Istanbul's food scene isn't just about kebabs and street food anymore — a new generation of chefs has turned the city into one of the most exciting culinary destinations in the region. From Michelin-starred fine dining to Ottoman palace cuisine revived with modern technique, these are the chefs and restaurants defining what "chef-driven dining" really means in Istanbul.
Necati Yılmaz — Deraliye Restaurant, Deraliye Terrace & Shyra Restaurant
Chef Necati Yılmaz has spent over a decade researching Ottoman palace recipes, building a personal archive of more than 400 historical dishes once served exclusively to sultans and their court. His flagship, Deraliye Restaurant in Sultanahmet, brings that research to the table with dishes like stuffed melon and cherry soup, alongside hands-on cooking classes where guests learn to recreate the recipes themselves. A short walk away, Deraliye Terrace offers the same Ottoman-inspired cooking with a rooftop view over the Old City, blending Turkish and European dishes for lunch, dinner, and late Turkish breakfasts. More recently, Yılmaz brought his expertise to Shyra Restaurant in Binbirdirek, working alongside chef Hazal Yılmaz to give classic Anatolian and palace dishes — like goose kebab and lamb shank — a more contemporary, visually refined presentation. Across all three restaurants, the throughline is the same: centuries-old recipes treated with genuine historical respect.
Yunus Emre Akkor — Palude
Chef Yunus Emre Akkor leads the kitchen at Palude , a brand built around Osmanlı and Anatolian cuisine reinterpreted for a modern table. Palude has grown into a multi-location brand with restaurants in Sultanahmet, Zeytinburnu, and Ataşehir , giving both visitors staying in the historic peninsula and locals on the Asian side access to the same tasting menus and traditional Turkish breakfast spreads. Akkor's approach leans on the legacy of Ottoman palace cooking — courses designed to feel like a journey through the empire's culinary history — served with a level of plating and presentation that puts it firmly in fine-dining territory rather than a typical touristic setup.
Fatih Tutak — TURK Fatih Tutak
No conversation about Istanbul's top chefs is complete without Fatih Tutak, whose restaurant TURK Fatih Tutak made history as the first restaurant in Turkey to earn two Michelin stars. After training under some of the world's most respected chefs — including a stint at Noma in Copenhagen and the three-Michelin-starred Nihonryori Ryugin in Tokyo — Tutak returned to his hometown to build a menu that reframes Turkish cuisine on a global stage, using ingredients sourced directly from small Turkish farmers and producers. Expect bold, acidic, and smoky flavor combinations, a tasting menu format, and a dining experience that has landed TURK on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list. This is Istanbul chef-driven dining at its most ambitious.
Ömür Akkor — Havuş Lokantası & Natolia
Ömür Akkor — Havuş Lokantası & Natolia
Chef Ömür Akkor has built his reputation on a different kind of expertise: an encyclopedic knowledge of Anatolian food culture, gathered over years of traveling across all of Turkey's provinces to document regional recipes. That research shows up across his restaurant brands. Havuş Lokantası in Ataköy is a relaxed neighborhood spot built around regional Turkish and Ottoman comfort food, serving traditional dishes with the chef's own contemporary touch. Alongside it, Natolia continues his mission of turning Anatolia's culinary heritage — its recipes, its stories, its regional ingredients — into a dining experience rather than just a meal.
Final Thoughts
What ties these chefs together is a shared respect for Turkey's culinary history, even as each interprets it differently — Necati Yılmaz through palace-recipe archaeology, Yunus Emre Akkor through a multi-location fine-dining brand, Fatih Tutak through globally influenced innovation, and Ömür Akkor through deep regional research. Whether you're after a two-Michelin-star tasting menu or a neighborhood lokanta with real culinary pedigree, these are the names worth knowing if you want to eat well in Istanbul.
