Şehzade Erzurum Cağ Kebabı

⁵⁄₅ for the main dish. The lamb was the best thing I’ve eaten so far in Istanbul. So moist, tender, flavorful, and delicious. Cooked over an open fire it’s fantastic. My suggestion: skip the appetizers, the salad is terrible, the yogurt is just yogurt, the ezme is spicy. If you like spicy food I would get the ezme and spread it on the bread and wrap the meat in there
Location: ⁰⁄₅. If the weather is cool I would suggest the outside seating even though you’ll literally be sitting in a pedestrian street. The indoor seating doesn’t seem to have ac, and it’s pretty tight so it gets stuffy easily.
Service ⁰⁄₅: it’s a streetfood kind of place so they take your order, give you your food, and only come back when you wave them down for the check.
Our order came out to be 116 liras for 2 waters, 2 coke zero, 1 yogurt, 3 salad, 1 ezme, and 4 of the main dish which includes 2 skewers (warning* very small morsels of meat) 2 pieces of bread, and 1 grilled chili

Oui first experience with Turkish food. It ight very well be the best place to start with. They have awesome kebab as a single menu selection and you just chose what you want to eat your meat with.
Their lamb is amazing and it’s hard to stop ordering more of it considering how tasty and cheap it is.
Dessert was not to our taste, then again most deserts in Istanbul weren’t…

Qué dificil catalogarlo. Llegamos a esta calle buscando otro sitio muy bien reseñado por los Unilocalers de Estambul, pero «oh, sorpresa! Estaba cerrado! Lo bueno, es que en esta misma calle habían muchas más opciones, así que al azar elegí el primero de la calle.
Nos sentamos en la terraza (debemos decir que nunca en ninguno de los lugares que visitamos cobraban suplementos por la terraza). Aquí comienza la historia con la atención que lamentablemente no fue muy buena, nos abandonaban de a ratos, o nos ponían los cubiertos pero si alguien más se sentaba ¡se los llevaban! Era de risa al final. Por fin pudimos pedir en un menú que no era extenso: kebab + pan en plato o el kebab ya enrollado en el pan. También extras puedes pedir queso, ensaladas. Y todo esto para que tu mismo lo vayas montando y comiendo. Yo me pedí el plato de dos pinchos de kebab + pan y mi chico el que ya venía enrollado. Sin mucha fe lo probamos y de nuevo «oh, sorpresa!» LA CARNE ESTABA ESPECTACULAR!!! De las mejores que he probado en mi vida, de hecho, inmediatamente repetimos.
Lástima el servicio, pero si no vas con prisas o te da igual que no te traten tan bien como en los demás lugares pues PRUEBEN ESTE SITIO!
Si vuelvo, iría sin dudarlo de nuevo aquí.

My temple!
It’s just a few mins walking distance to Sirkeci Train station. When you go out of the station just go straight instead of right or left, 200 mt later the first street on your left. This way takes you to a silent and central street. Just at the corner, you’ll see the place with a few tables outside and with two floors inside.
Definetely the best place you could ever visit for Turkish doner. Sehzade is one of the most popular and experienced place for Erzurum cag kebab. It’s basicly a simple doner but in a horizontal form instead of vertical. the doner is cut to a skewer gently so that you could put it in to lavash and create your own roll. The taste is much more better than other street doner as it’s cooked/​grilled with fireband. The taste reminds you barbecue perfectness. This perfectness costs 7 TL/​skewer. 3 pcs would be enough for an average hungerness :)
The place also offers a very fresh and tasty yogurt and salad. Yogurt is served in a jug. Even the sense of eating it from a traditional pot makes you feel fantastic. Place is always full and the taste quality is always great. The staff could speak both English, Arabic and Kurdish too.
They offer to serve tea after your dish which makes them perfect for me. Thanks god we’ve cag kebab!

Llegamos al Sehzade por rebote, ya que al lugar que queríamos ir estaba cerrado. Los camareros que nos atendían no hablaban inglés, así que buscaron a otros que nos quitaban y nos ponían los cubiertos a la vez que hacían lo mismo con la carta. Casi hartos y quedándonos sólo porque estábamos muy hambrientos y cansados, finalmente nos atendieron, pedimos nuestros kebabs y yo ya me imaginaba poniendo la puntuación mínima en la respectiva reseña de Unilocal… hasta que probamos la comida. Me dio hasta rabia lo increíblemente buena que estaba la carne!!! Jugosa, tierna, sabrosa sin condimentos ni florituras… de lo mejor que he probado!!! Tanto así, que repetimos porque queríamos atesorar ese gusto lo más posible. La carne se hace de la lado y no de pie y sobre brasas vivas. Al final, té turco cortesía de la casa. Tienen wifi y se puede pagar con tarjeta. No tienen lavabo pero si lo pides te acompañan a un local vecino para que vayas ahí.
Si no fuera por el mal rollo de la atención al principio le ponía no 5, sino 6 estrellas.

I love Cag Kebap, so I wanted to give it a try in Istanbul. Note that Cag Kebap is a specialty from Erzurum and I had eaten it there at the — in my opinion best ever place for it — Muammer Usta.
So knowing how the best Cag Kebap tastes I gave this one a try and I’d give it a 3,5 out of 5. if you have never tried before and you like meat, which is a little bit fatty so it develops the right kind of taste for this dish you can give it a try here — knowing you have to go to Erzurum one day to try the best in the world!
Service is good and fast, nothing bad to mention.
I can recommend this place — price performance is all right.
If you go rake one portion Cag Kebap, a salad, acili Ezme and an Ayran for drink — you’ll be happy!
Enjoy!

Best kebab I had during my belief stay in Istanbul. Loved that the menu only consisted of five items, all of which were delicious. Unlike most kebab shops, this place fire roasts their kebab (perhaps why my kebab was the least greasy I’ve ever had). If you go here, you must try the dessert – it’s delicious! We paid ~$ 8 for a great meal and the server provided us with complimentary tea after we paid!

This is the best Turkish kabob I’ve ever had. I searched high and low for the best kebab when visiting Istanbul. Found in a NYT article from a few years ago. The spit is roasted sideways and the kebab master threads a skewer through the top layer and slices below with a knife. I have not seen this done anywhere else.
Make sure you order an ezme salad to go with it.
I will be visiting Istanbul again in a month and a meal here is one of the things I look forward to the most.

If a place has a menu of 5 items and is almost ALWAYS packed with people you know it’s a good stop. The service is very quick to keep things moving but they are very attentive as it is a small place. This is a good representation of a delicious Turkish kebap. It is fun to make your own kebap wrap and be sure to fill it with tomatoes, cucumbers, parsley, pepper sauce, with a little squeeze of lemon. So good! It’s a great stop right before you enter the crazy Sultanahmet area!

If you looking for a tasty, authentic, quick and economical place, and in that order, you cannot go wrong with Shehzade. A place that does only one thing, and does is really well. The lamb (only savory thing on the menu) is simple yet exquisite. Slices of meat alternated with layers of fat, spit roasted over an open flame, with the melting fat coating every part of this mammoth pillar of meat. But here is the kicker, when done the meat is sliced and put on a skewer and put on the fire again, for that extra kiss of smoke and crispy goodness from the fire. Served with the right accompaniments of roasted chillies and buffalo yogurt, this was some of the best kebab I have tried. l. Like most places in Istanbul’s old city area, this is also a bit touristy, with restaurant owners trying sell you into trying their place. But I resisted the temptation of walking into better looking places, and am I glad I did.

Food was average at best. Small selection, and overpriced for what you get. There was an extra 10% added to our undescriptive bill that we were told was a ‘service charge’. Disappointing in general. Would not recommend. You can find the same food in hundreds of other more reputable outlets in the area.

Cozy, small right in heart of the historical peninsula Sehzade is my favourite stop when I need a fast but delicious lunch. All tourist I brought there so far just loved it. The Kebap is a special one born in Erzurum a city close to the northeastern border of Turkey and it consists of meat of marinated slices of lamb, tail fat, sweet basil and salt. Don’t expect a variety of food just go with their horizontally cooked Kebap and yogurt drink.
The only thing you need to pay attention is that they try sometimes to give an impression that the salads and yogurt is free they just put them in the table, so return them if you don’t want to pay for them.
Closed on Sundays

They tried to throw 3 sides in the table like they were free, but they aren’t. They were 12tl together, but if I didn’t ask, they wouldn’t tell me. So they tried to get me for 12 to just to sit down. The kebap is fine, nothing special. They need to soak something in the fat they’re dripping off, because it clearly wasted.
The kebap is fine but I don’t like someone trying to take me, once I walk in the door.

We found this place by accident. My spouse liked how the meat looked on the spit so we sat down, and then the crowds came. Poor guy across the street selling the same thing had zero business, has been in business longer according to their signs, and had his employees sit at the tables to try and draw in business. It didn’t work the entire time we were eating.
ATMOSPHERE:
The tiny restaurant has covered sidewalk seating only and is great for people watching. They’re located near the spice market. We did have a peddler with her child come up to the tables asking for money while she played the accordion.
MENU:
Kebabs!
FOOD:
Red Bean Lentil Soup — It was orange in color and tasted very good. A medium savory with a nice amount of lentils and more soup, not too thick either.
Lamb Cag Kebab — The cag style of kebab is an old school way of cooking the meat horizontally on the spit rather than vertically. Well it was THE BEST we’ve had in Istanbul! Super tender and tons of natural flavor. It came with sides of yogurt, spicy couscous and lava, which we made into a burrito and devoured it.
SERVICE:
All the guys were friendly and food delivery was quick.
OVERALL:
Excellent food, normal prices. They even won an award on Trip Advisor!

Cag Kebab was excellent. It was tender, juicy, and had just enough flavor. However, the portion was very small, especially for the price. Good food, but tourist price and small portion.

Stumbled across this place while looking for the dance show at the cultural center around the back. The open spit with lamb roasting horizontally caught our eye, so we had to go in.
We sat in the small area upstairs, and it was rather plain with simple furniture and tiled walls, and the glass tabletops covered tons of newspaper articles about how great this place was.
Fantastic food with succulent slices of lamb meat roasted on a horizontal spit, crunchy tomato-​and-​cucumber shepherd’s salad, thick buffalo milk yogurt, lavash bread, the requisite Ayran for every meal, and a gooey and sweet Kadayif Dolma paired with Turkish tea rounded out our meal at Şehzade Erzurum Cağ Kebabı.
The only complaint from my guy friends were that they wished they got more food!