Yakup 2 Restaurant

I hear Yakup Iki (2) mentioned by alot of people. While I have been here at least three times, I am not really sure why I keep coming back. There are so many raki fish places to choose from in the Asmali area. Yakup 2 is big and churns out meals for large groups and customers all night long. The service is decent and the food is pretty good. So if your looking for a safe place to take guests or just to have a good time, then Yakup 2 is a fine choice. There are times when you just care about the company and not the food. If you care about both, and want to be blown away, you might want to stay away from Yakup 2!

On the first look Yakup 2 doesn´t really look any different or special as the other restaurants, but if you go up to the backyard terrace and start eating their fish that impression suddenly changes!
Good service, very good food, nice and convenient and quiet location near Taksim for real turkish food!

It’s funny how the opinions vary on this place. Elsewhere on the web you will find people who call this place a tourist trap. I would bet more than just a Lira that these are the same people that think that everything around Istiklal is just a giant tourist trap anyway.
Which is, of course, crap. Anyone who has spent more than just a weekend in this city knows that the whole area is as authentic as it gets when you compare it with other metropolitan cities’ downtown areas. This is Istanbul. Not a tourist version.
The same is true for Yakup 2. Look at who’s going there for dinner. Mostly locals. If my colleagues here in Istanbul want to go out with large groups of friends, family, people from the company — this is where they go. Just last week we went there with no less than 80 people.
Was the food good? You bet it was. Tons of mezze, the small plates piling up on the table, accompanied by large bottles of Rakı and water, baskets of bread, and we just gobbled it all away happily.
This is the real thing. No, it’s not fancy, no it’s not some modernized version of Turkish cuisine, it’s authentic, yummy, and making you happy. If you still feel like having more food after the mezze, go for the meat, it’s the thing to do. If you want fish, go to a fish restaurant. This is Yakup 2, mezze and meat and rakı. Fact is: the authentic stuff isn’t fancy, it’s good. And so is this restaurant.
Don’t let tourists tell you this is a tourist trap. These guys sense traps everywhere. Let them walk past this place and have another rakı.