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Turkish Breakfast in Istanbul

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Turkish Breakfast is delicious and comprises diverse dishes, baked goods, cheese, meats, honey, olives, and salads. In this post, we’ll look into what’s on the Turkish breakfast menu, with plenty of photos.

Turkish Breakfast
Some typical foods on the Turkish breakfast table. Cheese, nuts, dried fruit and Turkish delight.

We’ve been in Istanbul for 5 nights and we’re having a fantastic time. This morning I was so overcome by the fabulousness of the food that I felt the urge to write a post sharing the joy of eating in Istanbul. If you’re hungry, you’d better go read something else, some delicious pictures coming.

Turkish breakfast dishes
Turkish Breakfast foods. Eggs, fruit, cakes, cheese and salads.

We’ve stayed in two quite different hotels so far, the wonderful Hotel Alilass  (which I posted about here) and the larger, more traditional, Armada Hotel, Old City both in the beautiful Sultanahmet area, old Istanbul.

The Turkish breakfast photos on this page come from these two hotels.

Turkish Breakfast, Istanbul. Borek at Alilass hotel
Delicious Turkish borek on the breakfast menu at Alilass Hotel, Istanbul

Both hotels have been clean, comfortable and luxurious and both have fed us so well in the mornings.

At Alilass hotel we dined in their garden room and discovered new Turkish specialities like borek (above).  Borek’s sharp cheese and potato filling was a winner with the family.

Nuts, figs, olives, breads and cheeses are star players on the Turkish breakfast menu here, we’re all feeling simultaneously indulgent and healthy.

Olives Turkey. Breakfasts in Istanbul.
Several types of large, plump olives to choose from every morning.

This morning we sampled the breakfast buffet at Armada Hotel and just…wow!

This is a larger, more expensive hotel and the size of the buffet reflects this. Armada’s slogan is Preserve, Reserve, Serve and it hits these three targets admirably.

Decor, service and design here reflect the old Istanbul and that splendid era can be seen in the buffet. Anyway, enough about hotels, let’s talk food!

Turkish Breakfast

Everything about the Turkish breakfast buffets shouts abundance and most of the focus is on natural foods. By that I mean, good, clean, healthy, locally produced products, not mass-produced processed food as we so often see in the west.

Breakfast in Istanbul Turkey Armada Hotel
The breakfast buffet is laden with good things in Istanbul.

Turkish breakfast foods include:

  • Various types of bread
  • Hard boiled eggs
  • Olives
  • Figs
  • Cheeses
  • Borek
  • Baklava
  • Pastries
  • Oranges
  • Yogurt
  • Honey

In Turkey, we are treated to the fruits of the Mediterranean, olives, figs and tomatoes along with a surprising variety of local cheeses.

Turkish food is amazing and we are in food heaven.

 Turkish breakfasts Istanbul
Marinated cheeses are delicious with Turkish breads.

Yoghurt is a big player in this part of the world and we’ve seen it served at dinner with savoury dishes and on the breakfast buffet, where my boys like to add fresh, natural honey from the comb.

Turkish Breakfast Istanbul Turkey fresh honey comb
Honey straight from the honeycomb.

The cooked dishes we have seen include borek, with potato or spinach fillings, breads and pastries.

Turkey has a well-deserved reputation for delicious sweet treats. These have made it to the breakfast menu too, Turkish delight and baklava are wonderful with coffee at any time of the day.

Breakfast in Turkey Baclava Istanbul Armada Hotel

We enjoyed a couple of dishes that I’ve never come across before, plum leather and cezerye, a carrot based sweet dish with nuts, both were excellent.

Carrot sweet Turkey Istanbul food breakfast
This Turkish dish is made from carrots, coconut and nuts.

Aside from breakfast, we’ve mostly been eating street food, breads, roast chestnuts or corn, juices and ayran. You can find these everywhere and they are easy to grab when you’re busy exploring.

We’re looking forward to trying a few more Turkish dishes while we’re here. I had no idea food in Turkey was this good, it’s been a great surprise.

I need to add Turkey to my round-up post on breakfasts around the world. Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day, what’s yours?

Delicious Breakfast Buffet at Armada Old City Hotel Istanbul.

You can find Hotel Alilass or Armada Hotel Old City Armada Hotel Old City on Agoda, click through to view prices and availability.

If you'd like to hire a car during your stay, use this car rental comparison tool to find the best deal!

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Explore With Erin

Monday 4th of May 2020

I love love love Turkish food. And there is a lot of it in Melbourne. Turkish breakfast is my favourite though.

Linda @AsWeSawIt

Tuesday 10th of February 2015

You have given me yet one more reason to spend time in Istanbul. The breakfasts in is part of the world are amazing! Between the cheeses, olives, figs, honey, dates and yogurt, I could eat breakfast again and again, 24/7. They are so much more healthy and easy to digest than the heavy, mostly pork- and wheat-based items we get in the U.S. Yum!

Talitha Guittin Cooreman

Monday 9th of February 2015

This makes me run to the cupboard to see if I have anything that matches these pics (I haven't ...). May I just recomment you add an "a" to crotts (under the photo) - I leave it to you to figure out what "crotte" means in french!! :-)))

Sheralyn

Monday 9th of February 2015

It sounds amazing - I sooooo want to visit Turkey some day, and your food post makes me want to go even more!!!

Michelle

Sunday 8th of February 2015

Delish! We're in Jordan right now and have many of the same things. We're loving it too.

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