Istanbul Food Tours is the independent guide to Istanbul's food tours. We review and rank the operators that run them, we don't sell tours ourselves, and we don't publish rankings based on press trips. The independence is the point. Alongside the rankings, we also write about the neighborhoods we eat in and the dishes worth seeking out.
Who writes this
The site is written by Sarah Demir, a British-born food writer who has lived in Istanbul for twelve years. She covers the city's restaurants, markets and street food from the point of view of someone who once got every order wrong and eventually figured it out. Editorial standards are simple: visit every place, pay for our own food, and do not publish rankings based on press trips.
How we rank tours
The best food tours ranking is based on a combination of our own experience on the tour, aggregated traveler reviews across Viator, GetYourGuide and TripAdvisor, and how each tour performs on a consistent set of criteria: pace, guide quality, route variety, and whether the food actually represents the city. The ranking is updated twice a year.
We do not accept payment for inclusion, and affiliate partnerships do not alter our rankings.
How we make money
Some of the outbound links on this site go to booking platforms, primarily Viator and GetYourGuide. If you book a tour through one of these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
This matters for editorial integrity, so we are explicit about the rules:
- We only recommend tours we would recommend to a friend.
- Whether a tour is available as an affiliate has no bearing on whether we include or rank it.
- Where possible, we link to the tour's direct booking page rather than a commission link.
- Affiliate links are marked
rel="sponsored nofollow"for transparency.
Corrections and feedback
Prices change, restaurants close, tours get new operators. If you spot something out of date or wrong, please reach out through the contact link in the footer. Corrections go in quickly, and we credit the person who flagged them when they want the credit.
What we won't do
We will not publish sponsored content presented as editorial. We will not take a free tour and pretend we paid. We will not rank a tour we have not taken. And we will not tell you every tour is great. Some are fine. Some are not. The point of a guide is to say which is which.
If you are planning a trip, start with the Istanbul food guide or the ranking of the best food tours. If you would rather walk your own route, the self-guided food tour is free. Eat well.