Sign up with email

or

Already a member? Log in.

Trouble logging in?

Not a member? Sign up!

Where we come from, flipping burgers is a time-honored tradition among pimply teenagers looking for a summer job and troubled short-order cooks looking for a place to land in between firings. It’s work that promises mobility, not stability.

But don’t tell that to Ziver Usta, who’s been turning the köfte – something like Turkey’s equivalent of the hamburger – at the grill of the shoe-box-sized Meşhur Filibe Köftecisi in Sirkeci for the last 30 years. The dough-faced Ziver, in his early fifties, is actually the restaurant’s junior employee – “head waiter” Mehmet has been there for 40 years – but his long tenure means he’s only one of a select handful of grill masters who have worked at Filibe over the course of its 100-year history.

“Just like a shop goes from father to son, the grill goes from one master to another,” Ziver, dressed in a white apron and a small peaked cap that looks like it actually might have been salvaged from the kitchen of a 1950s American drive-in burger stand, says proudly. Does he get bored doing the same thing six days a week? Ziver seems surprised to hear the question. “Never,” he says. “I do it with love. I like serving folks.”

We definitely felt the love in Filibe’s outstanding köfte, juicy little buttons of meat that come off Ziver’s coal-fired grill with just the right amout of char. (Although the name Filibe refers to the Balkan town from which the restaurant’s owners hail, the cook told us it really means “juicy.”) The piyaz – white bean salad, served with shredded lettuce and carrot – that came on the side was impeccably fresh and, as always, provided just the right counterpoint to the little meatballs. The restaurant’s central location, not far from the Sirkeci train station and the bustling open-air “food court” on Hocapaşa Sokak, further adds to its appeal.

The century-old, two-item menu here is augmented by the presence of revani, an extremely homey dessert made out of a dense white cake that’s been soaked in a sugary syrup. “It’s good for your sex drive,” waiter Mehmet promised us with a sly nod, Ziver chuckling appreciatively, as if it was the first time he had heard that joke in the 30 years they’d been working together.

Great köfte, time-proven service and bawdy humor – who can get bored with that?

  • Building BlocksMay 3, 2016 Building Blocks (1)
    The small, spicy piripiri, or African bird’s eye chili, is one of Portuguese cuisine’s […] Posted in Lisbon
  • January 1, 2015 Diporto (0)
    Editor's note: It's Soup Week at Culinary Backstreets, and today we head to […] Posted in Athens
  • May 28, 2013 Tacacá do Norte (0)
    The eyes of Tacacá do Norte’s harried staff widen as yet another customer arrives during […] Posted in Rio

Published on February 25, 2013

Related stories

Get your piripiri fix on our Lisbon culinary walks!
May 3, 2016

Building Blocks: Piripiri, the Saucy World Traveller

Lisbon | By Célia Pedroso
LisbonThe small, spicy piripiri, or African bird’s eye chili, is one of Portuguese cuisine’s most unexpected ingredients, one that has traveled thousands of miles across many continents to find its place there. When the Portuguese began navigating around the globe as early as the 15th century, spices like black pepper and cinnamon became some of…
January 1, 2015

Diporto: Time Travel Taverna

Athens | By Despina Trivolis
AthensEditor's note: It's Soup Week at Culinary Backstreets, and today we head to a 128-year-old basement taverna in downtown Athens that serves a wintertime specialty of chickpea soup. In business since 1887, Diporto – a defiantly traditional spot in downtown Athens – has no sign and no menu. The staff doesn’t speak a word of English,…
May 28, 2013

Tacacá do Norte: The Amazonian Shake Shack

Rio | By Taylor Barnes
RioThe eyes of Tacacá do Norte’s harried staff widen as yet another customer arrives during the lunchtime rush. The bedroom-sized snack bar can barely hold one line of chairs around its bar but they have somehow managed to squeeze in two. Impatient regulars shake hands and whistle “psst” to the sheepish young men staffing the…
Select your currency
USD United States (US) dollar
EUR Euro