Van Kahvaltı Evi

What an amazing place to have my first breakfast in Istanbul, and in Turkey!
Came to Cihangir for a week to visit my sister, and she brought me to her favorite little spot up the street from her apartment — WHAT A TREAT! I can’t say enough good things about this place! The food was amazing, the service was so friendly and polite — especially for two American girls who speak some (her) and none (me) Turkish. We had the big breakfast (wish I could remember the name in Turkish) and it was a traditional breakfast, tapas-​style, with lots of spreads including nutella, jam, honey butter (drool), a bread basket with assorted kinds, hard boiled eggs, cheeses, and more yummy treats that escape me right now. I also had the menemen, SO good. A second time, I tried the turkish pancake/​crêpe, also good, but the traditional breakfast is the way to go.
Bottomless cai (pronounced «chai», and the basis for our own, American version!), occasional stray cats, quaint surroundings, wonderful price. If you’re nearby, GO GO GO!

Excellent breakfast/​brunch, acceptable price for Cihangir. I will probably come back!

Fun spot for breakfast. Was convenient for where we were staying. I had the cheese pancake & wish I got their breakfast spread instead b/​c it looked like a lot more variety and fun. The cheese pancake was filling. I had the pomegranate-​orange blended juice. It was very, very tart. If you don’t like tart, I’d go with just the orange juice. Service was fast & friendly. A great place to start your day in Istanbul if you want a low-​key, sit-​down breakfast.

We had breakfast here today and the food and service were amazing. Our favorites were the Turkish pancakes with potato and the fried dough, but all the other dishes we picked were also tasty. The entire wait staff was super friendly and helpful. I’ll be back here every time I come to Istanbul!

Awesome hipster breakfast spot. Food was fresh, plentiful and delicious. Place was packed with hip locals. Really cool spot in Cihangir. They were bustling and tried to shoo us away. But I stayed strong and they sat us.

Love this place. Close to walk to from my new place so I was thrilled the first couple times I went to find it consistently delicious and enjoyable. The Turkish breakfast was great, my boyfriend and I split it each time we came and the potato gözleme is the thing that will keep me coming back. it’s amazing! Tea is sooooo good too. All day breakfast is like a life saver for an LA import into Istanbul. Love!

Jesus what a treat. My girlfriend and I went here on a trip through India, Israel, Thailand, and Turkey, and it was easily one of our favorite meals. Oh my god. So good. Eat here.

My wife and three friends traveled to Istanbul for a few days over President’s Day Weekend and we had a blast. The best breakfast we found was this place. It’s a bit of a trek no where near the tourist places, but it’s worth it. The people who own it are from eastern Turkey. You pay a set price and they bring you a spread of the best breakfast you’ll ever have from walnut butter to locally made cheese to fresh fruits. It’s A-​M-​A-​Z-​I-​N-​G. There may be a wait, but it’s worth it! P. S. Ask for extra walnut butter!

It was great to have breakfast at 1:30pm on Sunday.
It was very busy but movement also fast.
I was just waiting for 10min and lady who was in charge gave me a table.
Many young and mid age had been there.
Food really good.

My husband found this place via Unilocal… didn’t disappoint! This place is a lil gem. As foreigners we were treated as part of the community. Their service was absolutely great.
We had to come here twice because their breakfast was delicious both times.

Had a great breakfast here. Like the name of the place already suggests, it’s not a typical Turkish breakfast, but one from the Van region. Having never been to Van, I’m unable to tell how accurate that description is. Even so, it was really tasty, and more than enough to survive a whole day on. The staff was really friendly, and the location is perfect, close to İstiklal cadesi.

Best Turkish breakfast I have had yet in Istanbul. Ordered the Turkish breakfast for one, the cheese pancake, and the pastrami eggs– was plenty for my girl and I. They keep the tea flowing, and it’s really great.
Also, they don’t take AMEX; just visa. That being said, huge breakfast for 50 lira total.

I live for bal kaymak (honey and clotted cream), and this place has it so goooood. With fresh squeezed oj and glass after glass of tea, you’ve never been happier. Sit outside if you can.

We got here guided by the good reviews on Unilocal and Google. The place is big enough and we got a table right away after walking for a bit from Taksim Square. This hipster-​looking place (in a good way) is carefully decorated to make you feel at home. This was accomplished, although I believe that this prevents visitors from experiencing a real turkish environment… but hey, good nonetheless.
They have this big breakfast option with many dishes that you can get for 22TL (around 7 €), which is big enough to fed you for the rest of the day (and believe me, I’m not the type of guy who gets full easily). At the moment of writing this, 8PM, we haven’t had much more than nuts, which was annoying because we wanted to feel hungry to keep trying things out.
Anyway, the breakfast has everything: different types of bread, countless little dishes with different creams to spread over the bread (some very tasy and exotic, some more down to earth like nutella or honey), very generous portion of different types of cheese (also very tasty), cucumbers, tomatoes, boiled eggs, you name it (well, I already did).
The whole meal goes with «unlimited tea», which is true for the most part, we had three teas and we didn’t need coffee, although we were craving for it when we got there.
All in all, a nice variety of things, abundant and nice. I enjoyed it a lot, and I would come back in a heartbeat. Not much to add on a negative scale, aside from not looking very turkish, and maybe not being the cheapest (although I think that it is indeed cheap for such generous breakfast).

Food and Service were perfect. We strongly recommend it. We got 2 Turkish breakfasts. Unlimited çay was great and we had enough tasty food that our family of four couldn’t finish.
We would certainly go back.

I was in Istanbul this time last year. Given the time lapse, it’s clear I am day dreaming about the Turkish breakfast at this place. I hiked up the hill twice in two days to eat breakfast here!
For ~USD$ 10 a person, you get a substantial breakfast consisting of bread, honey-​cream, honey, murtuga (fried eggs and sausage), cheeses, tahini molasses, nutella, tomato hummus, olives, homemade cherry jam, boiled eggs and cucumbers. Yeah. You also get tea (çai) that comes with free refills.
What I would do to get on a plane to have another meal here again. Sigh. Enjoy.

Bestes Frühstück im Viertel. Super freundliche und aufmerksame Bedienung. Gutes Preis-​Leistungs-​Verhältnis.

Muito bom! Uma delícia!
Wow!
Cheap and huge portions, amazing fresh ingredients!
Great food!

We found the place through Unilocal.This is a busy nice little place. There are two restaurants in the morning — they are the same! It was a very nice turkish breakfast with more than enough for everyone. There was everything from nutella to tahin and turkish cheeses. The coffee was also alright. Take the plate and try the turkish omelette/​scrambled eggs on the side.

Very cool spot for a traditional Turkish breakfast!
You can order a la carte or just get the all-​inclusive breakfast meal. It comes with a bunch of small dishes like a variety of cheeses, fresh cucumber/​tomato, kaymak, olives, etc. Best of all, unlimited Turkish tea =)

Truly local restaurant. You can see travellers as well a many local sipping a glass of tea and enjoying local breakfast.
It is priced like for locals so for 20tl you can have breakfast for two :) the tea is complementary and the waiter brings you new one all the time.
The menu is rich with local specialities but also has 2 main combo menu so you can taste few of the local dishes.
Its not decorated much but it gives you a true feeling if a local place :) would recommend it!

Craving this right now. We stopped here since we heard brunch in Turkey is a must! We weren’t disappointed!
Get the 22TL option and you will have plenty of food for 2 people. It comes with plates of fresh bread, variety of cheese, olives, jam, nutella and honey butter. The honey butter was AMAZING and so fresh. I’m reviewing this a year later but I still remember the taste!
We also ordered menemen (turkish scrambled eggs) and the turkish pancakes. Those were also really good and plenty for about 3 – 4 to share with the 22TL option.
Oh, and you get free tea!!! I probably had at least 4 cups because our server kept refilling.
Cute little place but a little harder to find since it’s tucked in a neighborhood. I believe we used TripAdvisor’s city guide to help us out.

Really great place for breakfast in a great neighborhood. I love Unilocal… I never would have found this place. It’s off the beaten path of the usual tourist destinations (I’m
a tourist, this place is very much for locals). I’m always a bit surprises how easy it is to get around this city on just English. Thought I’d be out of luck here, but no worries. Breakfast is my favorite meal in Istanbul, and this place did not disappoint.

Came here twice because brunch is my fave meal. They do it right here and it’s the only meal type they serve here.
The repeat visit reasons +‘s:
+ Quick seating. The staff are quick to clear a table and have you settled.
+ Free and constant refills of Turkish tea. It’s nice to have this perk especially since a lot of places charge.
+ Few tables are outside for the smokers.
+ Brunch is the fare here all day. The most common is the 22TL fare that has everything and enough for two persons. Includes cheeses, cucumber slices, olives, jams, butter, honey, nutella and an array of other dishes.
+ Other notables are the menemen (plain is 8TL)
+ Like most Turkish establishments, you eat at leisure and call for the bill when ready.
+ Takes credit cards
+ International crowd or could be a bunch of tourists.
The not-​again moments -‘s:
— Don’t try to customize your order. Doesn’t seem to fare well here.
— Golzeme with spinach, roast beef, cheese or other fillings are on the menu. Pass on the roast beef – it’s just ground meat bits. Spinach one not too flavorful either.
TIP: Don’t expect staff to speak fluent English.

Delicious breakfast, nice service and always plenty of cay!

Ich hatte das beste Frühstück während meiner gesamten Woche Istanbul hier.
Tolles Ambiente, nettes Personal und faire Preise begleitet von frischen Brot dafür gibt es fünf Sterne, ganz einfach.
Atemberaubend schön dekoriertes Essen, frisch gemacht und mit viel frischem Brot, für weniger als 15 Türkische Lira: Absolut empfehlenswert ist das Standard-​türkische Frühstück auf der Karte.
Aber der absolute Höhepunkt ist das frisch zubereitete Gözleme (traditionelles gerolltes Blätterteiggebäck), mit Spinat gefüllt. Unfassbar gut.
Probiert es aus. Ich beneide dich für jeden Besuch in diesem Café.