Owner Osman Yitgin (Flavio, Lokal) teamed up forces with Toprak Göktaş (Narpera) to open up a meyhane in Cihangir named after his mother. Even though it’s in the centre of crowded Firuzağa, it has the feel of a small trattoria. The meyhane keeps to old traditions in everything from the menu to the service crew, who are intentionally of chosen from longtime meyhane workers. You get the feel that they’re trying to dish up flavours they know well but haven’t done professionally till now. Yitgin’s sister prepares the stuffed grape leaves (8 TL); they travel with their new-bought Vespa to the wholesale fish market each morning for the octopus, which they then grill or serve as salad (13 TL); the meyhane uses its namesake Aliye Hanım’s recipes for Çerkez tavuğu (shredded chicken with bread, pounded walnuts and red pepper sauce) and pilaki (dried beans, olive oil and onion stew, served cold).
There is a set menu for groups priced at 80 TL, which comes with seven meze, two warm starters, meat or fish, fruit or dessert, and two glasses of drink. You can also opt to create your own menu, which is what we did: we started with the stuffed grape leaves and Çerkez tavuğu, then moved on to yaprak ciğer (thinly sliced fried liver, 14 TL) and grilled octopus before settling on the sea bass as a main course. And this being a meyhane, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that there are eight types of rakı on offer – though the most popular still stands the 70cl Yeni Rakı, priced at 80 TL.