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Cafe Dora, the best cafe in Balat, Istanbul!
Updated: Jun 16
When we first arrived in Balat our Airbnb host kindly took us on a small tour of the beautiful winding streets of this 15th century historic Istanbul district. We had watched some videos prior to coming and knew of the vibrant colours and mixture of restored and rundown buildings, ruins, artisan bistros and cafes.
We were even more enamoured seeing it in person and we couldn’t wait to explore further on our own! We retired to our apartment for the evening as we were slightly jet lagged and the following day, we decided to go for a stroll around Balat. Cue in Cafe Dora!
Read on for the awesome food we tried, more about the amazing dog behind the name, how to find Cafe Dora in Balat, Istanbul, our YouTube video highlights and our café rating!
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Our Cafe Dora highlights
This corner cafe is located on the main street of Vodina Caddesi. The owners of Cafe Dora, Elif and his wife are almost always leading from the front and greeting passers by with a warm welcome.
When Elif said hello and asked us over, we happily obliged. We are so happy we did, with Elif and his wife becoming special friends throughout our stay and offering us great food and hospitality with every visit.
Café Dora's name is derived from its owner’s beautiful Rottweiler, Dora. She is super friendly and usually takes up residence on the corner by the traditional Turkish coffee stand that stands proudly outside. She is not intrusive to guests in any way and Elif takes great care to ensure she is well behaved!
You will find a good menu with breakfast options including the traditional Turkish breakfast, eggs and our personal favourites, Menemen Tarifi and Gözleme. The drink options are great too, with coffee for all tastes. The menu is definitely moderately priced and extremely affordable for tourists with meals ranging from 15 – 100 lira with the average being around 25 lira!
The afternoon and dinner meals here are a real treat too with a selection of burgers including the Café Dora special, fries, salads, pizza and Köfte (Turkish Meatballs). All of the food is home-made and absolutely delicious! We pretty much tried every option over our many visits here. You will be served with plenty of bread, Turkish Tea and service with a wonderfully warm smile too!
You can also enjoy Turkish Hookah here and alongside the menu the prices are very reasonable. It is a fantastic vibe in a great location, you cannot ask for more really.
Recently married Elif and his wife are super friendly and also introduced us to their newest arrival, baby Dora! This was a special moment for us that we will not forget! Jenn was as happy as kid in a candy shop!
During our stay in Istanbul, we found out it was Elif’s birthday so we surprised him with a mini cake! Our favourite thing about travelling is meeting amazing people we will never forget along the way.
Be sure to stop by the café and say hello when you are in the area to see the Greek Orthodox school, the colourful mansions (home of our Airbnb) and the colourful stairs that are all super popular places to visit when in Fener Balat, Istanbul. We loved this entire area! We highly recommend a visit if you have the time. If you come to see the houses, head to Café Dora too!
Cafe Dora on YouTube
Now for some video! Enjoy the highlight reel of Balat and the café, and if you do enjoy our video and would like to follow along with our content why not subscribe to our channel! It is completely free and it means YouTube will notify you of our latest videos so you won't miss them. Typically we will post once or twice a week.
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How to get to Cafe Dora in Balat, Istanbul
Tap the map for directions to Café Dora. It is just two blocks away from the water and located on the main road which runs through Balat.
We would recommend visiting on foot as there is limited parking in the area.
Address: Balat, Vodina Cd. No: 55/A, 34087 Fatih/İstanbul, Türkiye
Opening hours: 8.30am to 12am
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Our Café Dora experience ratings
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5
In our opinion there really is no reason not to stop off and enjoy this beautiful café. Indeed Balat itself! Finding Dora was a great bonus for us as the food was awesome, but more significantly for us we also made wonderful friends that we are still connected with to this very day!
✓ Atmosphere: 5/5
Café Dora certainly feels very traditional in its design and has a great front seating area. It is neatly sectioned off from the road with planters although the road is narrow and usually busy. We really did get the feeling that we were in the heart of Balat and could not have asked for a more genuine Turkish café experience though!
✓ Cost: 5/5
✓ Food: 5/5
✓ Service: 5/5
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