These days you can hardly move in Istanbul for branches of Starbucks, EspressoLab, Kahve Dünyası and Caffe Nero where you can tuck into exactly the same cheesecakes and brownies as at home. But delve a little deeper and you can still find many one-off cake shops with a uniquely Turkish feel to them. Some have proud pedigrees dating back to the days when a true patisserie (pastane in Turkish) was still a novelty in a town dominated by puddings shops. Others are more contemporary. But all can be depended on to offer a choice of kuru pasta (biscuity cakes) and yaş pasta (gooey cakes) alongside a mouth-watering array of savoury pastries, milk puddings and exquisite hand-made chocolates.
Divan Pastanesi
The undisputed queen of the İstanbul patisserie scene has to be the Divan Pastanesi attached to the Divan Hotel on Cumhuriyet Caddesi. Here the cakes come covered in hand-made chocolate so dark and shiny that it glimmers like steel and finished off with frills and furbelows spun out of yet more chocolate. Should that be too much for you, you could try a mekik, a sponge-like cake dotted with cherries, or an ayçöreği, a crescent-shaped pastry studded with almonds. Alternatively there are sampler plates of petit-fours or sweet and savoury biscuits to give you a taste of what else is on offer.
Cumhuriyet Caddesi No. 2, Elmadağ, Tel: 0212-315 5500
İnci
İnci Pastanesi (Pearl Patisserie) first opened on İstiklal Caddesi in 1944 when the profiterole was introduced to Turkey by an Albanian pastry chef named Luka Zigori (Zgondis). Now relocated to Mis Sokak, it remains famous for its profiteroles. All day long they’re stacked up on the counter in ready-to-go bowls.
Mis Sokak No. 18, off İstiklal Caddesi, Tel: 0212-243 2412
Bahar Pastanesi
One of the prime places to shop on the European side of Istanbul is Teşvikiye, where the windows of the quaint little Bahar patisserie show off trays of home-made chocolates wrapped in brightly-coloured silver foil and draped with artificial flowers. Unfortunately the cakes must all be taken home to savour. Those that walk most quickly off the shelf include Marrons Glacés, which are chestnuts wrapped in chocolate and dipped into ground pistachios. The chocolate-flavoured macaroons don’t sit around for long either.
Teşvikiye Caddesi No, 65, Teşvikiye, Tel: 0212-240 5770
Baylan Pastanesi
Of course cake-eating is hardly a pastime confined to the European side of the city, and what the late lamented Markiz was to Beyoğlu in the 1940s, the Baylan was to Kadıköy – a place where the left-wing intelligentsia hung out to discuss the burning issues of the day over a glass of çay and a pastry. Dating back to 1923 when it was originally founded as the Loryan in Beyoğlu by an Albanian pastry chef named Filip Lenas, the Kadıköy branch of Baylan still hangs onto its original façade and a leafy courtyard at the back but today people pour through its doors to sample a more recent invention, the Kup Griye, a delectable ice-cream sundae made from vanilla ice cream, caramel sauce, toasted almonds, pistachios and crème chantilly. which was dreamt up by Filip’s son Harry in 1954. There’s even a branch in the Galataport now.
Muvakkıthane Caddesi No. 19, Kadıköy, Tel: 0216-346 6350
Pelit
On the Asian side of town the main shopping centre is Bağdat Caddesi which is liberally sprinkled with cake shops. Here you’ll find a branch of Pelit, a small chain of patisseries that has been in business for more than 50 years. The Caddebostan branch specialises in ekpas, cakes that look like giant chocolate éclairs for between four and ten people, and wonderful gingerbread biscuits that come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, such as bibs, prams, crocodiles and footballs.
Bağdat Caddesi No. 185/A, Göztepe, Tel: 0216-358 2024
Savoy Patisserie
Apart from the big-name cake shops, Istanbul also harbours plenty of local patisseries. Everyone will have their own favourite but an especially popular choice is the Savoy in Cihangir which has been in business since 1950 and offers a mouth-watering array of mini eclairs and tiny fruit tarts alongside a choice of designer birthday cakes and all sorts of stuffed pastries. Its signature pastry has to be its milföy (mille-feuille), especially the version that comes with chopped strawberries (çilekli). The Savoy is so popular that it actually features in a novel set in İstanbul, Nektaria Anastasiadou’s A Recipe for Daphne.
Sıraselviler Caddesi No. 181-83, Cihangir, Tel: 0212-249 1818
Çiğdem Pastanesi
The Çiğdem (Crocus) is right by Sultanahmet tram stop for those in need of sweet treats after a heavy dose of sightseeing. Its windows are stuffed with a great choice of cakes, including jam-filled biscuits reminiscent of the traffic-light cakes of my childhood, and tarts piled so high with strawberries and cream that it’s hard to cut into them without a sticky accident.
Çiğdem Pastanesi, Divanyolu No. 62/A, Sultanahmet, Tel: 0212-526 8859
Café Wien
Should you crave a genuine Austrian sachertorte while shopping in İstanbul, the Café Wien in Teşvikiye can deliver the goods, albeit in disappointingly utilitarian surroundings.
Reasürans Pasaj No. 62, off Abdi İpekçi Caddesi, Teşvikiye, Tel: 0212-233 7860
Café Değirmen
At the end of all this cake-sampling, which patisserie most won the heart of this long-suffering writer? Well, the prize had to go to Café Değirmen, a small chain of cake shops which, with remarkably little fanfare, serves up the most scrumptious, delectable, moreish cheesecake in town. There are branches in several of the big shopping malls, including Tepe Nautilus in Acibadem/Kadıköy which is accessible on the Marmaray, exiting at Ayrılık Çeşmesi.
