The Sweetest Baklava and Turkish Delight in Istanbul

Need to satisfy your desire for sugar? Indulge your tastebuds here.


View Güllüoğlü baklava and Hacı Bekir sweets in a larger map

If you’re in Istanbul for any period of time you must visit two places synonymous with sweets, Gulluoglu and Haci Bekir, to sample a simply outrageous sugar fix.

In a walking tour with a difference, why not start with baklava and vanilla ice cream in the Gulluoglu store in Karakoy,  then shed those newly gained kilojoules by walking directly to the tantalising Turkish delight that await you in the back streets of Eminonu at Haci Bekir?

Gulluoglu has the Finest Baklava in Istanbul

The Gulluoglu family originates from Gaziantep, near the Syrian border, and has recently celebrated sixty years in the business of making sweeter-than-sweet baklava. The store presents a wide array of the famous Middle Eastern delicacy that will send every sugar addict into involuntary spasm.

To find the store, come to the northern side of Galata Bridge in Karakoy. Locate the Karakoy ferry stop and it’s just a hundred-metre walk from there. You only need ask a local to be pointed in the right direction.
The Gulluoglu Karakoy store was recently renovated so that if you don’t overdose on the sugar, the decor will finish off the job. In over-illuminated neo-Ottoman surroundings, the light fittings, mirrors and gleaming white tiles ensure you’ll find your way to the counter easily.

 But Which One Do I Choose?

The range on offer might be a little overwhelming, but since you’ve come for the sugar, don’t worry too much if you end up with crushed pistachio, glazed walnuts, chocolate, or some other combination of ingredients. When you’ve made your selection from the display and carefully memorised its name, dash over to the counter where you’ll order a “porsyon”. Request a topping of vanilla ice-cream to break up all that sugary pastry. And if you must, have a glass of the sickliest-sweet lemonade on the face on the planet.

The cashier will silently hand you a receipt, which you return to the man behind the display counter. Pick your utensils and napkins and grab a comfortable seat outside where the sea breeze is always present. For some reason, inside the store there’s standing room only. Still, given the decor, it’s no surprise people looking at the interior for too long and head outside for a semi-sea view.

And don’t forget. There’s a water dispenser too, for when you’ll need to prise apart your dentures about ten minutes after you take your first mouthful. Feel sated? There’s more to come.

Make Your Pilgrimage to Haci Bekir for Turkish Delight

Haci Bekir has been operating from the same premises in the Eminonu district since 1777. While the company has branches on other parts of the city, the original store is worth a visit for its charming wooden interior.
If you’re going to burn off the kilojoules, cross the Galata Bridge and approach the entrance of the Spice Bazaar. Turn so that the Yeni Cami (New Mosque) is on your left, and walk a hundred metres. When you see a magnificent Ottoman building now housing the Legacy Hotel, look to the opposite side of the street. There it is. Ali Muhiddin Haci Bekir, purveyor of the best quality Turkish delight.

Haci Bekir’s is a convenient place to stock up on goodies for loved ones back home. Whether you want your ‘lokum’ flavoured with walnut, almond, cinnamon, ginger, rose or cloves; whether you desire it single or double cooked, you can get single or mixed selections in 200g (1/2lb) to 5kg (11lb) boxes.

Try Before You Buy

Turkish delight is not to everyone’s taste, but if you don’t enjoy what you sample in Haci Bekir’s, it’s guaranteed that you won’t like it anywhere else. But not only is Turkish delight on offer. Why not consider the brightly-hued hard candy or boiled sweets? Maybe sample the halva, that delicious combination of sugar syrup and sesame flavoured with pistachios or cocoa? Or dragees, sugar-coated pistachios and hazelnuts cleverly and colourfully disguised as pebbles?

Whatever you decide, just as in the Gulluoglu store, the staff at Haci Bekir will package your selection ready to place in your luggage.

After visiting Haci Bekir’s, if you suspect you may have consumed your own body weight in sugar, why not get back into shape and cross the Galata Bridge? You can always stop again for more baklava and ice-cream if you suddenly feel hungry.

Eminönü. It's all about shopping.

Click here for A short walking tour through Eminönü in greater detail

Eminönü is the hustle and bustle of this enormous metropolis. It’s been the district of choice for the city's merchants forever and, while usually an exhausting place to be, it belongs to the very heart of Istanbul.

Traders have been operating here for many centuries, since the time when the district more or less encompassed Byzantine Constantinople. Bordered by the waters of the Golden Horn and Marmara Sea, the district is one of the best to walk around, home to a myriad of stalls hawking all manner of consumer goods and dotted with historic places.

Unlike younger neighbourhoods on the European side of Istanbul, Eminönü has clearl been without town planning for most if its existence. It’s easy enough to get lost among the warren of narrow lanes and crowded thoroughfares, but it’s equally likely that you’ll discover century-old ateliers, workshops and mosques that make the disorientation worthwhile.

As a visitor you’re unlikely to come away with anything more than second-rate souvenirs. However, Eminönü is the place where working class Istanbul procures everything from dried fruits and cheese to kitchen utensils and portable barbeques, and by day it must be one of the busiest shopping districts anywhere.

It’s not only human traffic that chokes Eminönü. Ferry stops on the Golden Horn transporting passengers up the Bosporus and to the Princes Island amplify the horde while vehicles clog the arteries every hour of daylight. It is not a site for quiet reflection.

The large, open square at the southern end of Galata Bridge contains the impressive Yeni Cami, one of my favourite mosques. It was the wife of Murad III, Safiye Sultan, who first suggested that Davut Ağa, the Sultan’s architect, design a place of worship in the mercantile quarter.

Criticism over the required expenditure to complete the mosque and other political dissent forced the Yeni Cami to stand incomplete for almost half a century, and it was more or less destroyed by fire in 1660. Another imperial architect decided the time was ripe to rebuild: Mustafa Ağa suggested to Valide Turhan Hadice, that work should proceed, and the New Mosue's inauguration took place five years later.

Also begun in 1660, the Mısır Çarşısı, or Spice Bazaar, is a tourist trap of the not-so-bad kind. In earlier times tt was the rent from its shops that supported maintenance of the mosque, though these days your purchases of spices and bad-quality Turkish delight will only enrich the annoying-but-charming sales people, who spend their entire working day guessing your nationality by barking at you in various tongues.

The bazaar doesn’t stock anything than cannot be found of better quality in adjoining lanes, however, if you’re short on time and have spades of patience, then go into battle with the man with over-groomed hair and a tight fluorescent shirt and get your gifts for the family in one go.

It’s behind the bazaar that Eminönü begins to feel something more 'real'. Despite the increasingly narrow thoroughfares and the stupefying density of people that converge and stream across cobbled streets, if you take your time and care little for losing your way, Eminönü is a wonderful place to explore.

Imitation designer label garments are arranged on crumbling walls. Street hawkers offer you fake Gillette Mach-3 razors that don’t cut anything but butter, and it’s impossible to find out just how many pointless battery-operated plastic pieces of garbage can be held up as indispensible time-saving kitchen implements.

Considering an American-issue camouflage design two-piece outfit for your six-year-old? Need a body-hugging, V-neck lime green T-shirt? Finally thinking about replacing the rubber floor protectors on that IKEA dining setting you bought last year? Eminönü has it.

Better still, as you ascend Mahmutpaşa Yokuş, dowdy and seemingly placid females will bowl you over in their quest for the right circumcision outfit. I kid you not. It happened to me last year.

Sünnet, as the obligatory ceremony for Muslim boys is known in Turkey, is a once-in-a-lifetime occasion when everyone’s attention will focus on you. And, you get to dress up in shiny things. I decided to attend a friend’s costume party dressed in a glittering pre-circumcision outfit; mostly because I was envious my Turkish male mates had an opportunity I would never experience.

Naturally, as a fully frown adult, fitting into the largest sünnet costume available required some deep breathing and explanation to the shopkeeper. Turks are not an inquisitive bunch, and while I’d already invented my pretext for the purchase, the shopkeeper couldn’t have cared less that a foreigner was trying wanting to try on outfits for adolescent man.

After half an hour of sorting through the finest array of polyester with tinsel-highlights, I settled on a silver-on-silver-on-silver theme. Feathered turban, sceptre, cape, cummerbund and Miss Universe-style glittery sash embroidered with ‘Wonderful’ from shoulder to waist, I felt replete. Unfortunately, no amount of grunting would get me into white satin trousers, but I still managed to get a discount if only purchasing three-quarters of the necessary costume.

Aside from circumcision outfits, there are also other garments on sale too.

Shops and stalls are crammed into every conceivable space and it’s essential to be adventurous. That dark, shadowy staircase to your left? Take it, you might find that lawn-edge trimmer you’ve been looking for since January. And you will never find another location on the planet that has a wider range of (mostly hideous) buttons and lace. Come October, an entire street is given over to Christmas decorations that makes Chinatown look lacklustre and monochrome. You can fill your garden with cyclamens, purchase a scimitar and get any number of toys that are banned under EU consumer protection laws. Wooden spice racks are there for the picking and you won’t have witnessed a more refined collection of cane furniture since 1974.

And, finally, when it all gets a little too much, head back to the Yeni Cami. At the back of the mosque, in the space between its mausoleum and the southern wall of the Mısır Çarşısı is a short row of tea gardens where you can rest your aching legs and find some much-welcome shade. Even the garrulous, pre-intermediate level English spruiking of the young waiters will be exactly the peace and quiet you deserve after an hour in this neighbourhood.

And finally, get yourself to Rustem Paşa mosque. You'll find it among the polyester, flashing light-sabres and stretch demin. Eventually. That's me under the archway. Despite how it looks, I wasn't dancing.

Right then, did I miss anything?