Saruja Restoran

It was my last full day here in Istanbul. I think I have done all the out-of-town stuff that I wanted to do here and I know that I would want to come back here. The country is too large to be seen in just a handful of days. In fact, I could say the same thing for Istanbul itself. There is so much history to see here that to merely be here a few days won’t do it justice. Still, I am not on vacation forever and I would need to go back as earn back my trip. I don’t really plan to do much today except maybe eat.

I was already off to a good start since I got out late in the morning and it was almost noon. I were looking online for some interesting places to eat and I saw this Syrian place. Syrian? I wouldn’t even know what kind of food they would have there, maybe more kebab? I took the metro to this area in Fatih where there are a number of establishments such as the municipal library, a cultural center and the tax office. At time of my visit, there seems to be a heavy police presence here which led me to assume that someone important is here. I wasn’t interested in that though, I was here for food.

I was surprised to see that the street in question has a number of restaurants from all sorts of countries, primarily the Middle East. There was another Syrian restaurant here and there was also one which features Yemeni food. It is a shame that I don’t have time but I wanted to try their food from these restaurants at least once. I am here for Saruja Restoran which is a Syrian restaurant. I am aware that there were a lot of refugees from Syria who settled here in the country. It is inevitable that some of them would end up setting up a restaurant.

I got myself lamb shakriya, which is a some kind of lamb stew. The flavor is quite unique and I don’t think I had anything like it before. The soup is actually one based on yoghurt. The lamb is stewed with meat, in this case, lamb. Some would put chick peas in it and some nuts. I thought that the dish was actually nice. It is a very different flavor profile that I never had before when it comes to meals. Obviously I will be generalizing when I say that I thought that most of the food in this region would be kebab and similar food. It is nice to be proven wrong. The rice is a special kind of rice which I believe has butter but I don’t know any more than that. I would have loved to try their other stuff but my wallet and appetite is finite so I would have to leave this for another day to try.

Saruja Restoran

Akşemsettin, Akşemsettin Cd. NO:31-A,
34080 Fatih/İstanbul, Türkiye
+90 505 1347070

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