Kadıköy Istanbul: The Asian Side Neighbourhood That Out-Cools the European Shore

Kadıköy, on Istanbul's Asian shore, has become the city's most talked-about neighbourhood among the young creative class who are as likely to live here as across the Bosphorus. The daily commute from Kadıköy to the European side by ferry — one of Istanbul's great affordable pleasures, with Bosphorus views and tea from the onboard çaycı — has become something residents evangelise to visitors with the fervour of the recently converted. What draws people to Kadıköy is a combination of factors: lower rents, a more relaxed atmosphere than Beyoğlu, the extraordinary Kadıköy Market (the city's best food market), and a café and bar scene that has developed real quality without the tourist overlay that Karaköy and İstiklal have acquired.

The Kadıköy Market, spreading across several streets in the neighbourhood's centre, is the best place in Istanbul to understand what the city actually eats. Cheese shops, spice vendors, fresh fish from the morning boats, pickle shops (Istanbul's pickle culture is an entire rabbit hole), döner and lahmacun alongside sit-down meze restaurants — the market operates every day but reaches its peak on Saturday mornings when the neighbourhood's residents descend to shop. The bar scene along Kadife Sokak (Velvet Street) has earned the nickname "Barlar Sokak" and offers a relaxed, predominantly local alternative to the tourist-facing bar strip of Beyoğlu. Taking the ferry to Kadıköy and spending a morning eating through the market before an afternoon in the cafés is the best possible introduction to the Istanbul that Istanbul actually lives.