Istanbul Food Tour in Kadıköy 2027: What to Eat on the Asian Side, Prices and Routes

An Istanbul food tour in Kadıköy takes about 3 to 5 hours on foot through the market streets of the Asian side, and guided group tours there cost roughly $90 to $150 per person in October 2026. You can also do it alone for the price of a 20-minute ferry and what you eat. Our small-group Istanbul food tours start from $90 per person with all tastings included, and a private guide for the day costs $199 per group.

Kadıköy is where much of Istanbul does its food shopping. Fishmongers, pickle shops, olive sellers and kebab grills share a few pedestrian lanes two minutes from the ferry pier, and prices are usually lower than in Sultanahmet. This page covers what to eat, how to get there, when to go, what the guided tours on the Asian side include, and when you are better off on your own.

Is a Kadıköy food tour worth it?

Istanbul Street Food Tour with a Local Guide, from $90 per person

For most first-time visitors, yes. The Kadıköy market is not hard to find, but it is hard to read. Few shops have English signs, the best lunch places show their food in a steam counter with no menu, and a pickle-juice stand looks like a closed shop until someone points it out. A guide turns a confusing hour into a planned meal: what to order, how much, and which counter the locals queue at.

It is less worth it if you have eaten your way through Turkey before, if you read Turkish menus, or if you mainly want one big dinner. In that case, walk the lanes yourself and book a table. Guided tours also have a fixed pace. Six stops in three hours is a lot of food, and anyone who eats slowly or avoids meat should say so when booking. See also our page: Istanbul food tour.

Our guides see the same pattern every season. Guests who start their stay with a food walk eat better for the rest of the trip, because they know what lahmacun, pide, içli köfte and künefe are and stop ordering only kebab.

What to eat in Kadıköy, street by street

Istanbul Street Food Tour with a Local Guide, from $90 per person

Start near the pier with midye dolma, mussels stuffed with spiced rice and eaten with a squeeze of lemon. Vendors sell them by the piece, and you keep eating until you say stop. Travel guides in 2026 put them at around 15 TL each and a simit at roughly 15–30 TL, though street prices in Istanbul rise every few months.

Walk uphill into the Çarşı, the few pedestrian streets around Güneşlibahçe Sokak. Here the shops are grocers more than restaurants: olives and white cheese you can taste before buying, pastırma and sucuk hanging in deli windows, turşu shops selling a cup of pickle juice, and old coffee roasters. In autumn and winter, Black Sea hamsi (anchovies) pile up on the fish counters.

Kokoreç, spiced lamb intestines grilled on a long spit, chopped and served in bread, is the snack people either love or refuse. In Kadıköy it is mostly an evening and late-night food. If you are out after midnight, the wet burger stalls near the square are a local habit, not a gourmet stop.

Çiya, the fish market and the lokum shops

Istanbul Street Food Tour with a Local Guide, from $90 per person

Çiya Sofrası, at Güneşlibahçe Sokak No 43, is the name every food writer mentions. It serves regional Anatolian dishes from a changing counter, and Time Out lists it as open daily from 11:00 to 22:00. Its sister Çiya Kebap across the lane works a charcoal grill for kebab, lahmacun and pide. Both get busy at lunch, and some guides now call Çiya expensive for what it is. The smaller esnaf lokantası on the same street serve good food without the queue.

The fish market lanes are where Kadıköy feels most like a working neighbourhood. Kadı Nimet, on Serasker Caddesi, began as a fish stall in the 1970s and added a restaurant later; it is the place locals point to for grilled anchovy or a fish sandwich in season.

For sweets, Şekerci Cafer Erol on Yasa Caddesi traces its recipes back to 1807 and is known for akide boiled sweets, lokum and candied fruit. A box of Turkish delight from here travels well, so buy it at the end of the walk, not the start.

How to get to Kadıköy: ferry, Marmaray or metro

Istanbul Street Food Tour with a Local Guide, from $90 per person

Take the ferry. Şehir Hatları boats run from Eminönü and Karaköy to Kadıköy roughly every 20 minutes in the daytime, and the crossing takes about 20 to 25 minutes. There is also a route from Beşiktaş. On the official price list our team checked on 1 October 2026, the fare was 65.21 TL with an Istanbulkart. Sit on the open back deck: you pass Topkapı Palace and Hagia Sophia, then see Haydarpaşa station ahead as you arrive.

From Sultanahmet, walk or take the T1 tram down to Eminönü pier, which takes 15 to 20 minutes in total. If the weather is bad, the Marmaray rail line runs under the Bosphorus from Sirkeci to Ayrılık Çeşmesi, where you change to the M4 metro for one stop to Kadıköy. It is quicker in rain but you see nothing.

Weekday rush hours, roughly 07:30 to 09:30 and 17:30 to 19:30, fill the boats with commuters. Last ferries back from Kadıköy run late, after midnight on the main routes, so an evening food walk does not need a taxi home.

When to go: weekday mornings, Saturdays and the Tuesday market

Istanbul Street Food Tour with a Local Guide, from $90 per person

The best window is a weekday between 10:30 and 13:30. Shops are fully stocked, the lunch counters have just filled their trays, and you can stop at a stall without blocking the lane. Most guided tours start around 10:30 for this reason.

Saturdays from noon are the busiest time of the week, when half the Asian side does its shopping and the narrow streets slow to a shuffle. Sunday is quieter but some small shops close. Evenings belong to the meyhane tables and bars of Kadife Sokak and the Moda backstreets.

The Kadıköy Salı Pazarı, or Tuesday market, is a separate open-air market in Hasanpaşa, about 15 minutes' walk inland from the pier. It is a large produce and clothing market rather than a food-tasting street. Turkish property news site Emlakkulisi reported in 2026 that it is due to move to a new site, so check the location before you plan around it.

Kadıköy food tours compared: prices on the Asian side

Istanbul Street Food Tour with a Local Guide, from $90 per person

Most guided food tours on the Asian side follow the same outline: meet near the pier or the square, five to ten stops, a mix of breakfast items, lahmacun or pide, a fish or meze stop, dessert, tea and coffee. The differences are group size, number of tastings and whether the ferry is part of the tour.

Prices vary by season, group size and what is included, so ask us for today's price. Free tip-based walks also exist on the Asian side, but they are sightseeing walks; you pay for any food yourself.

Our street food tour and private options on the Asian side

Istanbul Street Food Tour with a Local Guide, from $90 per person

Our Istanbul Street Food Tour with a Local Guide is a small-group walk from $90 per person, with all tastings included: street food, kebabs and regional dishes, a Turkish breakfast, baklava, Turkish delight, tea and coffee. The daytime walk runs about 10:00 to 15:00, the sunset walk about 16:00 to 20:30. To be clear about one thing: the tour page lists local markets and historic neighbourhoods of Istanbul without naming them, and we send the meeting point on confirmation. It is not sold as a Kadıköy-only tour. If the Asian side matters to you, message us before booking and we will tell you which route runs on your date.

If you want Kadıköy for certain, a private guide is the reliable way. Our Best of Istanbul private tour costs $199 per group per day for a licensed guide; the standard list is European-side sights, but the day is planned around your interests, so ask for a Kadıköy and Moda day. Food, drinks and ferry fares are paid on the spot, which suits people who want to choose their own stops.

Families or anyone who does not want hills and ferries can book the Mercedes Vito city tour with a driver, $220 per vehicle for up to 6 people for 8 hours, with hotel pick-up. The route is flexible and can include the Asian side, but it is a driver, not a guide, and lunch is extra. All our tasting walks sit under food tours in Istanbul.

Self-guided or guided: which suits you?

Kadıköy is one of the easiest parts of Istanbul to explore alone. It is compact, flat near the water, and the ferry drops you at the edge of the market. The table sets out the trade-off honestly.

Go alone if you have a free afternoon and like to wander. Book a guide if you have one day for the Asian side and want to taste ten things rather than three. Dietary needs are where a guide helps most: Turkish food has plenty of vegetarian dishes, but nuts appear in many desserts, and only someone who speaks Turkish can check each counter.

Combining Kadıköy with the Old City in one stay

Best of Istanbul Private Tour, from $199 per group

The simplest plan is two days. Spend the first on the Old City with a private Istanbul tour: Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, Topkapı Palace and the Grand Bazaar. Keep the second for the Asian side: ferry over late morning, eat through the market, walk 15 minutes to Moda for the sea view, and watch the sunset behind the Old City skyline before the ferry back.

If you only have one day, do the Old City in the morning and cross from Eminönü around 15:00. You will miss the lunch counters at their best but catch the evening crowd in Moda and Kadife Sokak. For more on Moda, Yeldeğirmeni and Üsküdar, see our guide to things to do in Kadıköy, and for a comparison of day and evening formats read our page on the private Istanbul food tour. For every other route, browse our Istanbul tours.

To book, choose a date on the tour page, use our contact form, or message us on WhatsApp. Tell us your hotel, the date and any food you avoid, and we will confirm the route and price in writing before you pay.

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