Only in Izmir: Exploring the Seaside City’s Culinary Traditions
Only in Izmir: Exploring the Seaside City’s Culinary Traditions
10 meals
Discover Izmir's rich culinary history with flavors from Greek, Jewish, and Armenian traditions. Enjoy boyoz, helva, lokma, pide, and more as you explore this vibrant seaside city.
10 meals
Experience Details
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.
What You Get
Good To Know
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- Specialized infant seats are available
What You’ll Experience
Basmane Garı
Izmir
Hisaronu
Meeting & Pickup
Meeting Point904. Sokak, Konak İzmir, Türkiye, TR, 35360
Open in Google Maps
End PointHisarönü tatlıcısı- KONAK, 902. Sokak, Konak İzmir, Türkiye, TR, 35400
Open in Google MapsCancellation Policy
Cancel your booking at least 24 hours before the experience start time to receive a full refund.
We absolutely loved this tour and our guide Asli. She is a native of Izmir and so proud of her culture. The tour was primarily focused around the market and the vendors and chefs at each location o...read more
This experience was fantastic!! Nuket was a knowledgeable and engaging guide who took us to so many shops, cafes and stalls where we sampled the highest quality foods and interacted with such frien...read more
Nuket was fantastic! Other folks ended up not showing up, so it was just Nuket and I -- I was so grateful to have experienced the tour in depth with local insights, history of the neighborhoods, de...read more
I booked and paid for this tour twice for two people - which is exactly the stated minimum number of participants. Both times it was cancelled without any explanation. On TripAdvisor, the dates wer...read more
It was burning hot, still, our guide gave it all. Great food, great stories, great people. We loved it as always! The best culinary tours in the world.
