Personal Experience That night, we ate at a Georgian restaurant in an old British jail in a neighborhood called Galata. We took a cab to Galata Tower, and from there, wandered down every street and were completely lost and scared. It was clearly trash day, or else people always leave their trash on the sidewalks. The streets are narrow, but the sidewalks are filled with trash and people, so you are forever jumping back onto the sidewalk as cars rush up the streets with abandon.

Luckily, a doorman from a nearby hotel found a Turk to lead us to the restaurant. The food was delicious! We ate outside on an inner courtyard balcony. The owner talked to us about Byzantine history for some time, and while there were no other customers, we had the place to ourselves.

We tried Raki - the anise-flavored alcohol that they call Lion's Milk. We also got an appetizer plate for two, that was mostly salads. I had the Georgian dumplings in a tomato-based sauce, delicious! Alli had veal and potatoes. We shared a dry chocolate cake with our Turkish coffees. This elaborate meal in a beautiful setting only cost 20,000,000 TL - about 13$.