My friends and I were just in Istanbul (for the first time!) for 5 days, and visited this cozy little hole-in-the-wall gem a grand total of 4 times. Normally I wouldn't limit myself to the same restaurant like this, but Harab'be is absolutely worth it, and not once did I feel like I was missing out by not trying somewhere new.
On our first night in the city we were simply looking for a hookah bar after a late flight arrival and decided to try Harab'be, which we saw was open until 3 am and was only an 8-minute walk from our hotel. It's tucked back on a side street and has a cute outdoor area with colorful chairs and sofas and beautiful multicolored glass lamps hanging over the terrace. (Bonus: there's no obnoxious and overly persistent guy on the street trying to get you to go to the restaurant, as is the case with so many other places on this street.) The inside of the restaurant is even better-- everything from the seating to the lamps is covered in cool traditional/Islamic patterns and the dim, warm lighting gives a cozy ambience. Our rose & mint shisha was delicious; I've never seen rose as a flavor in the US and after trying it here I liked it so much I bought some in a market to bring home. I ordered a tea to go with the shisha; it was served in a glass with lemon slices, rose petals, a little dish of honey, and herbs on a beautiful little silver platter. As a bonus, the playlist of Turkish songs and chill, funky indie music deserved 10/10 stars. As we were leaving, the owner, Yusef, told us he was the chef and that we should come back for dinner, and so the next night we took him up on it!
Yusef, wearing a chef's hat, personally served our food; I had the best meal of my whole trip that night. The dish was an İskender kebap, aka lamb and beef and eggplant in a tomato-based sauce and surrounded by pieces of fried (more like toasted) cubes of bread that somehow stayed crispy on the outside despite being half-submerged in the sauce of the dish. I also ordered an apple tea, which was so flavorful it reminded me of cider. It had pieces of dried apple on top and may have half-converted me into a tea person despite my serious coffee addiction. For an appetizer we got the mixed meze platter, which we also ordered again every other night we came here; it was by far the best, largest, and most well-priced one we had in Istanbul although we shared similar platters for lunch and dinner at other restaurants. The little dishes of hummus and yogurt and tomato/eggplant and pickled seafood etc. were flavorful and perfect every time. After dinner we ordered baklava, which came dusted with pistachio and drizzled in chocolate sauce and was again the best version of this dish I had on the whole trip. Following this was hookah with red wine in the base instead of water, which was something I'd never seen before. It was smooth and had a bit of a berry flavor in addition to the unmistakeable flavor of the wine. Definitely something to try! (We also ordered an orange & mint blend on another night, which may have been my favorite flavor of them all.)
The other meals I had here were equally delicious, and Yusef is, in a phrase, the man. On our last night we decided to order a bottle of wine with dinner, so we picked the cheapest red (we're college students), which was 75 Turkish lira. Unfortunately, stock was low because they were waiting on a new shipment and that particular bottle wasn't available, so we were ready to just order other drinks, but instead Yusef offered us the most expensive bottle on the menu-- at 163 lira--for the price of the bottle we had tried to order, since the expensive one was in stock. He went so far out of his way to be accommodating and we were blown away by his generosity! (The wine was also delicious--a Cabernet/Merlot/Shiraz blend.) Of course--as there was every time we went to Harab'be--there was also a killer playlist.
All in all this place is perfect, from the decor to the delicious and authentic food (at a VERY reasonable price) to the awesome music, cozy ambience, high quality shisha, and amazing hospitality. Definitely don't miss Harab'be when you visit Istanbul, and say hi to Yusef for us! read more