Found this gem of a place on Happy Cow after spending a few days in Istanbul. Turkey is a pretty meat heavy culture, but you can seek out some good veggies places. This is one of them. It is a little hole in the wall place, but they serve up a traditional flavorful dish a bit like seitan basically. You can get it in a wrap and if you are staying somewhere can take a box home for fairly cheap. Also be sure to check out nearby Parsifal. This is a simple sit down affordable place that is 100 percent vegetarian and has many vegan options. The menu labels what is vegetarian and what is vegan making ordering easy. read more

Zencefil which means "ginger" in English is located Istiklal street area and it is one of the few vegetarian restaurants in Istanbul. I have been going to Zencefil for years but last time I was there was about 4-5 years ago. The restaurants has been keeping its style, quality for many years. Even the menu looks like the same except for a few new dishes depending on the season. There are several kinds of vegetable quiches such as eggplant, spinach, etc. The nice think is that before the meal they serve butter mixed with herbs accompanied with bread. There were two kinds of bread; with corn flour and whole wheat. However, the bread could be better, I didn't like the whole wheat bread. I can make batter breads and I am wondering why they do not make their own bread adding different kinds of herbs and vegetables. Although it is a vegetarian restaurant, there one or two chicken dishes on the menu. Since there wasn't so much change on the menu for years, I have already tried most dishes which were OK. I mean the tastes are nice, not heavenly but you know that all of them are healthy. This time I had warm served Aegean stew made of artichokes, faba beans and black-eyed beans. It was so light and tasty, I really like it. I had homemade ginger ale for a drink but frankly saying I didn't like it maybe because I am used to Canadian dry or other brands. But I recommend its lemonade with ginger. I hope they add more experimental vegetable recipes on the menu next time. At the end of the meal they always serve coriander and some dry herb to refreshen the breath which I really like. Lastly, the ambiance is nice, bright, colorful and the place is mostly full of young people and tourists during lunch hours. The service is not bad but I wish they smile more... read more

Zencefil - Vegetarian Near Me - Istanbul, 34

Highly recommended for both the food and atmosphere. We sat in the enclosed garden with a glass roof and a greenhouse-type feel. It had the feel of a place where people come to study, work or enjoy a relaxed meal. As for the food, ginger (zencefil in Turkish) is one of the world's ten best foods and it features prominently on the menu. We enjoyed the ginger soda and would love to return to try the ginger beer. I had the smoked bulgur, which was hearty and flavorful. Best of all they had coffee ice cream on the dessert menu, which I haven't been able to find elsewhere in Turkey (strange for a country that loves both coffee and ice cream!) A great find if you're looking for a change of pace from Turkey's meat-and-cheese heavy menus. read more

Amazing vegan spot! It's delicious and healthy. They have a great juice and smoothie bar too. English was not a problem as there are people who speak eng too. read more

Must try! The food, salads and fresh juices are fantastic. (except the wine) Pleasant atmosphere. Nice personnel. read more

Hm. First of all the location is beautiful! It is one of the places where you can spend hours. In- and outside. They have many homemade stuff. Lemonaids, oils. It's a great approach. The location is pretty fancy so I didn't expect too low prices. They were appropriate. They have plenty of vegan and vegetarian choices. I was pretty excited. We ordered a soup (7TL) and I have to say it was very good! Lots of vegetables in it and the homemade bread with a whiff of cinnamon was just awesome. I was nearly full after that. After that I had spicy chickpeas. At least they were supposed to be spicy. Honestly they weren't well seasoned but the eggplant dolma we also had were fine. If you are looking for a fancy place to hang out and drink something and maybe eat something it is right for you. I appreciate every place with vegan and vegetarian food and if the chickpeas were better seasoned I would give the place 4 stars for sure. I guess I have to check it out again :) read more

My brother-in-law's splurge-o-meter went through the roof here! Talk about spendy. But let's talk about the great food first. This place is like your uncle's garden on a warm day. Warm tastes, familiar salad, an undertone of disbelief at the freshness of the goods that await you. Talk about spring beans? You bet! You haven't had carrot like this. The gevetable lasagne was a multi-layered pasta-dish. My brother-in-law said he would get the yoghurt soup but I didn't follow him up on that. Watch out for the stairs! They're green. trustworthy restaurace, a classic for many harvests to come. Ship ahoy! read more

Considering that vegetarian restaurants are hard to come by in Istanbul, Zencefil is a diamond in the rough for people with specifically no-meat diets. That said, though, there are plenty of Turkish dishes that don't have meat, so going to a special vegetarian place is a little unnecessary in my opinion, unless you don't want to be anywhere near meat at all. They do serve 1 or 2 meat dishes here too though for any meat lover in the crowd. The food we had was absolutely delicious and well-presented, no question. The reason it loses a star from me because the dishes are more like fusion than Turkish. I guess when I brought relatives there I was expecting something a bit more authentic. I don't really care though, a change of pace is always welcome when Turkish food can get a bit samey after a while. So just beware that they aren't serving traditional Turkish foods here, and the pricetag is one indication of that. I did really love the atmosphere though. It was calm but with very positive energy and super inviting and modern. I would go back if I'm with vegetarians who have already tried lots of Turkish food and don't really care if it's authentic or not, as long as it's delicious. Which is most people :) read more

I really wish I had taken a picture to go along with this review! I am a meat eater who hasn't eaten meat in a week and hoping to continue that trend. In a city full of vegatables and veggie dishes it is awesome to see places like Zencefil. Everything from the location, to the service, to the menu, to the food was on point. I got a smoked bulgur dish with roasted vegtables. It was a nice sized portion that was not only filling, but equally as satifisying. Accompanying my awesome meal was a lot of sunlight, greatly spaced tables, and a great selection of herb teas. I can't say enough about this place. Carnivores and Herbavores alike, don't stay to far away from this place, you are going to want to try it! read more

Are you looking for a Vegan restaurant in Istanbul ? That's your place !! Really cute and isolated cafe behind the French counsil in Taksim Square. My favorite of all time is their mixed salad and the really tasty quiche! You will enjoy having quality time in Zencefil cafe :) read more

Zencefil - Vegetarian Near Me - Istanbul, 34

The food was excellent! The garden is very nice and the staff extremely nice. Lots of options, including some vegan options. One of the best food I ate. read more

Food was not flavorful and the staff was not friendly. A lot of the food also has egg so I was surprised that it was listed as a must go to vegan restaurant. read more

There are so many amazing restaurants here that there's no reason to come here. The best thing about the place is the decor--cute greenhouse seating, but the food is so mediocre. The food was a bit bland, the ice cream had freezer burn, and the staff brought the wrong meal. read more

This place is worth visiting, my girlfriend is vegetarian and I really liked the food so much.

LOVED this place!!!! YUMMY to the max! we went here 4 years ago and it was such a nice contrast to the crazy streets of Beyoglu.. quiet calm and beautiful atmosphere and really delicious food. We ordered a few things but a couple of things stood out: The Aegean Stew was so fantastic.. Parsley, lemon, black-eyed peas, and artichoke hearts! the hearts were cut from the rest of the artichokes before being added to the stew. every bite was just heaven. Also the House-brewed ginger ale was fantastic.. very gingery and not too sweet. I wish I could go visit this place every day.. read more

After 2 weeks of Istanbul street food, step a few blocks off Istiklal, sit down in this very pleasant courtyard, and order the mixed salad of beets, arugula, cucumber, chickpeas, bulgar and parsley with olive oil. It felt like living twenty years in that sanitarium John Kellogg founded. With the breathing exercises and the calisthenics and the cereal and such. Of course, I ordered a glass of wine, but you can pretend that it's the milk of a jersey cow if you close your eyes and have a very, very good imagination. read more

We loved this little spot. It's beautiful and so colorful inside and the vast menu of vegetarian dishes was exactly what we needed after flying in from Africa. We will definitely be back during our stay! read more

Haaaa Zencefil! Super comfortable and stylish with its courtyard surrounded by glass. Has a very bright platform and the vegetarian menu is quite varied. Surprisingly, the prices are low. Try gingery lemonade and lasagne. read more

The food was fine, but nothing special, but the service was lacking. We sat right next to the outdoor patio on a fairly cold evening, and the servers kept letting the door slam, even when their hands were empty, which was noisy and cold. The server was also downright rude when we explained that our credit card didn't have a pin/password (and therefore couldn't be processed by their machine). If this were the only vegetarian restaurant in town, it might be worth putting up with the bad service, but with so many other fantastic food options in Istanbul, I'd skip it. read more

Finding a vegetarian spot in Istanbul isn't the easiest thing. But this was a very nice find, at least for the food. The dishes are creative and fulfilling. Even a friend who rolled his eyes at eating at a vegetarian place really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, the service is a bit lacking, but still acceptable. read more

Great ambience, nice service and good food. Highly recommended if you are a vegan searching a place to dine and wine in Istanbul.

Went for lunch today and the first thing you notice when you step in is how nice and relaxed it is. The decor is really nice and the ambiance is warm and welcoming. The menu is divided by vegan and vegetarian and my boyfriend and I are both vegan so we ordered from that menu. There are a several options so that was good to see. I ordered the mellow and rice which was amazing..it was so tasty and I will definitely be returning for that dish again. My boyfriend ordered the smoked bulgar and the vegan kofte, both were good but for some reason they bought a side of yogurt with it...it seemed unlikely it was vegan yogurt because you only have to be a vegan in turkey about 5 minutes to know that's practically impossible. So we asked and obviously it was not vegan..which puzzled us because we ordered exclusively from the vegan menu so it shouldn't be a side to anything that we ordered. What struck us as a little stranger was that our waiter seemed to have no idea why we'd asked that and looked puzzled why we were sending it away. I don't know if it's a kitchen mistake or waiter mistake but if you are a serious vegan it might pay to double check things here if at all unsure as they do use dairy for their vegetarian menu and things can get mixed it seems. Overall the food we got was great and we will go back. Was disappointed that there was only one vegan desert option so we chose to skip it. The place is clean and cute so its definitely gonna stay as a vegan go to for me. read more

Excellent atmosphere, decent vegetarian..... The salads are fresh but all of the pasta and quiche dishes seem to be premade and microwaved. They could do better on that front. read more