When I booked my trip to Turkey, I knew very little about Turkish cuisine. Turkish cuisine has influences from various regions of the world, such as Central Asia, the Middle East and also some Mediterranean influence.

If you’re a regular reader of the blog, you’ll know how much I like to try local foods, so before my trip, I made a list of popular dishes in Turkey I had to try. The reviews I read about Turkish gastronomy and the photos I saw made my mouth water 😉.

The truth is that Turkish cuisine was one of the most surprising of all the trips I’ve made. In fact, I can say that it quickly became one of my favourite cuisines ever. It was one of the countries where I had the most traditional meals, without a doubt!

The main thing I liked about Turkish food was that it was very flavourful without being too intense. What’s more, there are lots of typical Turkish famous foods to try.

So in this post, I’m going to tell you about the Turkish foods I had the chance to try on my trip to Turkey. The list is far from being exhaustive, as it’s unthinkable to try all of Turkey’s famous foods in one trip.

In any case, this post aims to share some tips on popular Turkish foods that are really worth trying and to inspire you to book that trip to Turkey 🥰.

We start our list of famous foods in Turkey with one of my favourite things and one of the best Turkish foods – simit. Simit is a kind of pretzel and can be found almost everywhere in Turkey, especially in the busy streets of Istanbul. There are hundreds of red stalls where you can buy simit at almost any time of the day.

You can try it plain or, if you prefer, you can fill the inside, and some of the most popular fillings I saw were nutella and cream cheese.

In terms of flavour, simit resembles bread with sesame seeds on the outside. I tried it both plain and with melted cheese inside and loved it both ways!

Börek is a kind of thin pastry and can have a variety of fillings, such as spinach, cheese or even meat. Warm is better and tastier, but it’s good at any time of day.

This dish is also popular in other countries that are relatively close by, such as Croatia (burek) and Albania (byrek), for example.

Also very popular in Turkish cuisine for breakfast is bazlama. This is a fluffy bread that can be eaten plain or with some other foods, such as meat, vegetables or sauces.

This is a dish that is usually served as a starter in many restaurants in Turkey and is usually served with some homemade sauces as well. It reminded me of naan bread.

💡 EXTRA TIP: Breakfast is one of the most popular meals for Turks and, in fact, Turkish breakfast (known as kahvalti) is a whole experience. A typical kahvalti includes various foods, but the most popular are olives, sauces, scrambled eggs, tomatoes, bread, jam, honey, cured meat, cucumber and cheese. Kahvalti is usually accompanied by Turkish tea.

One of the ex-libris of Turkish cuisine, in my opinion, is pide. This Turkish dish is very reminiscent of a pizza, although the dough seems a bit lighter.

One of the most unique things about pide is its boat-like shape. The filling, on the other hand, can vary greatly, including just vegetables, meat and many other things. However, one ingredient is never missing: cheese!

This was one of my favourite dishes in Turkey and I lost count of the number of times I ordered it. What’s more, it’s also generally one of the most affordable options on restaurant menus.

Another of the most popular street foods in Turkey is balık ekmek. It’s a fried or grilled fish sandwich, accompanied by salad (very common to have onion and lettuce) inside.

It’s a very popular dish, especially in Turkish regions located by the sea. For example, one of the most interesting places to try this emblematic dish is in one of the many restaurants on the banks of the Bosphorus in Istanbul.

Dürum is probably one of the Turkish dishes on this list that needs no introduction. It’s a kind of wrap and can be found everywhere in Turkey.

One of the most popular fillings in dürüm is usually doner meat.

Sounds familiar, right? This is one of the best-known Turkish dishes worldwide. It consists of meat (usually chicken, beef or lamb) that is cooked for hours on a rotating spit. When it’s time to serve, the meat is cut directly from the spit, into small strips.

There are dozens of shops selling doner and it is one of the most popular street food dishes in Turkey. It can be eaten on bread (dürüm) or a plate, but it’s delicious either way!

Shish kebab is one of the simplest and yet traditional dishes in Turkey, but also one of the most delicious. Basically, shish kebab is a meat kebab (usually served in cubes). One of the most popular options is usually lamb, but I confess I’ve only tried chicken.

This was the dish I ate the most on my trip to Turkey because it was really tasty. It often came with rice, chips and salad.

Manti is a very typical Turkish dish. It’s very similar to tortellini: a kind of small dumpling filled, usually with beef or lamb. This dish also usually includes a sauce made from tomatoes and yoghurt.

Although this isn’t the most traditional option, there are other types of manti than those with a meat filling. For example, I tried some with a spinach and ricotta cheese filling and I actually liked it more!

Lentil soup, originally known as mercimek çorbası, is one of the must-try foods in Turkey. It’s a thick soup made from red lentils, onion, garlic and some spices such as paprika or cumin.

Another of my favourite Turkish dishes was lahmacun. Besides being delicious, this is also one of the cheapest dishes in Turkish restaurants.

Although it slightly reminds a bit of pizza, it doesn’t have much to do with this Italian delicacy. Lahmacun is thin bread that usually has minced meat, vegetables and lots of spices on top. The flavour is more intense than pide, for example, because it usually has many more spices. This dish is usually eaten by rolling up small pieces of the bread.

Also known as kofta, this Turkish dish is often compared with meatballs. However, be warned that these meatballs come in many shapes and are rarely round, as we are used to.

This Turkish delicacy is usually prepared with lamb or beef and grilled over charcoal, which gives it a more distinctive flavour. Some recipes also include mint in the meat preparation.

If there’s one dish you MUST try in Turkey, it’s this: testi kebab. It’s a typical dish of the Cappadocia region, but you can find it in other places, such as Istanbul.

It’s a dish made from meat (lamb, beef or chicken) and vegetables that is prepared in a clay pot that is sealed and then destroyed when it is served. The meat is delicious and the tomato-based sauce on top of the rice is absolutely delicious.

This delicious dish is another popular food in Turkey and consists of aubergine that is cooked with a vegetable and tomato filling. There is also a version with minced meat, but it goes by another name – karnıyarık.

Baklava is probably Turkey’s most famous sweet. It is also popular in the Balkan countries, for example, but is generally more associated with Turkey.

It’s a sweet that can be made in various shapes and forms, consisting of several layers of filo pastry, wrapped in honey and often contains nuts. The most popular version contains pistachios, but walnuts are also quite common.

Some people find this Turkish dessert too sweet, but I believe that, in the right amount, it’s very tasty and not as sugary as it might seem 🥰.

I have to confess that the first time I saw this dessert and learned about the ingredients, I thought it was going to be too sugary. I was totally wrong! In the right amount, it’s perfect.

Künefe is a dessert made from a string pastry (called kadayif) with a cheese filling and topped with a sweet sauce. Everything is cooked until the top is crispy and golden brown. The dessert is served warm and often with a bit of ice cream on top.

💡 EXTRA TIP: One of the best places to try some of Turkey’s typical desserts is at the century-old Hafiz Mustafa 1864 shop. The speciality is baklava and lokum and the packaging is lovely, making them an excellent souvenir option.

Helva is a paste made from flour, water, sugar and butter. Sometimes it can also contain dried fruit, such as pistachios or walnuts. The helva I tried was semolina helva and it came with cream ice cream. It’s quite a light and pleasant dessert 😉.

Another one of the Turkish delicacies is lokum, also known as Turkish Delight. This sweet is sold everywhere and makes a great souvenir, especially for those who have a sweet tooth.

It’s a jelly-like sweet and there is a whole variety of flavours and one of my favourites is pomegranate. On the outside, lokum is often covered in icing sugar or dried fruit.

Dondurma is Turkish ice cream and the men selling this type of ice cream are usually all dressed up. This is one of the popular dishes in Turkey and it stands out for two reasons. Firstly, it has a different consistency to what we’re used to in “normal” ice cream, as it’s more elastic and has a harder time melting.

Secondly, ordering this ice cream from a vendor involves a whole show of acrobatics with the cone, the ice cream and the stick that removes the ice cream from the container. Don’t believe it? Just watch the video below 😅.

Another element of Turkish gastronomy that you can’t miss is Turkish coffee. It’s a world-famous coffee because it’s served with coffee grounds. I personally didn’t like the flavour, but I think it’s something you should try at least once.

Like Turkish coffee, Turkish tea is another of the most popular drinks in Turkey. Tea plays a very important role in Turkish culture and one of the cutest parts of Turkish tea is the glass in which it is served – a kind of tulip-shaped glass.

And to finish off the list of dishes you should try on a trip to Turkey, I suggest the country’s most popular alcoholic drink – rakı. This drink is also common in neighbouring countries such as Albania. It’s quite strong in my opinion, but it’s worth it for the experience.

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