Ünsal Lokum ve Şekerleme is a Gaziantep confectioner's own trade counter on Altınoğlu Caddesi, selling the lokum and boiled sweets it makes itself.
Editorially verified August 1, 2026 by Lewis Vaughan, TableJourney editor. Source.
Why locals love it: A confectioner's own trade counter on Altınoğlu Caddesi rather than a gift shop, selling the lokum and boiled sweets it manufactures itself.
Tip: Pistachio lokum survives the flight home better than baklava. Ask for a box, not a bag.
Address: Seferpaşa, Altınoğlu Cad No:3, 27400 Şehitkamil/Gaziantep
Akınal Gar Restaurant serves meze inside the working railway station building in Gaziantep, a licensed room hiding behind the platform doors.
Why locals love it: A licensed meze room inside the working TCDD station building, which almost no Gaziantep food guide bothers to list.
Tip: Ask for the platform side. Trains still pass the windows through the evening.
Akınal Gar Restaurant serves meze inside the working railway station building in Gaziantep, a licensed room hiding behind the platform doors.
Why locals love it: A licensed meze room inside the working TCDD station building, which almost no Gaziantep food guide bothers to list.
Tip: Ask for the platform side. Trains still pass the windows through the evening.
Papirüs Cafe sits inside a restored Armenian mansion in Bey Mahallesi, and its vine-shaded courtyard is the quietest table in old Gaziantep.
Why locals love it: A restored Armenian mansion in Bey Mahallesi with a vine-covered courtyard that stays quiet through the whole morning.
Tip: Come before noon. By mid-afternoon the courtyard is full and the calm has gone.
Katmerci Murat is a family katmer counter on Atatürk Bulvarı in Gaziantep, cheaper and more generous with pistachio than the addresses on every list.
Why locals love it: A family katmer shop on Atatürk Bulvarı where the children work the counter and the pistachio is heavier than at the famous names.
Tip: Add the şam tatlısı if you are ordering for more than two people.
Kahveci Seddar Bey hides in the courtyard of a Gaziantep han rather than on a street front, which is why the two-colour dibek coffee stays a local secret.
Why locals love it: Inside the Gümrük Han courtyard, closed Mondays but open the other six days, with two-colour dibek coffee ground by mallet at the counter.
Tip: Closed Mondays. Come before 19:00, when the han courtyard shuts for the day.
Havara Kitap Kafe is a women-run book cafe in Karagöz, Gaziantep, assembled from reclaimed material and stacked across several quiet levels.
Why locals love it: A women-run book cafe built from reclaimed material in Karagöz, several levels deep and almost never on a Gaziantep visitor list.
Tip: Service is partly self-serve. Order at the counter rather than waiting to be found.
Yusuf Ziya makes burma kadayıf and nothing else from a han window on Suburcu Caddesi, a Gaziantep speciality the baklava salons treat as a sideline.
Why locals love it: A single-product window in a Suburcu Caddesi han making only burma kadayıf, which most Gaziantep baklava lists never mention.
Tip: Midday is when the trays come out warm. By evening the syrup has set firm.
