Everyone seems to feel at ease in Emice’nin Yeri. It’s the kind of place where workers come after their shifts, families and couples dine, single men drink their tea and watch football matches on the TV, and women too are comfortable eating alone. It’s not just a welcoming place – Emice’nin Yeri also happens to be one of the best Black Sea restaurants around. The emice part of the name comes from the Laz language and means “uncle,” or amca in Turkish, so can be translated to “Uncle’s Place,” a fitting moniker for the restaurant does have a certain avuncular charm.

It was 10 a.m. on a bright, crisp Monday morning as we blasted down a miraculously traffic-free stretch of Istanbul’s E-5 highway. We were en route to Bağcılar, a jam-packed outer district home to three quarters of a million people. Awaiting us was an ambitious breakfast of büryan kebabı, delectable lamb meat roasted to perfection in a belowground coal-fired oak tandoor oven before emerging in all of its glory, ready to be sliced and devoured quickly with fresh flatbread. Clearing a vast swath of the notoriously traffic-strangled city in less than 20 minutes, the first meal of the day was just around the corner and we already had the feeling, mere hours in, that this was going to be a good week.

Groaning sounds emanated from the other end of the line when we told a friend the location of our dining plans for the night. The spot, a rowdy, charming dive specializing in Bosnian-style mezes and grilled meats, was in Pendik, a district of Istanbul well over 20 kilometers outside the center, on the outskirts of the Anatolian side. Our friends’ reluctance to join was a normal response in a city with terrible traffic and nightmarish commutes. Who would want to spend their free time on a three-hour roundtrip journey to eat out when there are plenty of excellent options just a stone’s throw away?