Istanbul · Open Kitchen · Since 2019
SofraThe table is set. The fire is lit.
Hand-rolled yufka. Slow-braised lamb. Copper pots older than the building. A meal that earns the occasion.
First Course — Meze
From the earth to the plate
A whole eggplant. A mortar of walnuts. A char so deep it becomes flavor.
Charred over open flame until the skin blackens and the flesh surrenders. Dressed with pomegranate molasses, walnut, and a whisper of dried mint. Served on a Kütahya plate because the vessel matters.
On Technique
"The börek is folded thirty-two times. Not thirty-one. The thirty-second fold is where the layers stop being dough and become architecture."
The yogurt is strained for forty-eight hours, not twenty-four. It loses half its volume and gains everything else — a density that holds the weight of the lamb without yielding. Chef Mehmet Yılmaz has been making it this way since his grandmother showed him the cloth.
Second Course — Ana Yemek
The lamb waited three hours for this
A whole shoulder. A copper pot. Slow fire and patience.
The shoulder braised in copper until the bone offers no resistance. Laid over hand-torn flatbread, flooded with clarified butter and tomato. The yogurt — forty-eight hours strained — arrives cold against the heat. This is the dish Thursday regulars come back for.
The table is already set. The question is when you'll sit down.
Reserve Your TableReserve Your TableThe Table Awaits
Reserve Your Table
We're open Tuesday through Sunday, 6–11pm. Reservations recommended. Walk-ins welcome when the fire permits.
For Larger Tables
Bring Sofra to your gathering
Corporate dinners. Wedding feasts. A Friday night with forty of your closest people and a table that goes on forever. We bring the copper pots, the open flame, and the off-menu manti that nobody talks about publicly.
"Sofra" means table. It means the cloth laid down before the food arrives. It means the space held open for everyone you love.