Kalabalık: The Newest Greek in Town
Owned by Chef Stathis Dapiapi and his wife Nihal, Kalabalık is the latest Greek restaurant to open in Istanbul. This cozy restaurant offers the best of Greek and Mediterranean cuisine in the heart of Kuruçeşme. Simply decorated in blue and white, characteristic of the Greek islands, the restaurant is nice and unpretentious.
The heart-warming chef of Kalabalık is passionate about food and cooking – he says he’s been cooking since, well, forever. He’s quite keen on providing Greek food as authentic as possible, so he brings ingredients from Greece, such as ouzo, home-made wine, and olive oil. He says the best seafood meal for him in Istanbul is angler fish, and he really likes red mullet and john dory.
The food is very good, and the menu is quite extensive, with a focus on fish and seafood. The house specialties include mussel stew with ouzo, sea bass stew with saffron, and shrimp sauté with cognac. The highlights of our lunch when we visited include saganaki (pan-fried cheese), dolma (vine leaves stuffed with rice), caciki (yogurt with cucumbers), crab salad, and the vegetable platter (broccoli, potato salad, beetroot, brussel sprouts, and cauliflower).
Kalabalık is the kind of place that anybody looking for a good Greek meal and good conversation with friends could go for lunch or dinner. Those who want to dance the night away should head to Kalabalık on Friday and Saturday nights when Yorgo the Greek entertainer takes the stage and turns Kalabalık into a full-blown Greek tavern.
Kala means good in Greece; balık means fish in Turkish. If you want good fish and seafood, you now know where to go.
Kalabalık; Muallim Naci Caddesi No:99, Kuruceşme; P: (0212) 3583628
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