Top Istanbul Food Tours - page 4

This was absolutely one of the best food tours we have experienced! Our guide Sule was a delight, and took us to amazing places before we sat down to dinner in a gem of a restaurant! Family owned and operated for many generations, this place was fabulous! And she did a great job of having us transported around town in a very comfortable van, which was an unexpected treat! And the panoramic rooftop restaurant where we had coffee and tea? It’s got to be one of the best places in Istanbul to watch the city skyline became bathed in golden light with the setting sun! And again Sule was so amazing! She, along with our fellow travelers and diners, was a top experience of our stay in Istanbul, and if she has an opening for you and your party, you should without hesitation sign up for this most enchanting food experience!

Dervish performance was intriguing and captivating. The dinner after the show was fantastic. There were four of us in our group, each with a very different pallette. We each found several things in the dinner that we really liked, so all were happy. Our guide, Bugra, was friendly and knowledgable. The only negative I'd cite is communication before the tour. Originally we booked for 4:30PM, but that Dervish performance was cancelled, so we received TEXTS about a change to 6:30PM, and asking us if we wanted to do the tour at that time. The problem I had with this was that nothing in the texts mentioned "Kubi", the company we were taking the tour with. And the phone number we received the texts from was DIFFERENT from the phone number in the booking details. We went into our booking details and messaged the company thru Viator. They confirmed that the change was legitimate. So we forged ahead with this new time for the tour. We took a taxi from the cruise port to the meeting place, and our taxi driver expressed skepticism that it was a legitimate tour we were on. He called the phone number the texts had come from, and I believe he spoke directly with our guide. Nothing the guide said to him made him any more confident that the tour was legit. Obviously the taxi driver was wrong. The tour was legit and we enjoyed it. But Kubi could avoid situations like this by having their employees identify themselves with the company name on any such correspondence. Also, it would be better to use the phone number in the booking details for such correspondence.

Erol, our guide, was excellent, he is Turkish with excellent English. He was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the food and local customs, as well as wider Turkish history and culture. If you are looking for a Baklava and Beer tour this isn't for you. Erol introduced us to a variety of new food and flavours teaching us along the way. The trip across the Bosphorus and walk around the market stalls and bustling streets of Karakoy was great and not at all tiring. The amount of food and drink is perfect for this type of tasting tour. I would highly recommend this tour and especially Erol.