Niyazibey

Just tried today. Too much blurb i heard about NB. Food is average price is high. Location is very central. I think Kanaat in uskudar better than this place. Service needs to be improved.

My (Turkish) boyfriend and I tried this place last night. As Uskudar residents, we walk by it nearly every day, and it’s always quite crowded. So, we figured it must be a local favorite.
The menu has some of your typical kebab fare, and a few other interesting dishes, like Ali Nazim and Abaganush. I tried a meat dish with garlic and eggplant purée, and was pleased to see it also served with butter like Iskender!
As is the custom at these southeastern cuisine type places, they bring out a steaming and puffy piece of bread to share with handmade butter and village cheese. This was good, except my boyfriend was not convinced that the butter was handmade. They also come around with other stuff that may or may not be free, but will put it on your plate without asking. I didn’t try any of the salads but the meze were ok. The boyfriend was again not pleased with the lukewarm temperature of the meze, but it didn’t bother me.
I would award five stars, but I take half a star off for the initial rudeness we were met with by a staff member. We politely asked if the terrace was open, and he ignored the question and just tried to seat us on the ground floor. We asked again, and he ignored again. We stared at each other in disbelief, until finally he was like «oh, I said it’s closed.» I’m 100% he never answered us the first two times, but whatever. That was awkward. And additional half-​star off for not being super fresh with some of what was served.
Overall I would recommend this as a dinner place for those visiting Uskudar. I liked it better than Kanaat, which is what people typically come to the neighborhood for. Expect to pay about 25tl per dish and 10−15tl for meze. No alcohol!