Istanbul Gece Hayati

10 of the best bars in Istanbul

From rooftop bars with views over the Bosphorus to literary hangouts and shisha cafes, Izzy Finkel & Tom Roueché round up Istanbul's best drinking options

• As featured in our Istanbul city guide

'The old city, the Asian side and the Bosphorus at your feet.' Litera Bar in Istanbul. Image: iharsten on Flickr/Some rights reserved.

Izzy Finkel & Thomas Roueché

The Guardian, Wed 14 Sep 2011 10.30 BST

Litera Bar

The tall Ottoman buildings that line the streets of Beyoğlu have a tendency to block out the city's fantastic natural beauty. Climbing to Litera, the bar on the fifth floor of the Goethe Institute, however, lays the old city, the Asian side and the Bosphorus at your feet – glass walls and high tables with stools ensure that not an inch is obscured. Such views are all too rare and well worth rooting out. The institute below, meanwhile, offers one of the most varied cultural programmes in Istanbul, from theatre to photography and classical music.
• Litera Bar, Goethe-Institut Istanbul, Yeniçarşi Caddesi 32, Beyoğlu, +90 212 249 2009, goethe.de/istanbul,literarestaurant.com

360

With views stretching over Istanbul in all directions, as the name suggests, glamorous 360 is worth coming to for that alone. You certainly wouldn't come here for the food. Its "society shish kebab summer remix" turns out to be two sticks of meat presented at a jaunty angle, instead of in traditional parallel lines, and the rest of the menu really doesn't warrant the vertiginous prices. Instead of booking dinner, come here early, persuade the waiters to give you a coveted window seat, and sip your drink very slowly. Then source a proper bite to eat on the street below.
• Istiklal Caddesi 311, Misir Apartman floor 8, Beyoğlu, +90 212 251 1042,360istanbul.com

Münferit

A restaurant by day, at night Münferit becomes one of Istanbul's chicest bars. It takes its design cues from the 1940s, with wooden panelling, tiled floors and mirrored walls – courtesy of local interior design superstars Autobahn. On balmy evenings, locals cluster around the tables in the discreet, private garden, just off the street, before repairing to the bar to dance until dawn to sets that range from old-school funk and soul to ambient techno and house. And, as the night wears on, Ferit the owner delivers round after round of free shots.
• Firuzaga Mahallesi, Yeni Carşi Caddesi 19, Beyoğlu, +90 212 252 5067,munferit.com.tr

Urban

Urban is a fantastic bar-cum-cafe tucked away in a sidestreet between the Galatasaray Lisesi (high school) and Galatasaray hamam. In summer, tables spill out onto the street, covered by açarşaf (a sun shade made of trellised vines and ivy) and are thronging with Beyoğlu's boho set, sipping on ice-cold Efes Pilsen. A rare patch of calm in the beating heart of Istanbul, it livens up as the sun sets. Winter brings people into the cosy, old-fashioned, faintly Parisian interior, with a mezzanine and bar – the perfect place to curl up with a book and while away the hours with a beer.
• Istiklal Caddesi, Kartal Sokak 6, +90 212 252 1325, urbanbeyoglu.com

Susam Cafe

Susam Sokak (Sesame Street) is one of Istanbul's most charming nooks, in the heart of the leafy, literary Cihangir neighbourhood, and this effortlessly friendly local cafe, which buzzes on weekend evenings, is a destination in itself. A mixed bunch of regulars – from local hipsters to foreign newspaper hacks – people the bar, sucking down good cocktails, such as its famous Egeli Mojito (Aegean Mojito), on mismatched furniture in the sitting room-like interior. Most, however, come to soak up the atmosphere on the cafe's street-side terrace.
• Susam Sokak 11, Cihangir, +90 212 251 5995

Smyrna

Cafe Smyrna, a former antique shop, embodies leafy, literary Cihangir's laid-back, old-fashioned style: tables are shaded from the street by plants and awnings, and the bar is a jumble of furniture and standing lamps. Beloved of writers, thespians and the neighbourhood's foreign journalists and expats, Smyrna's outdoor tables, under the plane trees that line the streets, are a lovely place to while away an evening, drink in hand.
• Akarsu Caddesi 29, Cihangir, +90 212 244 2466

Nargilem Cafe

A summer evening in Tophane is a quintessential Istanbul experience. Rather than one single destination bar, this street is rammed with lounge-styleshisha (the Turks call it "nargileh") cafes running into each other, with little to differentiate them other than the varying tenacity of the waiters trying to coax you in. Nargilem Cafe is as safe an option as any. Choice made, backgammon and tutti-frutti-scented smoke rings will see you through into the small hours. Sellers of fruit and fresh almonds on ice rove between the tables, but beware the peanut gimmick: if you even touch the nibbles waiting on the table when you arrive you might find an unexpected addition to your bill.
• Tophane Nargile Alani, Tophane Sali Pazari Sira Mağazalar 101, Beyoğlu, +90 212 244 2492, nargilemcafe.com.tr

Büyük Londra

Built in 1881, the Büyük Londra (or Grande Hotel de Londres) is an achingly nostalgic piece of Beyoğlu's past. It clearly intends to invoke the neighbourhood's bohemian heyday, but the dowdy furnishings and talking parrot in the ground-floor bar take you back to a more recent time, before foreign mores and local money made Istanbul cool. This is fin de siècle Ottomania seen through the prism of the 1980s, and rarely crowded. The rooftop bar is slightly less olde worlde and looks out over the Golden Horn.
• Mesrutiyet Caddesi 53, Beyoğlu, + 90 212 245 0670, londrahotel.net

Sultan Pub

Other than the numerous hotel bars, it's very hard to find a decent drink in the old city, but for those desperate not to leave the vicinity of Sultanahmet there are a few options. The Sultan Pub is a fun, if slightly garish, American-style bar spread over three floors, serving hamburgers and alcoholic drinks within sight of the Aya Sofya. The pavement seating is always lively but the roof terrace affords the best views over the Hippodrome.
• Divanyolu Caddesi 2, Sultanahmet, +90 212 528 1719, sultanpub.com.tr

Cukurcuma 49

Cukurcuma is a formerly neglected neighbourhood which has recently been swept up in Cihangir's breakneck gentrification. In some ways, Cukurcuma 49, a split-level former workshop of bare brick, glass and wood, seems to be the inevitable result of the new aesthetic, yet somehow it retains its own charm. Perhaps it's the thin-crust pizzas, made from fresh Turkish ingredients, or perhaps it's because it serves its own wine, bottled especially on the small Aegean island of Bozcaada. Either way, attention to detail triumphs over pretension.
• Turnacibaşi sokak 49/A, Cihangir, +90 212 249 0048

Izzy Finkel & Thomas Roueché are Istanbul-based writers