Fatih Köfte

Dellllicious!
We were so jaded by our Istanbul food at this point. We’d had a great meal near Şirince so we’d had some good Turkish food, but we really wanted some nice grilled meat of some description. We walked near this place and saw the big grill filled with just köfte, saw the price (₺8), noted how even though it’s just a block from the Grand Bazaar, there wasn’t a tourist to be seen, and thought sure, let’s try it. And so pleased we did!
They didn’t speak much English but as I speak no Turkish, I can’t really complain. we sat outside as we were in a rush and it wasn’t too cold for December — I think they had more seating upstairs though, too. Bread was promptly brought out, and our drinks. The waiter asked if we wanted salad so we thought sure, and just got one (it was enough for 2 people. There was no cheese. Brian C. is remembering Athens…) I mentioned we were in a hurry (we had to meet up with the tour group in like 20 minutes) and our food came quickly. We wolfed it down — not hard, as it was so tasty! The meat was well-​spiced and moist, with no bits of fat and grizzle like in a lot of the other meat we had tried. The chili sauce was hot but not fiery and had a really interesting taste. It was more than I could eat and considering we paid less than ₺20, a really good deal too.

The wife and I had been disappointed by the food in Istanbul. So disappointed that we were actually heading for Burger King when we saw this place a few doors further down.
We figured we would give it a go, and were very pleased we did. The place was filled only with locals — and it was cheap. For just over ten lira per person we got a large plate of salad, and two plates of six koftes with mashed potato and chilli sauce.
I’ve had koftes in the UK but I feel like I’ve now tried them as they’re meant to be. These were moist and succulent rather than the hard and dry ones you might get in West London. The salad was decent and large enough to share.
This saved our little foodie trip, these were by far the best savoury things we had in Istanbul. I’ll be keeping my eye out for this place if we ever go back to Istanbul.