Istanbul has always been a coffee city.
Long before flat whites, V60s and single-origin beans entered our vocabulary, coffee here already came with its own rituals. Turkish coffee was never simply something you grabbed on the way somewhere. You sat down. You talked. You waited for the grounds to settle. Sometimes, someone turned the cup upside down and told you what your future looked like.
That culture hasn’t disappeared.
But somewhere along the way, Istanbul developed another relationship with coffee.
Specialty coffee became part of everyday life, roasters started paying more attention to origin and technique, and suddenly a city that had been drinking coffee for centuries had an entirely new coffee scene.
The nice thing is that one never really replaced the other.
You can start the morning with a perfectly measured filter coffee and end the afternoon with a tiny cup of Turkish coffee.
Nobody in Istanbul finds that contradictory.
Neither should you.
Rawsters
If we’re talking about Istanbul’s contemporary coffee scene, Rawsters Coffee & Supply Co. is where we’d start.
Coffee is clearly the point here, but Rawsters has managed to create something beyond what’s in the cup. It feels part coffee shop, part neighbourhood meeting place — somewhere you can stop for one coffee and somehow still be sitting much later.
With locations in Moda, Akmerkez, 42 Maslak and Topağacı, each Rawsters fits into a completely different Istanbul day.
Choose Moda when you’re exploring the Asian side, Topağacı for a Nişantaşı morning, Akmerkez when you’re around Etiler, and 42 Maslak if your day takes you further north.
There’s another reason we’re starting here.
We’ve previously sat down with the founder of Rawsters for GGuide to talk about coffee, the story behind the brand and Istanbul’s evolving coffee culture.
Because sometimes knowing the person behind a place makes you understand the place a little better.
Where to find it Moda · Akmerkez · 42 Maslak · Topağacı
Petra Roasting Co.
Petra Roasting Co. is one of the names that helped make specialty coffee part of Istanbul’s everyday vocabulary.
The coffee is taken seriously without making the whole experience feel overly serious — an important distinction in a world where ordering a filter coffee can occasionally feel more complicated than it needs to.
You’ll find Petra in Bebek, Maslak and Gayrettepe, and each location gives you a slightly different experience of the city.
Bebek is the one we’d choose if you’re visiting Istanbul. Have your coffee, then walk down to the Bosphorus and continue along the water.
Gayrettepe gives you more of the original Petra experience, while Maslak works naturally into a day spent on the northern side of the city.
Where to find it Bebek · Maslak · Gayrettepe
Kronotrop
Then there’s Kronotrop.
One of the established names in Istanbul’s third-wave coffee movement, Kronotrop has been around since the early days of the city’s specialty coffee scene.
Its Cihangir location still makes particular sense to us.
Have your coffee and then walk.
Head through Çukurcuma, browse the antique stores, continue towards Galata or simply stay around Cihangir longer than you intended.
It’s one of those places that works best when the coffee isn’t the entire plan — it’s where the day begins.
Where to find it Cihangir
Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi
And then we go back to where the story really started.
Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi has been part of Istanbul’s coffee culture since 1871, when Mehmet Efendi began roasting, grinding and selling coffee ready to brew at a time when families generally roasted and ground their beans at home.
More than 150 years later, its original presence in Eminönü remains one of those unmistakably Istanbul experiences.
You’ll probably smell it before you properly see it.
There is almost always a queue, packets of freshly ground Turkish coffee move across the counter at remarkable speed, and the entire thing feels very different from the carefully designed specialty cafés elsewhere in the city.
That’s exactly why it belongs here.
This isn’t the place for a flat white, a V60 or a discussion about tasting notes.
Buy a packet of Turkish coffee to take home. Then find somewhere nearby to actually drink one.
After visiting Rawsters, Petra and Kronotrop, Mehmet Efendi is a useful reminder that Istanbul was taking its coffee seriously long before any of us started using the words third wave.
Where to find it Eminönü
Four names, four very different versions of Istanbul’s relationship with coffee.
And perhaps that’s what makes the city’s coffee culture interesting today.
There doesn’t need to be a choice between old Istanbul and new Istanbul.
Have the single-origin coffee.
Have the Turkish coffee.
Spend too long sitting at both.
The best version of Istanbul usually contains a little bit of each.