Neolokal - Istanbul Tuerkiye

Great food but not amazing. Higher end of the budget. Good service. ok English. Wine paring was great. Wouldn’t got back, its trying hard to get high end but just missing. Better places for better prices.

We came motivated by the world 50 best and it was such a disappointment. From the moment that we arrived and the hostess poorly greet us and tried to send us to the worst table available. But still, according with all the explanations, history of the menu and of the food, my expectations were very high but plate by plate it was going down. The highlight it was the Seabream marinated with raki. Delightful, beautiful and original. The other dishes just a tentative to recreate some Turkish traditional food in a “fine dining” way with some contemporary cooking techniques but honestly didn’t end really well. The shrimp and the lamb neck were very difficult to eat with such a deep plate. A part of that, the desserts were awesome. The service impeccable. The waiters and runners are extremely professional, polite and welcoming.

The restaurant offers good and creative dishes, but even after ordering the entire menu, you may still leave feeling hungry. The portion sizes are small, with some starters resembling amuse bouches. It would be nice to see more variety on the plates or have a few extra starters to feel satisfied and justify the prices. The service includes a nice touch of adding lemon to your water without asking and keeping your glass filled, but once you finish your meal, you may be ignored for over half an hour without any inquiry about additional orders.

Definitely one of the best places in istanbul! I've been here several times and every time it was great experience. I definitely recommend it to everyone. Cocktails are great. Obviously food was amazing as well as service. However, on my taste the recent menu (spring 2023) was a bit too simple. But I really loved two particular dishes: artichoke and sea bream, it was brilliant, huge kudos! Besides, I'd recommend that the waiters speak a bit louder, because it was quite hard to understand half of what was said. Thanks!

The service staff gave us a warm welcome. The restaurant had an amazing selection of local wines and a great collection of vintage wines. The maître d’hôtel was extremely skilled. However, I felt that the food was overrated. There was no surprise factor in the dishes and the balance of flavors needed to be adjusted. Overall, it was a good experience but not worth the high price.