Tasting Notes
Deraliye is on a side street off Divan Yolu, the main avenue of Sultanahmet, within walking distance of Hagia Sophia and Topkapı Palace. Its menu is built on recipes from the Ottoman court kitchen, where meat was often cooked with fruit, nuts and spices, and staff explain the background of the dishes as they serve them. The restaurant is listed in the Michelin Guide and has indoor dining rooms and a terrace.
Palace dishes
A signature is kavun dolması: half a melon stuffed with veal, rice, pistachios and almonds and baked, a dish linked to a palace feast record from 1539. Kaz kebabı is goose wrapped in thin pastry with pilaf. Terkib-i mutancana is lamb shank cooked with honey, vinegar, apricots, dried figs and grapes, and there are apple or quince dolma, lamb shank on smoky aubergine, and Ali Nazik. Among the starters, ballı gemici böreği is a cheese pastry with honey and currants, and the vine leaves are stuffed with rice and sour cherries.
Tasting menus and other choices
Two set menus are offered. The Sultan menu brings mezes, the honey börek, seafood piruhi, goose kebab, Ali Nazik and katmer; everyone at the table must order it. On Thursday and Friday evenings there is also a limited Hittite cuisine tasting menu inspired by Anatolia's earliest recorded recipes. Large dishes for two or three, such as lamb ribs or a whole lamb shoulder with pilaf, are also available, and there are vegetarian mains including imam bayıldı.
Alcohol is served here.
“Book for the evening, start with the cherry vine leaves and the honey börek, then share the kavun dolması and the goose kebab.”
LR Kitchen — field note