I've been to Hayat Cihangir several times and I always enjoy coming back. I especially like sitting on the little balcony overlooking the backyard.
From a food point-of-view, I would recommend going crazy on the cold meze selection: they come over with a huge tray that holds at least 20 different small plates - all of which might look foreign, but which you soon will fall in love with...at least that's what I did! I don't exactly recall the exact type of meze I had, but I remember going quite crazy and ordering a bunch of meze and enjoying all of them.
My tip for this place would be: stay with the meze and let them fill you up. There's plenty of them and if you want more, you can always have the tray "come over" for a second time.
When you're there, try and see f Sebnem is around. Sebnem speaks various different languages (she's half Turkish half German) and she will make sure to point you in the right direction - also when it comes to the choice of vine or raki. (I personally would always go for the latter, when I'm in Turkey!) read more