FairFare
Fair Food Prices
Tap a dish to see average prices across three price tiers.
Food culture
Day-to-day eating in Istanbul is fast and practical: simit from a cart, a sandwich eaten standing up, tea glasses refilled constantly at an esnaf lokantası, the cafeteria-style neighborhood restaurant where you point at trays of ready-made dishes priced individually rather than order from a fixed menu. Evenings work completely differently — a meyhane meal is a slow, multi-hour ritual built around rounds of meze, grilled or fried fish, and glasses of rakı diluted with water, with the conversation expected to run as long as the drinking does. The price gap is widest between that everyday lokanta lunch and a meyhane or Bosphorus-view seafood restaurant at dinner, where the format itself, many small shared plates over several hours, costs far more than the same style of fish eaten quickly at a stand by the water.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does street food cost in Istanbul?
- Street food in Istanbul typically costs TRY 15 – TRY 250.
- How much more expensive is fine dining than street food in Istanbul?
- Street food usually runs TRY 15 – TRY 250, while fine dining runs TRY 150 – TRY 1,100.