Turkey’s European Union membership bid may be stuck in the mud, but a different dynamic is at work on the food front. To wit: the European Commission has granted Gaziantep baklava a spot on its list of protected designations of origin and geographical indications. It’s the first Turkish product and the 16th non-EU food to make it on the list. In honor of this much-deserved recognition, we’ve put together our own list of favorite places to get baklava in Istanbul and Gaziantep.
1. Karaköy Güllüoğlu
Located a stone’s throw from the Bosphorus, this shop has been catering to Istanbul sweet tooths since 1949. Done up in borderline tacky décor that looks like it is meant to evoke late Ottoman splendor, the place serves more than a dozen different kinds of phyllo-based sweets, including pistachio or walnut baklava, none of them resembling the cardboard-like, past-their-prime versions that are often dished out outside the Middle East.
2. İmam Çağdaş
Founded in 1887, this kebab and baklava emporium in Gaziantep is run by Burhan Çağdaş, the grandson of İmam Dede. To best enjoy the shop’s exceptional pastry, he recommends forgoing knife and fork, taking it between two fingers and placing it upside-down before taking a bite.
3. Antebi
The Gaziantep-style kebab restaurant on Istanbul’s Asian side serves a sweet flaky pastry bussed 850 miles straight in from Zeki İnal Baklavacısı in the baklava motherland. It’s available only on Saturdays and Sundays. Be sure to call ahead to make sure that a shipment is coming.
4. Rumeli Tatlı ve Börek Evi
At this tiny place, just a block or two from the Hippodrome in the Sultanahmet, the pastry is crispy on top, overstuffed with walnuts, and the syrup-soaked layers on the bottom never have time to turn into the chewy wad that one sometimes gets with mass-produced baklava. Rumeli baklava is so special that it is accepted currency among many in the bazaar (especially for payment of debts incurred over backgammon or pişti).
5. Sakarya Tatlıcısı
Nestled in Beyoğlu’s historic fish market, this pastry and sweets shop with its Old World charm is one of our favorites for not just ayva tatlısı, the seasonal fall specialty of quince in syrup, but also baklava and other traditional desserts. Although most people breeze into the shop and get their dessert to go, we prefer to sit down at one of Sakarya’s two tables, order a tea with our dessert and take in the atmosphere of the fish market.
6. Bizim Ev
The baklava at this storefront on one of the arcaded stretches of Moda Caddesi is worth a trip on the ferry and up the hill to Kadıköy. And while you’re there, you should also get the Laz böreği: layers of yufka (phyllo), buttery and moist, dusted with confectioner’s sugar, in a symbiotic balance with the custard, which is neither too sweet, nor too eggy, neither too runny, nor too stiff. Just right.
February 22, 2022 NOLA Crawfish King
New Orleans is the last communal city in America. Our seasons are Mardi Gras, festivals, […] Posted in New Orleans
January 18, 2016 Lisbon: State of the Stomach
Editor's note: We are very happy to be able to add Lisbon to the list of cities CB is […] Posted in Lisbon
December 9, 2015 Commune 246
National Route 246 is one of Japan’s main byways, stretching for over 76 miles and […] Posted in Tokyo
Published on January 02, 2014
Related stories
February 22, 2022
New Orleans | By James Cullen
New OrleansNew Orleans is the last communal city in America. Our seasons are Mardi Gras, festivals, football, second lines and crawfish, and we share them together. And it is no accident that our Carnival season and our festival season are bridged by crawfish season: the ultimate act of communal eating. From late January to early June,…
January 18, 2016
LisbonEditor's note: We are very happy to be able to add Lisbon to the list of cities CB is covering. Our coverage of that city's deep and fascinating culinary scene begins today, with our report on Lisbon's State of the Stomach. Lisbon, one of the world’s oldest cities, has a grand and turbulent past. Due…
December 9, 2015
TokyoNational Route 246 is one of Japan’s main byways, stretching for over 76 miles and snaking through the center of Tokyo. The small part of Route 246 that runs between Shibuya and the Meijii Jingu Shrine was recently recreated for one of the best-selling video games of all time, Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec. It also…
