Şimdi Cafe

This is the best place I ate at while in İstanbul. Not only was the food perfect, the atmosphere is super beautiful and relaxing. The lighting is warm and the music is excellent. The style of the floor, lights, tables, ceiling fans, art, chairs, flatware (my molten chocolate cake came with a tiny shovel!) is all inviting and classy.
I had the Mediterranean pizza, a nice thin crust with fresh olive, tomato & green pepper, but crispy enough to pick up by the slice; perfect for one person.
I especially appreciated the staff, who were friendly and helpful, and importantly to me, did not hover around my table or ask me a bunch of personal questions and then later stalk me online by looking up my name from my credit card… (Yeah, that happened at a different restaurant in the same area. Ladies, watch out. Maybe just pay cash!)
It is so nice to be able to go into a place, be treated with respect, given privacy, feel safe, get amazing food and drink and come away feeling on top of the world (though nobody should order the mineral water with lemon. It’s not a good thing.)
This is the only restaurant in Istanbul, out of 13 or 14, that I am excited to eat at *again* — I wish I’d gone here earlier in my visit.

Nice place near Taksim square. Service was extremely friendly. We ordered the margharita pizza and some dolmas. The pizza had ALOT of cheese, which didn’t really do it for me but, this is Turkey and is to be expected. The dolmas were excellent. A glass of Turkish red wine was recommended by the waiter a was excellent. We had a chocolate soufflé for dessert which was very good too. A nice, simple change of pace.

It may seem to be an ordinary café (not easy to see the sign! The name is written on the clock in the enterance) from outside, yet it s totally worth to get in and have some tiny starters along with a glass of tea. The ceiling and the walls look cool and inspiring.

Good place when you’re browsing around Taksim and Istiklal.
I have to admit we stumbled on this place while looking for another restaurant and I’m glad we did because the food was good and we had fun. We were here for lunch and shared appetizers of eggplant fitters and some excellent fried potatoes. As a main course I had a good kofta and fellow traveler had a dolma like dish of stuffed leaves with rice. It was all good. Tried two types of Turkish wine. Dessert was excellent, quince ice cream, rose ice cream and an orange cake, all of which we split. I ended with Turkish coffee .
One of things I liked about the restaurant was it had a sophisticated, New Yorky, Soho vibe. Service was good and prices not unreasonable.

7 days in Istanbul of which… 5? where spent at Şimdi Café. It doesn’t matter which moment of the day you go there, it is perfect: breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner or beers in between.
The crowd that you can find in there is mainly locals and many of them, writers, photographers, musicians… The service (as we found in many places in Istanbul) is wonderful. And a tip: try their soups!
This place is special!

ahhhh … my late night Istanbul (or was that early morning?).
After a great dinner and great convo with our local CM and another friend at Litera, we headed to Taksim. Simdi was where we landed — you know how I knew that? Well, it wasn’t for the plethora of signage, that’s for sure — I had to look up at a clock to see «SIMDI» on the face to «get it». You’d really never know where you were if it weren’t for that clock.
While I didn’t indulge in it, I did see a menu chock full of small plates that looked interesting, and learned from our host that the food is really good here.
Later in the evening, this place turns into a totally hip bar scene, which was fabulous. More of an open air café than anything (bless the poor people whose bedrooms overlooked this section of Taksim, as it must be terribly loud for them some evenings!), with great wines, coffees, teas and yummy sweet treats.
The service was wonderful. The atmosphere, very laid back and «hip», the people, warm and friendly. Definitely stop in for lunch or dinner, or do as we did … have a seat and a late night glass of wine with friends.