Shadow Cafe Bar Restaurant

What a great experience. We were in Istanbul for 2 nights and spent both evenings enjoying drinks and hookah with some of the most friendly people in Istanbul. Highly recommend.

My husband got the lamb stew which he really enjoyed. I got the pasta arrabiato which was quite bland and would not recommend it. However, what makes this place great is the wonderful staff! They were extremely nice and attentive and they gave us a complimentary appetizer and dessert! I would recommend going here again!

Did not get the type of service mentioned at all. Waiter seemed like he was told to give good service but least friendly place of the 6 meals in Sultanahmet so far. Maybe ordered wrong thing and bad timing. Just so so. Every other meal here so far has been amazing!

Great food, good vibes and good tunes. We had a great fun night with Gino and the rest of the staff, highly recommend.

First place I stopped in for food while on a 16 hour layover in Istanbul.
The street this sits on has many other food options as well but I followed a wiki travel recommendation and stopped in for a late night bite around 9:30pm or so.
With the beautiful weather in February I was immediately welcomed and seated outside where the place was about half full.
Music playing mildly, other patrons enjoying their food, and a really chill ambiance made this the perfect setting after being tortured for 90 minutes on a low budget Turkish airline called Pegasus.
For starters I had the hummus and pita bread platter that came with 3 dipping sauces I do not recall. This would easily serve 2 even 3 people so don’t rush into it as I did, this made me feel a bit full but maybe that was from the food on the aforementioned Guantanamo airline, did I mention it was about 4 euro for a soda?!
Next I had the mixed grill, a conservative choice but definitely not disappointing, fresh albeit typical meat offerings, portions were just right and not overly generous if you’re ordering a filling app (s) as I did.

Great service I loved the food! A must-​see in sultanamet!

excellent food; go with the staff recommendations. outside terrace or inside. great service; nice folks.

Very friendly service. The pita bread here is delicious. The traditional pita in the Sultanhamet area is a huge puff pastry that you take apart, here you get a flatter pita seasoned with sesame seeds and garlic, the flatness allow for this delicious combination to retain on the pita.
Fun easing going vibe is reinforced with frequent Bob Marley tunes and playful waiters. Ours, Gino came and served us our beer by balancing it on his head walking over bowing down and having me grab it.
A big bonus of coming here for dinner is that they invite you to come back later and have a hookah on the house.

Shadow restaurant appears to be one among a number of tourist traps along this street – but we were lured here by a good Trip Advisor rating and were quite pleased. We were greeted and seated immediately – and later the server even re-​seated some patrons who wanted to smoke so they wouldn’t disturb us.
Definitely order the meze platter – this is the perfect start for any meal. Their eggplant purée had a wonderful roasted flavor to it and another of our favorites was a tangy, spice tomato and red pepper spread. Our first entrée was the Hünkar Begendi («Sultan’s delight») which is basically a savory lamb stew served on top of a bed of eggplant. Our second entrée was a vegetarian tagine which had chickpeas and a wonderful broth.
All in all it was a very satisfying and delicious meal – and reasonably priced.