Succulent, soft, flavorful meat. And lots of it. That is the definition of a carnivore’s paradise. Add to that low prices and great service, and you get Şehzade Cağ Kebabı.

Located on a narrow street in Sirkeci, Şehzade Cağ Kebabı is a humble restaurant spread over two floors and a few tables outside by the entrance. Their specialty is a regional kebab variety from the eastern city of Erzurum called cağ kebabı. Made from lamb, the meat is marinated with onion, salt, and pepper for a few hours, and then cooked over wood fire. Even though it looks like the horizontal version of döner (roasted lamb) that you see everywhere in the city—and in fact it is also referred to as such—cağ kebabı is much more flavorful and delicious than the ordinary vertical döner.

The meat is served with homemade lavaş (thin flatbread) or in a sandwich, but owner Özcan Yıldırım, who is a native of Erzurum, insists that the only way to eat cağ kebabı is straight from the skewer. This would be almost self-explanatory if we only knew Azerbaijani, as cağ means skewer in Azerbaijani.

Yıldırım has been in the cağ kebab business for 34 years, having operated restaurants in a variety of neighborhoods in Istanbul as well as in his hometown Erzurum. He is passionate about what he does and is very selective when it comes to the meat he uses, insisting that only the freshest meat will give the kebab the flavor that makes cağ kebabı so legendary. That’s why he buys seasonal meat from different regions, such as the Thrace region, Balıkesir-Gönen, Ankara, and Tokat.

Rest assured that the meat here, even though made from lamb, is odorless, juicy, tender, and delicious. No need for fancy sauces to give it flavor.

At Şehzade Cağ Kebabı, the only things on the menu, except for the kebab, are manda yoğurdu (yogurt), acılı ezme (spicy paste), and çoban salatası (shepherd’s salad)—all of which compliment the meat perfectly. Especially the yogurt, which is brought all the way from Aydınlıköy near Düzce in the Black Sea region, comes highly recommended as it is a much thicker and tastier variety. The shepherd’s salad and acılı ezme (made with tomato, onion, pepper, and cucumber) are also very fresh and tasty. A meal at this restaurant is only complete with another Erzurum specialty—the kadayıflı dolma, a dessert filled with walnuts, wrapped with shredded pastry, and dipped in syrup.  

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