Vegan-friendly
Lacto
Ovo
Salad bar
Turkish
Non-veg
Serves meat, vegan options available. Simple and fresh traditional Turkish food. Has a large vegetarian salad bar and many options for hot foods. Vegan please ask about options and inform HappyCow. Try the lentil soup. This restaurant was noted in the Lonely Planet for its vegetarian food options, so it's popular with travelers. Location is on the Asian side of Istanbul, in the Kadikoy area. Staff speak some English. Open Mon-Sun 11:00am-10:00pm.
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Last update on 27 Jun 2022 by entrider
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20 Reviews
First Review by twinkle
AlisonSimard
Points +26
Tasty variety of vegan and vegetarian options - Edit
Really enjoyed the meze options from fried zucchini, celery, wild mushrooms and the lentil soup was wonderful. Clearly I missed the opportunity to try the lahmucan and wished I had. For dessert the pumpkins were tasty but the texture was not a pudding as other review mentioned. A good option for the neighborhood.
Read morePros: Lentil soup, Meze options
Cons: Service when it is busy is not fast, A bit spendy
Guest
DamonS
Points +25
Yum - Edit
Delicious. Separate Veg menu & all starters vegetarian...some delicious vegan options. incredibly good. reasonably priced. Highly recommend. Great people watching spot.
Read morePros: Tasty, Affordable, Loads of options
Cons: Nothing negative about this restaurant.
Guest
KajaGie
Points +89
Simple and tasty - Edit
Had a veggie lahmacun and some thyme salad which were tasty. Sherbet was refreshing. The pumpkin pudding was to die for! There is a sister restaurant just across the road where they have a more variety of meze and salads where you can pop across and bring a plate to your table.
Read moreUpdated from previous review on 2024-08-29
Pros: Pumpkin pudding, Friendly staff
Cons: Tried overcharging us - check your receipt!
Guest
EugeneLovesTofu
Points +1257
Nice enough - Edit
Nice enough without being life changing. The food was reasonable, some was good, some wasn’t. The waiter we had must have been having a bad day, not very engaging and seemed quite irritated. With so many good places in Istanbul I wouldn’t bother with this one.
Read moreGuest
outliervegan
Points +490
Amazing lahmacun! - Edit
I just tried ciyasofrasi's lahmacun. It says vegetarian on the menu, because I think it is pre-cooked with yoghurt. You have to specify that you want vegan.
Read moreIt came warm and crispy. The content is completely vegetable, but very finely chopped, you see, there are no thick parsley stems. These are important criteria for me. It was very tasty, I liked it very much.
There are also vegan dishes here, but nothing caught my attention when i went. I tried the sarma and dolma. The sourness of the sarma was so good I finished it in like five seconds. Even though the dolma with olive oil is spicy, don't try it if you don't like it too spicy, but I'll eat it again.
I recommend, you must try. Vegan friendly 🌱
PS: I wish they made vegan kelodoş (traditional food)
Updated from previous review on 2023-06-12
Pros: Location, Price, Delicious food
Cons: Waiting line
Guest
sehr
Points +234
Vegan Lahmacun - Edit
I like their lahmacun also they have large meze and traditional food bar.
Read morePros: tasty
Guest
certen
Points +25
Çiya is an amazing place overall - Edit
Çiya is an amazing place to taste traditional regional food. Their vegan lahmacuns are thin and crunchy. The salad bar is full of yummy options. Good number of vegan desert options too!
Read morePros: Vegan lahmacun (mushroom based), Local & Seasonal meals (daily changing menu), The meze bar
Guest
veganoteacher
Points +5365
Mushroom based lahmacun - Edit
I liked the mushroom based lahmacun, it was tasty.
Read moreGuest
alessiacrl
Points +448
Really disappointed - Edit
After reading about a vegan kebab option on this app I asked for it but they brought regular Adana kebab. After noticing the waitress we asked for the only vegan option: lahmacun. It was really dry and not that flavourful.
Read moreI appreciate the effort to put a vegan option on the menu but I really wished I tried some other place instead.
Guest
iamahappycow
Points +22
Very nice authentic Turkish vegetarian food - Edit
Lots of vegan options
Read morevegetarian Kebab!
Pros: Viele vegane und vegetarisch Optionen
Guest
Kel_C
Points +85
Great tasting, fresh food. Very inexpensive. - Edit
Loved this place. Lots of vegan options at a great price.
Read moreCons: Inquire which dishes contain butter vs oil
Guest
Sushinina
Points +2541
Amazing - Edit
The vegan kebab was the best I’ve ever had! It’s not on the menu, I asked for it and the chef kindly made it for me although it was a very busy evening. The hummus was amazing as well. I went there twice in one day.
Read moreGuest
Walterwide
Points +1959
Awesome Turkish Food - Edit
Ask for the vegan kebap! There are tons of vegan options but I recommend to try the vegan kebap. Tasty food in the heart of beautiful Kadiköy.
Read moreGuest
ayshim
Points +931
must try the vegan kebab - Edit
There are three things I LOVE when it comes to Çiya; veg kebab, mezes and pumpkin dessert. Although Çiya restaurants (there are 3 of them altogether) are specialised in kebabs, pide, lahmacun and every other Anatolian specialty, they have a veg version of each one of those dishes. And you must try their veg kebab.
Read moreCons: no alcohol
Guest
diclemre
Points +320
not a good idea - Edit
Çiya is great options for omni people but if you are vegan, place def. smells meat too much and lots of people eating meat. so just eating salad or something go and find another place
Read moreUpdated from previous review on 2017-05-22
Guest
SG213
Points +858
Take a gamble - Edit
Ciya is famous for serving different styles of Turkish cuisine drawn from all over the country. Sometimes though, it seems more thought has gone in to making something appear "different" and not so much to the overall appeal.
Read moreI tried the vegetarian lamacun since I haven't heard of anywhere else that serves this. It was disappointing however, although the base was nice and crisp, the topping was dry and largely flavourless. Similarly with another offbeat starter, olive piyaz. Normally piyaz is a bean and salad mixture with vinagrette, in this case the beans were dumped entirely and replaced with green olives, resulting in (more or less) a plateful of olives in vinegar. I like olives, but I'm not sure anyone could really eat this many served like this! Still, it's nice to see something that's both veg. and different from the usual.
Good aspects of Ciya for vegetarians and vegans is that there is a reasonable salad bar and a number of other veg options such as the more familiar falafel and pide. The staff are also accustomed to catering for vegetarians.
If you're thinking of visiting and trying something new, I would suggest ordering a mixture of more familiar dishes and new ones. Prices are slightly higher than average but can be worth it to find some interesting new flavours.
Pros: Unusual food, Good veg. selection
Cons: A bit over-hyped, not all dishes great, Can be expensive
Guest
skauch
Points +121
Great Salad Bar - Edit
We have been to Ciya Sofrasi twice in the last three days. We used the salad bar - choose as much and as many salads as you wish and then pay by weight. For a good looking, medium sized plate of salad, it was about 10TL/5 Euros. They charge 35TL? per kilo of salad, as a reference. We had a choice of maybe 10 different salad type dishes - bulgar, lentils, pomegranates, hummus, pickled chillies, stuffed peppers and tomatoes?, olives, all featured, all especially delicious. Bread comes with the tables. The 0,5L beers we had seemed to be about 8TL also. The restaurant was packed as Fenerbache were playing close by, but the staff were courteous and helpful in their frantic efforts to seat the line of customers. Very organised, no problems, great english spoken. There are 3 Ciya restaurants on the block, the others seeming more kebab orientated.
Read morePros: Great selection, Helpful staff, Absolutely delicious
Cons: Felt a little rushed but not pressured, Careful with the heavy stuff!!
Guest
lotustummy
Points +1194
always a favourite - Edit
I ate here at least once a week when i live in the 'bul! Great salad bar and always two or three hot items veggie. make sure you ask "et siz mu?" just to make sure there is no meat.
Read morePros: veggie items, great juice, outdoor seating!
Cons: smoky (where i was there) , meat possibly hiding if not careful
Guest
guraytezcan
Points +340
Vegetarian Lahmacun is their masterpiece - Edit
Altough lahmacun dish has roots towards Middle East, it is a very popular all around Turkey too. Many sources now specify it as Turkish delicasy or Turkish Pizza. If you are in Istanbul as a vegetarian or vegan, you can also taste this delicious food in its vegetarian version which is unique to this restaurant. Meat is replaced with chopped garlic and mushrooms. I am a vegetarian Istanbulite and I either prepare my own veggie lahmacun at home or go to Ciya when I visit Asian Side of Istanbul. Do not forget to wrap your lahmacun after filling it with radish, parsley and onion pieces.
Read morePros: Wide veg-menu and awareness, Good service, Recipes mainly from Southern Turkey -hot
Cons: Far from city center -European side-
Guest
twinkle
Points +61
Don't miss out! - Edit
I love Ciya!!! If I am over on the Asian side (it's in Kadikoy, one of the most beautiful and relaxing parts of the city) I almost always eat here. I also try to bring my guests here when I have friends/family visiting from abroad.
Read moreThe owner of Ciya, Musa, has painstakingly researched foods from different regions in Turkey, and you can get foods here you won't find elsewhere, unless you travel all of Turkey. They also cook seasonal specialties, like stuffed artichokes or stuffed zucchini blossoms in the spring. The restaurant has been reviewed in many top international food magazines and for good reason. The staff are very attentive and friendly, and its moderately priced, so there is no reason not to go!
Ciya is a kebab place, and is not explicitly geared toward vegans and vegetarians, however, there are always lots of choices. They usually have some hot entrees to choose from, in addition to the salad bar. My favorite is the boiled bulgur balls, which you can have served with or without yogurt. The salad bar has a wide selection of salads to choose from. You choose what you want, and are charged by the weight.
Ciya own several restaurants on the same street, and some of them serve alcohol and some don't. If you want to drink, make sure you go to the correct one.
My advice to you!!! Take a boat over to Kadikoy (from Eminonu, Karakoy, or Besiktas) spend a day walking by the seaside and exploring the markets, and have a lovely dinner at Ciya!!!
Pros: Excellent food, Great selection, Good service
Cons: None!!!
Guest
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