Slow-stewed dried white beans in a tomato and red-pepper broth, often with chunks of lamb or pastirma. Served over pilav with pickles, the Turkish home-cooking comfort dish.
Kuru fasulye took hold across Anatolia after dried white beans arrived from the New World in the 17th century. The Istanbul esnaf-lokantasi tradition, the trade-guild canteens that fed shopkeepers and craftsmen, made it the canonical lunch plate; pilav with kuru fasulye, pickle and ayran is the working-city meal.
3 editor picks for Kuru fasulye (white bean stew) in Istanbul, ranked by editorial score. All Istanbul signature dishes · Kuru fasulye (white bean stew) across every city.
Karaköy Lokantası ★ 4.5
karaköy · Kemankeş Mah., Kemankeş Caddesi No:57, 34425 Beyoğlu, İstanbul
The teal-tiled Karaköy Lokantası, Bib Gourmand listed in the Michelin Guide, runs an Ottoman-leaning lunch lokanta downstairs and a meyhane upstairs at night.
Hayvore ★ 4.4
beyoğlu · Turnacıbaşı Sokak No:4, 34433 Beyoğlu, İstanbul
Hayvore tucked off Istiklal, cooking the corn-bread, anchovies and smoky bean stews of the Black Sea since 2009 in a noisy steam-table lokanta close.
Tarihi Hocapaşa Pidecisi ★ 4.3
eminönü · Hocapaşa Sokak No:19, Sirkeci, 34112 Fatih, İstanbul
Tarihi Hocapaşa Pidecisi off the Sirkeci side-streets, pulling kıymalı and kuşbaşılı pide from a wood oven since the 1960s for the lunchtime suit crowd.