Wine Bar Review: Carafe Istanbul Wine & Bistro
While I list places to drink wine on my Istanbul Wine Guide page, I realized that I’ve never done proper reviews of any of these places. Rather than beginning at the beginning (which to me is Solera); I shall start with the place I most recently visited. Carafe Istanbul Wine & Bistro.
The busy Barbaros Bulvari in chaotic, university area Beşiktaş is the last place I would look for a place like Carafe Istanbul. And yet. Immediately Carafe Istanbul sets itself apart from the coffee houses and cheap burger and kebab places around it with its bright, royal blue deck walls. Colorful glass panels separate inside from outside and the bright theme follows in multicolored, velvet cushions. Round, black marble tables gleam under the high, recessed ceiling and colorful, tasteful art intersperses royal blue shelves full of wine.
It gives an overall vibe of a very chic, modern European-like place that managed to be both chic but laid back and unpretentious. Adding to the atmosphere, a fantastic playlist softly plays old-school jazz of the Ella Fitzgerald type.
The bistro is a passion project by sommelier Murat Çelebi, someone I’ve had the pleasure of knowing for years now. In fact, Murat was one of my very first wine friends in Istanbul! So perhaps I’m a little prejudiced here but I really think this place is dynamite. I just wish it weren’t a bus ride away for me (I’m dreadfully lazy).
Carafe Istanbul Wine & Bistro
Carafe Istanbul provides a nice menu with tapas (I had several and vouch for their yummyness!), salads, pastas, and pizza. In addition to wine, it offers sangria, cocktails, and coffees. Speaking of wine…
Great wine selection. Some hard to find things like Hanchalar and Sagavin grace the shelves along with a very diverse selection re region, producers, and grapes with a heavy emphasis on native grapes. A noticeable lack of Urla wineries, Mozaik and Hus were the only ones I saw…coincidence? Maybe. But like some of those wines though I do, they’re a little like a song that gets played too often on the radio. Lots of Trakya, Eastern Anatolia, and Mediterranean wineries had representation though and even with those, many were not the usual suspects.
Both a bar and a shop, any bottle can be bought to take away with a 10% discount.
Wines by the glass are few but well-selected and, like the bottles available, represent a diverse range.
Cihannüma, Barbaros Blv. No:79/A, 34353 Beşiktaş
+90 535 987 01 66
Instagram: @carafeistanbul
August 18, 2021
William Gaynor
Andrea,
I would love to hear what you have to say about Solera. One of my go to places when I am in Istanbul and the Pera district. And why not give Süleyman Er a little free air/internet ether time?
August 18, 2021
admin
As it happens, Solera is one of my favorite places and the review will be published later this week. Süleyman is a great supporter and I have written about him and Solera before for Culinary Backstreets and mentioned and have posted about it a lot in the blog.