Immense city lying on two continents and on several history manuals, second Rome populated five times the original, Istanbul is a place-world, which like New York does not need to be the capital to be the lighthouse of a civilization. Place of natural, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman contamination, deeply contemporary like all places at the center of a thousand winds, also expresses in its cuisine influences legible in a vertical and horizontal way. Those who go for the first time in this metropolis that defining between the West and the East is banality that corresponds to the truth are stunned by the smells of a thousand spices that deserve an entire dedicated bazaar (beautiful even if touristized in an almost unsustainable way) in one of the busiest areas of the city, by the clerk of the thousand embers, with a thousand temptations of restaurants and shacks of all levels and degrees.
To this traditional cuisine, very rich in vegetables and very Mediterranean in the sensations (even if Istanbul geographically is placed between the Black Sea and the Marmara Sea) inspire what has been considered the most interesting chef of the new Anatolian cuisine for years, Maksut Askar of the Neolokal restaurant inside the Salt Cultural Center, created in the sumptuous building that housed a bank and which is located in the Galata district in Beyoglu, a stone’s throw from the delicious Camondo scale, a very photographed art Nouveau ramp that climbs towards the Torre di Galata . Askar with his cuisine made of deep roots, conscious legacy and erudite modernity, with his desire to update national traditions to make them accessible from the new generations, led Neolokal to conquer a red Michelin star and another green for His attention to sustainability, and to be the only restaurant in the city inserted in the first hundred of the world of The World Fifty Best Restaurants, in 2024 at number 91, which is not a little for a metropolis that only recently appeared to the wonders of the end dining.
Neolokal is a bridge restaurant in a bridge city. It is an elegant and always crowded place, which overlooks the golden horn and on the mosques of Sultanahmet, which offers poignant sunsets (but when I went it was raining dense and this joy was denied me). The menus are three: the traditional tasting menu (5936 euros including service, which correspond to about 160 euros), the vegetarian menu (5488 turkish lire, equal to about 150 euros) and there is also a gluten -free menu, lactose and fruit dry (5936 Turkish lire, 160 euros). I wanted to try the second, because so much I was intrigued by the approach to the vegetable of the chef. I started, after the service of natural leavening bread (which was born on June 22, 2014, just before the birth of Neolokal and also has its own name, Neylan Eksi) with the extra virgin olive oil from first squeezing, with one Snack series that include Ayran ASI, a cold yogurt -based soup with chickpeas, wheat and herbs, and the topik, a gastronomic paradox that represents a plastic manifestation of Neolokal’s creed, according to which geography influences gastronomic habits more than the Radici: It is a sort of fried raviolo typical of the Armenian community of Istanbul, but that Erevan will not find in Erevan.
Then you get to the heart and one of the symbolic dishes of Neolokal, Humus and Anatolian landscape comes, an exhilarating tile that reproduces thanks to a wise use of spices the vivid colors of the Turkish panorama, red, gold, green, green lilac, and represents a real journey for all senses. I understood why Maksut never removed this dish from the menu in ten years. Then there is the vegetarian version of the Kadinbudu (which means female leg), a sort of pilaf rice meatball with potato, carrot and chickpeas, served with potato foam and a jus of concentrated vegetables. Then the Rahibo Köftesi, a dough of bulgur, wheat and boiled potato and served with spinach and cheese foam. So one of the most successful dishes, the dish I preferred, the grilled cauliflower with cauliflower puree and pomegranate sauce, second only to the main dish, the Oyster Mushroom grilled: it is a mushroom particularly appreciated by the vegan community for his Fleshiness, which Askar is particularly enhanced here with the use of Greek hay (Cemen), a sauce and an emulsion of mushrooms and isot pepper oil. The real manifesto of Maksut’s cuisine. Sweet closure with a baklava with pistachio cream and with the fridge, a dessert that reproduces the frozen chocolate bar that once eaten in the cinema and which is declined with Sultanas infused in Raki, the typical local distillate, candied fig, Biscuit and Sahlep, a local milk -based drink, wild orchid flour (of which the dessert reproduces the shape) and cinnamon.
The service is precise and competent, those who want can follow their own path in detail by compulsive the librinchino that tells all the recipes, between technical aspects and intimate notes.
The wine list is entirely dedicated to Anatolian wines, which in my opinion are very far from the level to which we Italians are used to, so it can be a good idea to rely on a cocktail prepared by the bar (for me an anatial Negroni pleasantly smoked) .
Neolokal, Galata salt, Bankalar Avenue, Karaköy, Istanbul. Tel. +905514474545, mail: [email protected]. Open only in the evening, closed on Sundays and Mondays