Bahar Restaurant inside a Yağcı Han courtyard, an esnaf lokanta feeding bazaar working merchants from steam-table stewpots that empty by mid-afternoon.
Why locals love it: Buried in a small han off the Grand Bazaar's Nuruosmaniye gate, found only by the bazaar merchants who eat there daily.
Tip: Get there before 14:00 or the stewpots are empty.
Address: Beyazıt Mah., Çarşıkapı Nuruosmaniye Caddesi, Yağcı Han No:13, 34126 Fatih, İstanbul, Istanbul
Antiochia on a Beyoğlu side street, an Antakya (Hatay) kitchen plating southeastern grills and Levant mezze from a tight Asmalımescit address.
Why locals love it: Tucked on a tight General Yazgan side-street in Asmalımescit, often walked past on the way to bigger meyhanes.
Tip: Order the cevizli biber, the kunefe and the cag kebab together.
Mandabatmaz in Olivya Geçidi, a one-table Beyoğlu Turkish coffee bar running since 1967, the cup of foam so dense the buffalo doesn't sink.
Why locals love it: Tucked inside the Olivya Passage off Istiklal, easy to miss for anyone not looking for the unmarked alley.
Tip: Order an orta-şekerli (medium-sweet) and stay for two; the kahveci will keep refilling water.
Asitane in Edirnekapı, an Ottoman palace-cuisine specialist working from 16th-century archives, a 45-minute taxi from the tourist core and worth it.
Why locals love it: Out beyond the Chora Church in Edirnekapı, far from the tourist Sultanahmet circuit and the Bosphorus.
Tip: Book a day ahead and try the goose dolma; only a handful of kitchens in Turkey still cook it.
Sade Kahve below the Rumeli Hisarı battlements, an all-day Bosphorus terrace where ash-brewed Turkish coffee meets a full kahvaltı board.
Why locals love it: Right under the Rumeli Hisarı walls, far enough up the Bosphorus that most day-trippers never make it.
Tip: Come on a weekday morning for the kahvaltı; the terrace fills by 11 on weekends.
Pano Şarap Evi on Hamalbaşı, an 1898 Greek-Turkish wine house with a doorway-deep cellar and a Bozcaada bottle list nobody else pours.
Why locals love it: Tiny 1898 wine cellar on a Hamalbaşı side-lane that the Istiklal crowd walks straight past.
Tip: Order the Bozcaada Çavuş with a cheese plate; the room only holds about thirty.
Hayvore off Istiklal, the Black Sea steam-table cooking corn-bread anchovies and smoky bean stews for whoever knows the side street.
Why locals love it: Locals fill it for the Black Sea menu, tourists walk past for the larger Istiklal places ten metres away.
Tip: Order the hamsi pilav and the muhlama; they only run while supplies last.
