Starbucks

When I asked someone, where is the best place in Istanbul to sit and watch the ships on the Bosporus, someone told me to go to the Starbucks in Bebek. I thought they were joking until I went there. THEY WERE RIGHT!
Now let’s be clear, it IS a Starbucks. It is what you expect (or fear) from a Starbucks. It has the required menu, the staff is friendly, if slightly frantic and the prices are slightly on the high end. There is wifi (the bandwidth is a bit overwhelmed, at least on weekends.)
But, take your coffee, go to the upper deck, if the weather is nice and you can find a chair, go outside on the veranda. Sit there with your coffee and watch the incredible variety of ships plying their trade going between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Just stop for a while and appreciate what a truly incredible experience is possible within the mundane act of drinking a cup of coffee!

I was in Paris, France last week and my friend and I were arguing why any person who lived there or visited there would ever go to a starbucks. In a city where café’s are plentiful and coffee delcious, why my friend argued, would you be caught dead with a starbucks caught in your hand. Now as a disclaimer for this review, I dont drink coffee. Believe it or not, I have never drank coffee in my life.
With this said, I argued about maybe starbucks are using local products, you want coffee on the go etc. While I can’t speak for Starbucks coffee, in relation to their actual coffee, I wanted to take a minute to rate the Starbucks experience. While I am generally not in favor of supporting multi national corporations, the Starbucks in Bebek is an experience. The views are stunning, located right on the bospohorus. In line with the great Istanbul tradition of the service industry letting you sit as long as you would like, it is the perfect place to grab a tea (for me) and sit and do work. In the warm weather, the views and sounds from the outdoor seating area are second to none.
I am not ashamed of telling my guests who visit to go there and sit and enjoy the sights and sounds. This is not a little known fact, so the place is usually packed. But if you are lucky enough to get a seat outside on a nice warm day, bunker down and enjoy the best of what Istanbul has to offer. And hey, if you want to get a coffee, I wont judge!

En el interior es un Starbucks como cualquier otro sinceramente. Tiene CINCO pisos bastante amplios y creo que dos barras, una en planta baja y la otra en un piso alto.
El ambiente es el mismo que en todos los locales de la cadena: mucha gente que va a trabajar, muchos adolescentes, olorcito a café, sillones cómodos y LLENO DE TURISTAS.
Sin lugar a dudas, lo que destaca a este local por sobre los otros de la compañía es la vista. Todos los pisos tienen una o más terrazas sobre el Bósforo, desde donde se puede ver el lado asiático de Estambul con los barquitos y cruceros pasando y todo hermoso.
Sin embargo, conseguir lugar en la terraza es casi IMPOSIBLE. Todas las mesas están completas todo el tiempo. Estén atentos y donde vean que se desocupa una, se abalanzan.
Otra cosa que me pareció horrible fue EL OLOR A PIS INFERNAL que había en los baños. No sé si eran todos, fui a uno y no me animé a seguir chequeando.

Yeni açılan katlarıyla iyice ferahlaştı. Kahve eşliğinde çalışmak için bir numaralı tercihimiz.