Gault & Millau Restaurants in Istanbul: The 2026 Toque Guide

The highest score in the 2026 Türkiye guide, and the same kitchen that holds Istanbul's only two Michelin stars. Fatih Tutak's Bomonti tasting menu is the modern Turkish flagship by every ranking that currently exists, and the 18.5 is Gault & Millau saying that in the language it uses for the rest of the world. Book two to three months out for a weekend. The Green Star in the Michelin guide is the sustainability mark; the 18.5 here is the cooking mark. They are not the same award.

Maksut Aşkar's room inside SALT Galata, one point behind Tutak and the only other four-toque kitchen in the country. The guide also gave Neolokal its Best Sustainability Award for 2026, which lines up with the Michelin Green Star the same restaurant already holds. The cooking is neo-Anatolian in the literal sense: recipes taken apart and rebuilt from a specific region or household, served in the former Ottoman Bank headquarters on Bankalar Caddesi with the Golden Horn in the window. Take the wine pairing. Ersin Topkara won Michelin's Sommelier Award in the same season.

The highest three-toque score in Istanbul. Cenk Debensason's 1960s villa on Dilhayat Sokak in Etiler is a restaurant, a listening room and a mezze bistro in the same building, and the 16 reflects a kitchen that trained in France, cooked in the United States and came home, rather than a hotel dining room with a view. It also holds a Michelin star, awarded in 2024. Treat it as a whole evening: dinner downstairs, a drink in the Listening Room after. Etiler is a taxi from Beyoğlu, not a stroll.

Zeynep Pınar Taşdemir's vegetable-forward kitchen in Yeniköy, opened in 2018, named for the Turkish word for pea. Michelin starred it in the guide's first Istanbul year and has kept it there. Gault & Millau's 15.5 puts it in the same band as Nicole and Casa Lavanda, which is the right company: a chef's restaurant rather than a palace dining room, on a quiet street above the upper Bosphorus, with a terrace that sits behind the building rather than on a hotel roof. The ferry to Yeniköy is the correct arrival.

Serkan Aksoy's dining room on the top floor of a Tomtom townhouse, 15.5 in this guide and one Michelin star in the other. The Service Award Nicole held in 2025 was Michelin's, not Gault & Millau's, and it is worth keeping the two plaques separate. Small enough that the room turns over once a night, with a terrace looking across Beyoğlu toward the Bosphorus. Of the three-toque rooms in the centre it is the one you can still sometimes get into at a week's notice.

Emre Şen's kitchen in Ulupelit village, Şile, attached to the family hotel, with roughly 80 percent of the vegetables grown in the garden on the property and a wine list of more than 300 labels. The 15.5 is the same score as Nicole and Araka, earned 40 kilometres from Taksim rather than a taxi ride from it. Plan a 60-to-90-minute drive and a long lunch. It also holds a Michelin star. This is the one three-toque table that does not work as an evening in the city.

Inside Çırağan Palace Kempinski, on the first floor of the 19th-century palace rather than the modern hotel block next to it, with the Bosphorus in the windows and a terrace in season. The cooking is Ottoman palace cuisine researched from the archives and served as a formal dinner, which is a different job from the tasting-menu rooms above, and the 15.5 is Gault & Millau ranking that job in the outstanding band. Michelin recommends it and does not star it. Children under 12 are not seated. Dress for a palace.

Görkem Özkan's modern kitchen at Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul at the Bosphorus. Three toques in the Modern Cuisine category, which is the same band as Gallada and a point below the chef-restaurant cluster. The setting is a waterfront Ottoman mansion converted into a hotel, so the room is the view as much as the cooking, and the booking is through the hotel rather than a standalone site. Treat it as a hotel dinner with a serious score attached, not as a hidden chef's table.

Fatih Tutak and Özgür Taylan Yücel's restaurant at The Peninsula Istanbul, on the Karaköy waterfront. Same 15 as Aqua, same three toques, a different Tutak kitchen from the 18.5 in Bomonti: this one is a hotel restaurant with a view of the Golden Horn rather than a destination tasting room. If Türk Fatih Tutak is booked out for the dates you have, this is the Tutak table that still has a chance of being open, and it is not a substitute so much as a different format.

The rooftop of The Marmara Pera, open since 2005, one Michelin star, three Gault & Millau toques. Mehmet Gürs's New Anatolian kitchen is the oldest fine-dining room on either list, and the 15 puts it with Aqua and Gallada rather than with Arkestra's 16. The view over the old city is the reason summer tables go first. Ask for the terrace. If you only want the view and a drink, the rooftop bars guide covers cheaper ways to get a similar sunset.

Yoshizumi Nagaya and Hiroko Shibata's 24-seat Japanese room in Bebek Hotel, kaiseki and Edomae sushi, one Michelin star and three toques at 15/20. The only Japanese kitchen in Istanbul that appears on both guides. Closed Sunday, tiny, book as soon as you have dates. A free hotel shuttle runs within a limited radius of Bebek.