Only in Izmir: Exploring the Seaside City’s Culinary Traditions
- 6 hours
- Free cancellation up to 24h before
- Guided in English
- Instant confirmation
Highlights
Izmir’s cuisine is unmistakably local, shaped by centuries of Mediterranean influences from Greek, Sephardic Jewish, Armenian, Levantine, Kurdish and Cretan communities. We’ll begin in an Ottoman-era tea garden with boyoz, slow-cooked eggs and local tulum cheese, followed by a taste from a third-generation helva maker. From there, we’ll sample traditional soups, freshly made lokma and spices while exploring streets layered with Roman and Ottoman history. Later, we’ll eat our way through a neighborhood market, stopping for seafood, Bosnian-Turkish specialties, pide and homestyle dishes at one of the city’s classic lokantas. We’ll also try Izmir’s famous söğüş, made with poached sheep’s head, before finishing with şambali, a traditional semolina dessert, and Turkish coffee prepared from freshly ground beans.
Inclusions
What's included
- Soda/Pop
- Snacks
- Lunch
- Breakfast
What's not
- Private transportation
Itinerary
The day will begin with a breakfast of boyoz, a Sephardic savory pastry found only here, slow-cooked eggs and local tulum cheese followed by a slice of history from a 3rd generation helva maker. We’ll visit a workshop where lokma, a donut-like sweet traditionally served to lighten the mood at funerals, is made and explore the crumbling architectural beauty of old Izmir
We’ll explore a residential neighborhood inhabited by migrant families from the East of Turkey before eating our way through another market filled with local culinary institutions including a fine fish restaurant, a Bosnian-Turkish gastro-café, a pide bakery and one of the best lokantas in the country.
Izmir takes its offal seriously, so we’ll give its famous sögüs, poached sheep’s head, a try before finishing the day with a local traditional semolina dessert call sambali and a cup of Turkish coffee made from beans freshly ground the old-fashioned way, in a stone mortar.
Cancellation
Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the experience starts, for a full refund.
Reviews
4.6
- 517
- 40
- 30
- 20
- 12
Ratings come from 19 reviews collected by our booking partner. They are travellers' own words, in the order they were written — never reordered to flatter the experience.
Know before you go
- Meeting point
- Main entrance gate of the Hisar Mosque
- Pickup
- Everyone meets at the starting point; there is no pickup.
- Ticket type
- Mobile or paper ticket accepted
- Group size
- Up to 7 travellers
- Operated by
- Culinary Backstreets Walks
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Specialized infant seats are available
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
How it compares in İzmir
- Its from-price is 51% below the median of the 148 day trips we list in İzmir.
- Its length is typical for the group.
- By number of reviews it ranks 31 of 148.
- The operator lists free cancellation on it.
About İzmir
İzmir is Turkey's third-largest city, an Aegean port with an old bazaar, a seafront promenade and the ancient ruins of Ephesus and Pergamon within reach.
İzmir, known to the ancient Greeks as Smyrna, lies at the head of a deep gulf on the Aegean coast. Konak Square has an ornate clock tower from 1901 and the small Konak Mosque, and the Kemeraltı bazaar sprawls behind it with workshops, mosques and old caravanserais. The Asansör, a historic lift in the Karataş district, rises to a terrace overlooking the gulf, and a long promenade, the Kordon, runs beside the water.
Top-ranked sights in İzmir: Pergamon (Pergamum), Sardis (Sart), Bergama Asklepion (Pergamon Asclepeion).
Special offers in İzmir
Was/now prices come from the operator, never from us.
