paşa built in Gaziantep in 1718, and its 73 units now sell spices, handicrafts and regional gifts.
Tip: Do the covered lanes first, then the open bazaar. The 73 units run to spices, handicrafts and gifts.
Gümrük Hanı is one of the old customs inns of Gaziantep, a stone courtyard off Gümrük Caddesi where coffee grinders and craft workshops still trade.
Tip: Kahveci Seddar Bey works out of the courtyard six days a week, closed on Mondays.
Musem Akademi teaches a dedicated regional Gaziantep cuisine programme from its Karagöz kitchens, the most serious local course open to people from outside the trade.
Tip: This is a full programme rather than a one-morning class, so it suits longer stays.
The pastry foundation course at Musem Akademi in Gaziantep covers dough, laminating and syrup work, which is the technical base under katmer and baklava.
Tip: The academy lists 19 active workshops alongside its main programmes, so ask what is running.
Ciğerci Mustafa charges bazaar prices for lamb liver skewers in Gaziantep, and a skewer with bread and salad lands well under most kebab bills.
Try: Ciğer kebabı
Tip: Liver runs out by early afternoon. Go at breakfast when it is freshest and cheapest.
Muhsinzade sells charcoal-grilled dürüm in the Gaziantep bazaar at trader prices, which is what keeps the benches full from six in the morning.
Try: Ciğer ve kıyma dürüm
Tip: Order the mixed liver and mince wrap for the best value on the board.
Katmerci Murat prices its katmer below the famous Gaziantep names on Atatürk Bulvarı while still loading the pastry with kaymak and pistachio.
Try: Katmer
Tip: Split one katmer between two, the portion is bigger than it looks.
İmamoğlu Baklava undercuts the big Gaziantep names from a small shop on Eski Saray Caddesi, and the trays turn over fast enough to stay fresh.
Try: Baklava
Tip: Buy a quarter kilo. At these prices the temptation to over-buy is the real risk.
Metanet Lokantası charges soup money for the dish Gaziantep is proudest of, and a beyran with bread is a full breakfast for one very modest price.
Try: Beyran çorbası
Tip: Order half a portion if you plan on katmer afterwards. The broth is richer than it looks.
Katmerci Zekeriya Usta is where Gaziantep eats breakfast, a stone oven turning out katmer layered with clotted cream and green Antep pistachio.
Order: Fıstıklı katmer with kaymak, eaten hot from the stone oven.
Tip: Come before ten. The dough is thrown to order and the queue builds through the morning.
Metanet Katmer opens at five in the morning on Kozluca Caddesi, so the classic Gaziantep breakfast of beyran and katmer can be done before sunrise.
Order: Classic katmer with clotted cream and pistachio.
Tip: Pair it with beyran across the road. That is the traditional Gaziantep morning order.
Beyoğlu Katmercim makes katmer in front of the counter on Kozluca Caddesi, a Gaziantep breakfast worth the two-street walk from the busier names.
Order: Kaymaklı katmer, watched through the window as it is made.
Tip: Ask for the corner table. The katmer travels badly even across the room.
Gece Gündüz Bistro runs fasıl bands and a cook-your-own grill until one in the morning, the busiest late licensed room in central Gaziantep.
Try: Meze and ocakbaşı grill
Tip: Book the ocakbaşı tables in advance. They are the only ones where you grill your own.
Bayazhan keeps its caravanserai meyhane in Gaziantep running to midnight with live fasıl, rakı and a küşleme allocation that sells out early.
Try: Küşleme and meze
Tip: Reserve the küşleme when you book. After ten o'clock the grill is usually out of it.
Bayazhan runs live fasıl music in its caravanserai meyhane in Gaziantep most nights, which is the closest the old city gets to a proper night out.
Tip: Book the meyhane floor rather than the family section if you want the music and the drinks list.
Gece Gündüz Bistro programmes fasıl bands, DJ percussion and oriental shows seven nights a week in Bey Mahallesi, the busiest late room in Gaziantep.
Tip: The VIP room runs Wednesday, Friday and Saturday only. Ask when you reserve.
Salaş Restaurant is the unfussy licensed grill of Türkmenler Caddesi in Gaziantep, built for long tables of kebab, meze and rakı rather than for atmosphere.
Tip: No reservations culture here. Turn up early on a Friday if you want a table.