Soup before dawn, pistachio before noon, baklava all day.
Gaziantep eats on a schedule no other Turkish city keeps. Beyran, a lamb and rice broth simmered overnight, is sold from five in the morning and gone by early afternoon, so the day starts in the bazaar rather than at a hotel buffet. Katmer follows, dough stretched to transparency over a marble counter, filled with clotted cream and the bright green Antep pistachio that gives the city its export trade. Lunch is kebab, and the local argument is about küşleme, unmarinated lamb tenderloin grilled fast over charcoal and priced by the gram. Dinner is quieter, because this is a conservative city with only a handful of licensed rooms, most of them meyhanes in restored hans. What replaces a bar culture is a sweet culture: baklava counters that have run since 1871, künefe rooms open until two in the morning, and coffee houses grinding menengiç from wild terebinth since 1635. UNESCO made Gaziantep a Creative City of Gastronomy in 2015, the only Turkish city with the title, on the strength of roughly 500 dishes counted as its own.
Every restaurant, cafe, market and bar we cover in Gaziantep, pinned. Click a pin for the page.
The plates that define eating in Gaziantep.
Forty or more layers of hand-rolled dough, clarified butter and crushed green Antep pistachio, baked and syruped so the top shatters and the base stays crisp rather than wet.
Where: Koçak Baklava, İmam Çağdaş, Baklavacı Zeki İnal, Çelebioğulları Baklava, Tarihi Elmacıpazarı Güllüoğlu
A single sheet of dough thrown until it is almost transparent, folded around clotted cream and green pistachio, then baked flat in a stone oven and cut into squares while it is still molten.
Where: Katmerci Zekeriya Usta, Metanet Katmer, Beyoğlu Katmercim, Katmerci Murat
Shredded lamb neck and rice in a garlic and pepper broth built on marrow bones, ladled over the top so it is served scalding. This is the Gaziantep breakfast that starts before dawn.
Where: Metanet Lokantası, Sakıp Usta Paça Beyran Kebap, Yesemek Gaziantep Mutfağı
A thin flatbread topped with minced lamb, tomato, parsley and isot, fired hot and fast so the edges blister. The Antep version is thinner and spicier than the Urfa one and is eaten rolled.
Where: Üçler Kebap Lahmacun, İmam Çağdaş, Özcanlar Pide & Lahmacun Fırını
Aubergine charred over flame, peeled and beaten into garlic yoghurt, then topped with cubed or minced lamb cooked in butter. Smoke, sourness and fat in one plate, and Gaziantep claims it.
Where: İmam Çağdaş, Ali Usta Kebap ve Baklava, Yesemek Gaziantep Mutfağı
Unmarinated lamb tenderloin, cut into small cubes and grilled fast over charcoal with nothing but salt. It is the most expensive kebab in Gaziantep because there is very little of it per animal.
Where: Kebapçı Halil Usta, Küşlemeci Mehmet Usta, Bayazhan, Çulcuoğlu Et Lokantası
Tiny rice and meat balls the size of a fingernail, cooked with chickpeas in a warm yoghurt soup finished with dried mint butter. It is the feast dish of Gaziantep, made for Eid mornings.
Where: Yesemek Gaziantep Mutfağı, Hışvahan, Evirgeç Mantı Evi
A bulgur shell moulded thin around spiced lamb and walnut, then fried or boiled. In Gaziantep the shell is worked so fine that the filling shows through when you cut it open.
Where: Çulcuoğlu Et Lokantası, Evirgeç Mantı Evi
A yoghurt and chickpea soup holding two sizes of dumpling: large stuffed ones and small plain ones, the mother and the daughter that give the dish its name.
Where: Hışvahan, Yesemek Gaziantep Mutfağı
A coffee with no coffee in it: wild terebinth berries roasted and ground to a paste, then brewed with milk into something between hazelnut, chocolate and pistachio.
Where: Tarihi Tahmis Kahvesi
Shredded kadayıf pastry packed above and below a layer of unsalted stretching cheese, baked or fired over charcoal until the outside is bronzed, then soaked in syrup and buried in pistachio.
Where: Künefe Han, Cumba Künefe, Erçelebi Kömürde Kadayıf
A triangle of baklava pastry with clotted cream folded in beside the pistachio, so it eats richer and softer than a standard slice and has a much shorter shelf life.
Where: Baklavacı Zeki İnal, Çelebioğulları Baklava, Koçak Baklava
Shredded kadayıf wrapped tightly around a log of crushed pistachio, baked and then syruped, cut into short lengths that show a dense green core.
Where: Yusuf Ziya Fıstıklı Burma Kadayıfları, İmamoğlu Baklava
Small lamb dumplings served under garlic yoghurt and paprika butter. The Antep version is boiled rather than baked and comes in a lighter, wetter bowl than the Kayseri original.
Where: Evirgeç Mantı Evi, Yesemek Gaziantep Mutfağı
Fine bulgur kneaded for an hour with isot, pepper paste and spice until it turns dark and sticky, then served cold in lettuce or rolled into a wrap. Now made without meat by law.
Where: Çiğ Köfteci Yuşa Usta, Çulcuoğlu Et Lokantası
A handful of the places we send friends to when they are in Gaziantep.
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
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
Kebapçı Halil Usta grills küşleme over charcoal in Şehitkamil, and the Gaziantep lunch crowd empties the tenderloin allocation most days by 15:00.
Signature: Küşleme, Simit kebabı, Kaşık salatası
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
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
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
The walled old city below the castle, where the copper bazaar, the hans and the baklava counters all sit inside a fifteen-minute walk.
Best for: Beyran, Katmer, Baklava, Menengiç coffee
The Atatürk Bulvarı corridor between the old city and the new one, where küşleme grills, mantı rooms and late beyran counters sit side by side.
Best for: Küşleme, Mantı, Şöbiyet, Late beyran
Modern Gaziantep of wide boulevards and big salons, where the baklava houses have air conditioning and the künefe rooms stay open past midnight.
Best for: Baklava, Künefe, Kadayıf, Patisserie breakfast
A residential grid north of the centre that eats late and long, with breakfast rooms, film-poster cafes and simit bakeries rather than kebab houses.
Best for: Serpme kahvaltı, Simit, Organic breakfast, Coffee
The university side of Gaziantep, where espresso bars, brunch rooms and international menus serve a student crowd that eats later than the old city.
Best for: Filter coffee, Brunch, International
The park district west of the centre, where Gaziantep eats outdoors under trees, from park-side breakfast patios to the licensed gardens on its edge.
Best for: Park breakfast, Gözleme, Beer garden
Peak food season: September to November. GastroAntep runs in mid September, the pistachio harvest lands in August, and the Nizip olive pressing follows in November. July and August are punishingly hot.
Local dining hours: Beyran 05:00-13:00, katmer 06:00-11:00, lunch 12:00-15:00, dinner 19:00-22:30. Dessert counters run to 24:00 and later.
Tipping: Service is not included. Round up in bazaar counters and leave five to ten percent in restaurants. Small lira notes are essential in the old city.
Gaziantep's signature dishes include Antep fıstıklı baklava, Katmer, Beyran çorbası, Antep usulü lahmacun, Ali Nazik kebabı. See our signature dishes chapter for where to eat each.
TableJourney editors map Gaziantep by district. Eski Antep, Alleben, Şehitkamil, İbrahimli are among the strongest for food, each with its own guide.
Editor picks in Gaziantep include Hışvahan, Bayazhan, Mutfak Sanatları Merkezi, plus the full fine dining chapter on TableJourney.
TableJourney covers 4 editor-picked food tours in Gaziantep, with what each shows you and how much to budget.
TableJourney's Gaziantep dietary chapter covers vegan, vegetarian, gluten_free venues, each editor-picked with what to order and how to ask.