During our trip to Istanbul, we had the good fortune to discover a restaurant not on the typical tourist maps of Istanbul and found it to be a gem!
“Diver Karadeniz Mutfaği”, which I believe translates into “Diver Black Sea Cuisine”, served up some of the best food that we had experienced in Istanbul. Influenced by seafood and a variety of vegetables, cheeses and yogurts, Diver’s menu offers a wide range of fantastic options.
The restaurant staff was very friendly and proud of their establishment. 3 brothers share the ownership of the restaurant and you can see the pride in their efforts! They were so helpful that in fact they let us sample every item they had on “display” to ensure that we would choose exactly what we wanted. Language was a bit of a barrier, but the food and our expressions soon helped overcome our lack of speaking Turkish. Ultimately they created several “sampler platters” for us and we were able to try several menu items.
Their pride and our enjoyment translated into a ‘behind the scenes’ look into their kitchen (spotless!) and their bakery where they were constantly making home-made flat breads. In all, a fantastic experience with great food and a wonderful staff.
If you should ever find yourself in Istanbul, I strongly suggest having lunch or dinner at Diver! You can find Diver on Akdeniz caddesi #6, in the Fatih district of Istanbul.
Pictures From Lunch:
So many great options, where do you start ?!?:
Fortunately, we were able to sample a little bit of nearly everything on the menu:
Spotless Kitchen:
Onsite Bakery:
This Trip Report is part of a much larger report that includes our visit to Istanbul and London. Below is a current index of the trip report. The entries that have links indicates that I’ve already posted a trip report on that part of our trip.
Lufthansa First Class Services from Chicago to Frankfurt
Lufthansa First Class Lounge in FrankfurtIstanbul – Sultan Ahmed (Sultanahmet) Mosque.
Istanbul – The Basilica Cistern.
Istanbul – The Grand Bazaar
Istanbul – The Spice Market
Istanbul – Park Hyatt Macka Palas.
Istanbul – Our Day with Ihsan (besttaxidriver.com).
Istanbul – Hagia Sophia.
Istanbul – Other Mosques and Churches.
Istanbul – I find out what Zultanite is….
Istanbul – My Favorite Restaurant
Istanbul – Turkish Airlines’ International CIP Lounge.London – Hyatt Andaz Liverpool Street
London – Opening of Parliament – Great pictures of the Queen and procession to Parliament.
London – ‘The Sunshine Boys’ at the Savoy Theater (Danny DeVito and Richard Griffiths)…..BRILLIANT, MUST SEE!
London – Old Spitalfield’s Market – A Gem In The Heart Of London
London – Churchill War Rooms and Churchill Museum.
London – Photos from around town.
London – Dinner at Petrus
London – St. James Park: Feathers and Fur
London – Covent Gardens.
London – All the other things that I can’t think of at the moment….Pluckley – They said it was haunted……
One of the trip report in this series is Istanbul – Our Day with Ihsan (besttaxidriver.com) When will you finish that. I want to know how much you paid him. I am sure he must be very busy so are there any similar alternatives if he is not available?
thanks for the tip! I will be in istanbul in OCT and will definitely put it on my EAT list! The write up and the photos were amazing!
I am going in October. Will definitely give it a try.
Food looks amazing but is there anything else to do nearby?
@Scottrick – well said! it tasted as good as it looked!
That looks amazing! What else can I say?