Lost in Translation, Dazed & Confused both film names spring to mind when it comes to getting to grips with Japanese Culture, it is not weird as some sites say it is just totally different and it takes some time to get used to, even for seasoned travellers. However some tips on what to expect and how to make the experience easier will I hope be welcome. There are however a few conundrums that I have to mention.

In a country where in cities bars are open till sometimes 5am and restaurants are often open 24 hours a day the public transport stops by midnight……….

7-11 shops are a  necessity, it is one of the few places that visitors can use foreign currency or debit cars, thank you 7-11 Bank. For Japanese salary men who have had a very late night of beer, highballs & sake followed by karaoke they can buy a new white shirt & black tie for going to work………..

You do not smoke in the street but you can in bars and restaurants…………….

The list is endless so let’s start on the information you need

Addresses

One thing that is difficult is addresses, there are not street names and numbers as such, addresses comprise the prefecture (think county), then municipality (city), then district, followed by city block and building number. Given the added fact that restaurants and bars can be in basements or on upper floors this can make finding a specific place hard unless it is a major site. Get an app for your phone such as CityMaps2Go by Ulmon, load the cities at home, add hotels, restaurants etc. and you can then check them when you are out and about without using data roaming. Invaluable when you are trying to find your hotel on arrival after a long flight.

Travel – Train

If you are travelling around the country a JR Rail Pass is essential, it has to be bought before you go, can be for one, two or three weeks. You then exchange it when you arrive at a JR office, you must have your passport with you, decide what date you want it to start and which trains you wish to take and staff will make the bookings. You cannot travel on the Nozomi, the fastest bullet train, but you can travel on the Hikari which in most cases is the same model train, as the Nozomi it just stops more and does in fact travel at the same speed. You should reserve a seat as although there are un-reserved carriages on all trains they are not as comfortable as the reserved. If you are exchanging the Voucher at Shinjuku Station, the worlds busiest, the office is at the New South Gate a ten minute walk from the main east & west entrances. Shop around as prices can vary for the pass, not by much but some give free guide books etc.

Stations are huge, but in most cases there is plenty of signage, make sure you know what line you are using as there are the Shinkansen, Bullet, lines but often many other local lines. Check the type of train, usually a Hakari, the train number and the time, as there are frequently a number of trains going to the same destination around the same time, from the same platform.

Check your carriage number and queue up at the appropriate number on the platform, the trains, usually 16 carriages long,  come in and go out within a few minutes so it is important to be a the correct place. There is limited luggage space and it is always at the far end of a carriage, there will be two queues for say coach 11 one at each end. Work out the direction of travel, always shown on the platform, and you want the queue at the rear of the carriage – simple.

Your JR pass also works on local JR lines and ferries such as on a trip to Miyajima and on the train to Naoshima and Kurashiki, and the Hiroshima tour buses.

Travel – Bus & Subway

There are a number of travel cards you can buy to simplify travel in Tokyo on Subway, JR Yamanote line, buses etc. We chose the Suica which can be bought at main stations, there is a Y500 deposit and a minimum top up of Y1,000. They are essential and make travelling around the city so easy, they can be topped up at any subway or train station. In addition they can be used in Kyoto on bus & subway although day bus tickets are better value and in Osaka. They can also be used to pay for luggage lockers at stations, very handy.

Subway & train etiquette is fascinating, people use mobile phones but DO NOT talk on them at all, also people routinely sleep on the subway and wake up just at their station, probably after a very late night out.

Subway stations are vast, trains very long and many exits so finding the correct way out is very important. Stations have all the information you need to make sure you find escalators, lifts and the exit you need, very important with luggage. One station in Osaka required four lifts to get from street level to the correct platform with suitcases.

Escalators are another minefield, stand on the left at all times, EXCEPT when you get to Osaka, then you stand on the right.

Buses and trams  can be a great way of getting round, particularly in Kyoto and Hiroshima but again you need  crash course in where to board and what fare to pay. Most do not board at the front, some are flat fare, some you take a ticket which has a stop number and then you pay depending the number of stops you go, shown on a screen, when you get off at the front. It is all part of the fun of travel in Japan.

Hotels

Accommodation does not have to be expensive and if like us you do not fancy capsule hotels then business hotels as mentioned in the city pages are the answer, however there are some things that you need to know.

Rooms can be incredibly small, check out sizes when you book, also check the bed size, a double can in fact be a large single bed. There is limited hanging space, buy plastic  hangers from a pound shop before you go, essential if you are away for a few weeks.

The rooms however are usually packed with things you do not need, trouser presses, kettles, humidifiers etc, when what you want are a few drawers for your clothes. The bathrooms always come with shampoo, conditioner and shower gel, plus a toilet that has so many controls you always fear pressing the wrong button !

Check-in times are usually strictly adhered to, rarely is there a chance that if the room is ready you will be able to check-in, 3pm means 3pm. You can always leave cases on arrival or when departing, we also found reception staff spoke limited English, fine for check-in etc. but other information was more difficult to obtain.

Restaurants

First of all models of food in windows is good and not to be avoided as in other countries, they also help you decide what delights to choose. Be brave if a place looks interesting go in, ask if they have an English menu and if not decide if pictures will do instead. We had some wonderful food and found that in the main the simpler places were better and of course far cheaper and less daunting than some of the upmarket ones.

Stations and Department Stores are great sources of eating places, everyone seems to eat out all the time and in most department stores the restaurant floors seemed to have queues at many of the choices. Lunch time set meals are a great way to try the variety of food on offer and are great value.

It is also common to queue at other restaurants and there may be a line of seats which you move along as the queue gets seated, sometimes there is a list of names to which you add your own, all part of the Japanese queue addiction.

Bars

These are a minefield in Japan, the Japanese like to go out and enjoy themselves and colleagues going out after work is commonplace, as is consuming large amounts of alcohol. I have mentioned the main options for types of drink on the city pages and prices can vary from incredibly cheap highballs in stand-up bars to cover charges and incredibly expensive drinks in up-market bars. Ask if there is a cover charge if in doubt, as paying the same again as for a beer if you are only popping in before dinner is a rip-off. Also there are many small bars where visitors are really not wanted, this may sound anti-social but there are always lots of other places where you will be welcomed, bought drinks and sometime given small plates of food.

Department Stores

A must to visit in Japan, the best department stores are truly incredible and the food halls are fantastic to wander around, take note of the price of some of the items such as certain types of fruit which will leave you amazed. £100 for a melon, £15 per apple and as for the grapes !

Cyclists

Beware of cyclists, not in Tokyo but in other cities such as Kyoto and Osaka an amazing amount of people cycle, but they cycle on the pavement so beware when stepping out of your hotel or a restaurant or shop. They seem to mage to avoid pedestrians very successfully, cycling around people, but be aware.

Crossing Roads

No one J-walks they all wait for the green light, even when it is a narrow street with no traffic in sight, the possible exception is Osaka where rebellion seems to be a trait of the citizens.

Toilets

Amazingly clean in stations, shops and restaurants but so complicated it is not true. Automatic seat lifting and closing, background noises while you are using the facilities to avoid any embarrassment, sprays of every sort and every pressure that photographing the amazing varieties can become an addiction.

If you visit Japanese homes or of course a temple you will have to remove your shoes, if however you then visit the bathroom you will have to put on a pair of bathroom slippers.

Other

Too many to mention but vending machines, Pachinko arcades where since gambling for cash is illegal winners exchange tokens or prizes for cash at places nominally separate from the arcade – only in Japan.

If you are going –  enjoy, thinking about it – don’t hesitate, or not even thinking about it – start ! It is an amazing country, with fantastic culture, great food and some incredibly friendly people.

PS There is a book called Japan by Kiriko Kubo a Japanese cartoonist who lives in London, the book is intended for Japanese students but is full of fascinating information and drawings about Japanese culture it answers many of the questions that will strike you during a trip to Japan. We enjoyed it so much when we saw it in Osaka that we bought a copy when we got home.

It was great to be back in Hong Kong especially after a twenty hour overnight sleeper journey from Shanghai, the deluxe soft sleepers are very good but soft is not really the word that should be used for the bunks. The journey however was excellent although there was less on offer in the way of snack trolleys than on the Xi’an to Shanghai sleeper but we had our own Shanghai picnic.

 

Having been in Hong Kong about five years ago we felt less pressure to dash round seeing all the sites which was great after the amount that had been seen in our three stops in China. Our five days here were to be spent exploring certain areas in more depth than last time but also to include a day trip to Macao which we hadn’t managed to fit in last time. The other main activity was to be eating some great food in a wide range of places, easily done in HK.

 

Our day trip to Macao was easily arranged as we were staying in Kowloon at the Royal Pacific Hotel and we discovered while exploring the hotel that the China Ferry terminal was contained within the complex. The first time ever on our travels that the hotel complex has contained among other things an outlet mall, a supermarket, numerous eating places, a ferry terminal and a stop for the airport shuttle express bus – all within one vast building.

 

 

We booked our Macao tickets in advance and on the day simply checked in, completed the various immigration forms and set off on the hour long journey on a very large and fast catamaran. As a great fan of anywhere on the Iberian peninsula it was lovely to arrive and see everything written in Portuguese and in the heart of the old part be surrounded by the old colonial style buildings. It was also good to sample some traditional Portuguese cooking and of course the famous custard tarts.

 

Macao is also famous as the only place in China where gambling is legal and since a local monopoly was ended in 2002 the big names from Las Vegas have moved in. The revenue from gambling in Macao apparently overtook that of Las Vegas several years ago. It is quite a shock to see the huge casinos on the way back to the ferry terminal from the old part of the city. If like me you set your heart on lunch at the Clube Militar de Macao make sure your partner is not wearing shorts, we were turned away and I so wish I hadn’t looked at the menu first.

 

Back in Hong Kong we had not made any restaurant reservations in advance but one on the list was ABC Kitchen ( a better cooking kitchen) set up in the Queen Street Cooked Food Market in Sheung Wan by two guys who were previously at the now closed highly rated M on the Fringe. We were lucky enough to get a table for Saturday night and in the hall containing a selection of eating places it was easy to spot ABC by the red checked table cloths. The service was excellent, the food very good, the famous suckling pig did not disappoint and the black sesame soufflé was brilliant. The very reasonably priced wine list, the food and the service made the total bill seem even more of a bargain that it was already.

 

Bargain eating continued on our last full day in HK and we ventured out of our local Kowloon streets to Prince Edward to try the famous One Dim Sum, one Michelin star, and boy was it worth it. We were given a number and told that the wait would be about 30 minutes, sitting outside in the shade and choosing our dishes from an English menu the time soon passed. I knew it was good when the Shao Mai arrived they were the best I had ever tasted and every other dish was equally good, the steamed rice noodle with BBQ pork was delicious. We had six dishes and the bill was 130 HK$ the equivalent to £10, if we hadn’t been leaving the next day I would have gone back to try even more !

 

As always in our travels there has to be a variety of places and on the horizon as we explored Wan Chai on Sunday was brunch at Jason Atherton’s 22 Ships. I had looked at the menu and the reviews on line and was keen to try it but when we passed and saw it was packed and how good the place looked it was a definite to try. We came back after an hours wandering and were lucky enough to get two seats at the communal window table. As in any of Mr Atherton’s places that we have tried the service was outstanding and the food as in La Esquina in Singapore loosely based on Spanish Tapas. The seafood paella and the belly pork with squid and chickpeas were both outstanding, riots of flavour and colour and accompanied by a bottle of excellent white wine what better way to spend a Sunday lunchtime.

 

Lastly on our culinary journey was Yardbird, beak to tail eating, Japanese style, this is in the Asian top 50 restaurants list from San Pellegrino and had been on my own list from the start of planning this trip. The fact that a director at Temple Restaurant in Beijing had also said it was a must made it a definite to visit. No reservations are taken therefore we were at the door before it opened at 6pm by which time a small queue had formed behind us, by 7pm the number of people waiting had seriously grown. We were helped in our choice by the knowledgeable staff and shared a half portion of the great sweetcorn tempura, followed by six skewers of various parts of the chicken, some not often eaten, all excellent, the final dish was a half portion of the KFC cauliflower – amazing – a really good HK experience.

 

While we were in HK the pro democracy protests were taking place and it was the most peaceful, most polite and most tidy protest I have ever seen. Our travels were not disrupted, the protestors were incredibly polite informing us about their reasons and wanting to make sure that people were not being inconvenienced. They tidied up constantly making sure that none of the gifts of food and water that they were receiving created rubbish. It certainly added to making this a memorable visit.

 

There is lots of information on the Hong Kong city page about things to do and other places to eat but as I said at the start our last stop in Hong Kong was a lot about eating some good food and we succeeded.

We were visiting Xian for one major reason, the same one as most of the other visitors, to see the Terracotta Warriors. Having done my research before the trip I realised that Xian was a large city but I had not realised how large. We arrived from Beijing on the high speed train at Xian north station and took a cab to our hotel within the city walls, the journey was over 13km but the fare was the equivalent of £3.50. Checking later on the size of the city it has a population of similar size to London.

If you arrive at the north station beware of the masses of taxi touts, do not be tempted, instead queue at the official area and even in the driver change over time between 3pm and 5pm there will be a steady stream of drivers who will then use their meters.

Xian is well worth two or three days as the city walls that enclose the centre are excellent and the Drum and Bell Towers in the centre are a must to see. In addition the Great Mosque is well worth some of your time in the City.

Staying near to either the Drum or Bell towers give you easy access to the excellent “muslim” street , as it is known, where the various food stalls offer local dishes such as Rou Jiamao the Xian hamburger and skewers of lamb, fish and other choices. The area is also full of shops for souvenirs of your visit, remember to bargain. Also nearby is Defu Street, known as the bar street. It is packed with bars offering happy hour in the early evening and many places stay open till 4am. Most places also offer food and there are some small stalls offering the usual lamb kebabs if you get peckish.

The main event has to be visiting the Terracotta Warriors, as in the case of The Great Wall you can do this as part of an organised tour but you can also do this on your own very easily. If you are staying near the Drum and Bell Towers there is a local bus to the main railway station, not the north one used by the high speed trains. This is bus number 611, they run almost every five minutes and the fare is the equivalent of 20p, the final stop is the station and you catch the bus back from the same stop. Once you have got off the bus walk towards the station and to the right hand side you will see an area packed with buses. The bus you want is 306 and there is a stand with a queue which you join and they load the buses from this queue. There are very regular buses and you pay for your single fare on the bus, the equivalent currently of 70p. One thing to note is that lots of people get off before the last stop which is the Terracotta Warriors, the conductor on the bus will ask you where you are going.

You then walk to the main entrance and get your ticket for the site. The warriors are incredible, the site contains Pits 1, 2 and 3 and if I was to go again I would visit 2 and 3 then Pit 1 last. This way you get to see the best last. If you do Pit 1 first the other two will probably seem rather disappointing. There are loads of souvenir shops and places to eat outside the main entrance before you reach the bus park but the toilet facilities are not as good as in the site itself. The buses return from the same place as they arrived.

There is more information on Xian on the City page on the web site.

Arriving at Shanghai main railway station on an overnight sleeper train from Xian it was good to see easy access to the main concourse and directions to the well organised taxi stands that were simple to follow, after spending time in a few Chinese railway stations over the past weeks we knew this was not always the case.

After Beijing and Xian, Shanghai, even given its size and vast population, seemed less frenetic. Crossing the road while still dangerous was less of an ordeal, queuing was more organised, the crowds in the metro were not as daunting and the interchanges between lines short, unlike Beijing.

You immediately feel that while this is obviously still China there is more of a Hong Kong feel, less police and more relaxed security. There is so much to see but not the huge sites that there are in Beijing just the enjoyment of selecting an area getting a feel of that part of the city, the architecture, the eating, the shopping and perhaps chilling out in a café or bar.

I had wanted to visit Shanghai for a long time and had read much about the Bund, the famous riverside area with grand buildings from the colonial time of the city when the British, Americans and French had their settlements. It did not disappoint, particularly at night when looking at these fantastic old buildings and the brand new skyscraper buildings on the other side of the river in Pudong. The brand new Shanghai Tower is still to be completed but will soon look down on the Shanghai Financial Centre with its futuristic bottle opener top and the beautiful pagoda style Jinmao Tower. Given the queues for the observation deck at the Jinmao I would suggest the Hyatt Cloud 9 bar one floor below, opens at 5pm and gives you staggering views of the city on a clear day.

Close to these towering buildings and with easy access to the metro is the IFC Mall, possibly one of the smartest malls I have ever seen, the range of designer shops is incredible but much more fun is choosing where to eat from the huge selection or choosing a bottle of wine from Enoterra a wine shop where there is no corkage if you choose a bottle from the huge range and drink it in their bar area.

Shopping and food seem to be the main pastimes in the city and as you would expect these both range from very expensive to incredibly cheap (and good). We booked lunch in advance at Table No 1 which is part of Jason Atherton the UK Michelin starred chef’s expanding Asian empire. This is in the Cool Docks area of the river and is part of the industrial chic Waterhouse hotel. The set lunch is a bargain at the equivalent of £18 for 3 courses, the food was outstanding and the service excellent, a really great experience.

At the other end of the scale we had one of the great food streets of Shanghai on our doorstep. Close to the Shanghai Concert Hall and Peoples Square is Yunnan Street, it contains everything, roast duck and pork stalls, dim sun, kebabs, hotpots and seafood places. The best seafood place is on the corner of S. Yunnan Rd. and E. Ninghai Rd., we found it when searching for a cool beer late at night and discovered a place packed with locals eating plate upon plate of delicious looking food. The beer at £1.20 for a large bottle of chilled lager was a winner and we came back regularly afterwards to eat from the huge menu and nothing ever disappointed. Four excellent dishes and four beers cost on average the equivalent of £16. The translations on the menu were wonderful including dishes described as sexual harassment dried bamboo shoot and German groping, neither of which we tried. There were lots of other choices apart from seafood.

Still on the subject of food, we also sampled Hot Pot in Shanghai, although perhaps more associated with Beijing and further North there were a huge number of options in the city and we opted for Hai Di Lao, a national chain renowned for the best service possibly in China – it is used as an MBA study model. In the busy times you get snacks, drinks, shoe shines and manicures while you wait. We went at a less busy time and it was excellent, menus are on IPads and we chose a split hot pot, part tomato broth and part mushroom broth, with half portions of meats and vegetables to cook in the broths. Great quality and good fun and there are many pastes and spices you can add or dip into to suit your taste.

The last must on our food list was the “to die for” dumplings at Din Tai Fung, a Taiwanese chain with places in all the main cities, and yes they are more expensive than other places but boy are they worth it and you don’t get black truffle in your dumplings in most places. The choice and the service were truly top notch.

We managed to fit in some culture as well and the highlight was without a doubt the Shanghai museum, it is said that the citizens of the city do not look back and tend to disregard tradition, an exception being this marvellous museum, designed in the shape of an ancient bronze cooking vessel. The bronzes on the ground floor of the building were truly stunning, some dating back to 21BC, the intricate work and design was jaw dropping. The other galleries particularly the ceramics were fabulous but the bronzes I can still picture.

There will be lots of details on places to eat and visit on the Shanghai page on the web site but sadly it was time to leave the city on another overnight sleeper, this time heading to Hong Kong.

Nothing can prepare you for the vastness of Beijing, the sheer size of the city and the number of people is staggering, but it is also a city of huge varieties. In the middle of some of the main shopping areas with all the designer names such as Chanel and Prada and more high end watch shops than you can count there are still small lanes of grey brick houses called hutongs where families live and little eating places and local shops thrive.

We were lucky enough to be staying at the Red Wall Garden Hotel in a central hutong area, fifteen minutes from the designer shops and five minutes from the nearest subway. This is an oasis of calm built round a lovely courtyard where you can enjoy a meal or a drink after a hard day’s sightseeing. For the adventurous you can pop into one of the nearby eating places, we frequented one we called the donkey place. There is an obvious reason for our nickname in that all the meat dishes use donkey meat, the speciality being a warm flaky pastry sandwich filled with the tasty meat for 60p, excellent with a 600ml bottle of local beer for 50p.

Getting around the city to see the sites is best done on foot, but beware of the distances involved, or by taking the subway which is easy to use, clean, frequent and incredibly cheap. It can be busy during the peak times of morning and evening rush hours but at these times the frequency of trains is one a minute. One thing to note is that the interchanges between lines can be a very long walk. Get a travel card which has a £2 refundable deposit and then add some cash, each journey is the equivalent of 20p and it can also be used for trains to Badaling to see the Great Wall, more below, and on the buses where it gives a discounted fare of 4p – yes that is correct.

The major sites in the city are on a grand scale and the distances you walk inside these attractions can be considerable. There is so much to see in Beijing, in five days we managed the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, the Lamma Temple, Tian’nemen Square, The Lakes and of course a day trip to the Great Wall. This still gave us plenty of time to enjoy the eating delights of the city from a fine dining experience at Temple restaurant to street food lamb skewers, a speciality.

Temple, which we booked in advance, offers a three course lunch for the equivalent of around £13, this may sound reasonable but when you also get a small glass of champagne and five different dishes of appetisers, an additional fish course, and extra desserts, all complimentary, it becomes incredibly reasonable. When you have experienced the top notch service and excellent cooking it quickly becomes a bargain. The prices on the wine list reach the stratospheric but there are some reasonably priced choices but one tip is avoid the bottled water as it is way too expensive and ask for the regular purified water.

You are never far from an eating place in the city but most small basic places will have no English menu, they may have a picture menu and with the help of a phrase book to point at the words for beef, chicken etc. you can always manage as we discovered even on our first night after a long flight. Lunch and dinner are eaten earlier than in Europe but there are loads of basic places which open 24 hours a day.

One essential dish is of course Peking Duck, and there is great debate about the best place to go, you can read debates about how the duck is prepared, the service, the cost etc. on numerous web sites but we chose Bianyifang, reckoned to be the original, with a number of locations and a locals place. It was excellent and the theatre of your own personal duck chef carving for you was great – as was the duck.

Visiting the Great Wall can be done as an organised trip but on many you have to endure visits to shops and minor attractions which you may not want to see and then have a very limited time at the wall itself. The closest place to Beijing is Badaling, which is decried for being the most touristy and also because the wall has been largely rebuilt. On the plus side it has a cable car and it can be reached by train in 75mins from Beijing North railway station. There are a few vital things that you need to know, get a travel card because you may arrive 2 hours before the train to be greeted with a notice saying all tickets for your train have been sold and the next one is in 2 hours. If you have a travel card this does not matter, it will be swiped and you will be free to enter and wait for your train to depart.

That may sound simple but an hour before the train is due to leave the queue will start, people will push in front and general chaos will ensue until they open the doors and then they will all run and sprint the 300 metres to where the train is sitting. Why they cannot bring the train to end of the platform is a mystery. Those not lucky enough to have got a seat can buy small stools from the platform vendors. The trains are comfortable and the journey currently costs the equivalent of 60p one way. There is now a shuttle bus to meet the train and take you up to the ticket and cable car office and the same going back just make sure to get off at the rail station as some buses go on past there. You will have to endure the same queue mayhem on return but given the cost, the freedom to choose your time to go and return, and the facilities when you get there it is not such a bad choice. Also the way the wall snakes about and down gives picture postcard views, I don’t think anyone will realise it has been rebuilt.

There is lots of information on the Beijing city page on places to eat and drink but as usual in my blogs here are a couple of tips on local drinking habits. Beer is the most common drink and there are a number of bar and nightlife areas. Nanluogoxiang is one of the nicest, this is an old hutong area that has largely been taken over by small shops, bars and eating places. It has a lovely feel, even when busy at the weekends, and there is a huge variety of places to sample beer, wine and cocktails. Prices are reasonable by European standards. The area bordering the upper lakes is also full of bars and restaurants but prices by the lakeside seemed higher. There were a couple of bars with wine lists where the top end prices were in the hundreds of pounds, obviously catering for the Beijing high rollers. Further back from the lakes in the hutong streets were more attractive and more reasonably priced options.

One vital tip is about crossing the road, even when you have a green light traffic still comes round corners and from all angles, they may not stop so be careful but you will get used to this after the first few times.

Another tip is always carry a roll of toilet paper and for European style toilets you have to visit places like Starbucks and McDonalds and the more up market bars. All tourist attraction will have these sort of toilets, look for the signs on the doors !

Also worth mentioning is that all the guide books talk about being pestered by people pretending to want to talk English and this leading to various scams. We did not find that we were bothered very much at all, a couple of people wanted photographs with us but there really was far less than expected.

Another thing that we found was that contrary to what the guide books said, taxis were not easy to find and our hotel told us that for short distances taxis are just not interested. Taking a taxi to the west railway station we had to agree a price in advance rather than using the meter, not something we found in other cities. Be aware of this if you are out for the evening as the metro only runs till approximately 11pm.

The crowds, the noise, the lack of personal space and the queue jumping and pushing locals can at times all seem too much but being able to see the most incredible sites that Beijing has to offer makes all these minor irritations worthwhile.

This was our third visit to Istanbul and this time it had a different focus, the food and wine and in particular trying some of the highly rated “ Modern Turkish” restaurants that I had been reading about.

That is not to say we hadn’t always enjoyed the food and wine on previous visits, we had, but it was kind of secondary to seeing the major sites. Advance booking for three of our restaurants still left plenty of time to visit other less upmarket places for lunch and dinner in our six days and some homework on grape types and labels to look for meant we were armed for a great culinary experience.

 

First of the modern Turkish restaurants was Lokanta Maya, www.lokantamaya.com

which is in the Tophane area, close to the Istanbul Modern and a really interesting area to explore, with old fashioned nargile cafes, galleries and some other interesting cafes and restaurants. The restaurant itself is very modern with stylish décor, we started with two offal dishes, liver with an onion relish and tongue with anchovy aioli, both good. The stars however were the two mains, caramelised sea bass with chard and orange, and sea bream in papillote with artichoke and fennel. We debated which was the best and in the end decided it was a draw, with a bottle of Turkish sauvignon blanc a definite hit. In the main the service was top notch with a couple of minor slips but overcome with a complimentary offering of zucchini fritters. The price at home would bring you an average to good meal, this was excellent especially considering that the wine is so much more expensive than the food.

 

Our second advance booking was for Meze at Lemon Tree, www.mezze.com.tr in the Pera district of Beyolglu, buzzing on a Saturday evening. The restaurant is small and simply decorated and furnished more in the style of a meyahne, a traditional bar and restaurant. We chose a couple of starters from the range of cold meze on display on the counter and they were all so very different from the normal choice, sweet green peppers stuffed with avocado and a pomegranate and gazpacho salad, this was followed by one hot starter fried calamari with a walnut tarator sauce, a traditional Balkan accompaniment to fish. This evening we were in a meat eating mood and chose marinated beef slices on a skewer with greens and grilled vegetables, and pan roasted beef with shredded potatoes and a tomato and yoghurt sauce. To do these justice there was bottle of excellent Turkish shiraz. Although we probably shouldn’t have we shared a hazelnut pudding topped with tahini and mulberry molasses, no regrets. Attentive service and a very reasonable bill left us happy to wander the lively streets.

 

Our last modern Turkish was a late booking after reading some articles, Yeni Lokanta www.lokantayeni.com just off Iskital Caddesi, is a beautifully designed modern bar and restaurant presided over by the owner chef Civan Er who watches every plate and bit of service and engages with the customers. The starters were grouped in threes, we chose the warm option, courgette fritters, meatballs, that does not do them justice – they were just the best, and finally dumplings filled with aubergine, cheese, and red pepper, they were out of this world. We also had a small dish of Turkish sausage with a puree of berlotti beans which was followed by roast ribs in a spiced sauce on bread,

an amazing flavour experience. How we managed to share a chocolate cake with banana and salted caramel I do not know but perhaps it was just to finish off the excellent bottle of Turkish merlot. Incredible service, wonderful food, slightly more expensive than the other two but this edges it to being our best eating experience in Istanbul.

 

Simpler eating shouldn’t be forgotten and for good reason Asmali Cavit, Asmalmescit Caddesi 16, just off Iskital Caddesi, is reputed to be the best meyhane in Istanbul. You have to book either by phone or pop on as we did and got the last table on a Tuesday evening. Lucky enough to be served by the owner, we chose from the cold meze selection, a smaller choice and much better quality than the average meyhane. The stuffed vine leaves, best ever, shrimps and purslane and yoghurt were all simple but so fresh and wonderful tasting. Mains of lamb chops and lamb shish were excellent cooked to perfection and served with salad and potatoes, great with a bottle of the excellent house red. The bill was a delight for the quality of food and the service.

 

There were some excellent other eating places which deserve a mention, Kasabim, Simsirci Sokak, Cihangir, is a local restaurant owned by people who also own two nearby butchers shops. They specialise in steaks and burgers but also do other dishes, the meatballs and the chicken salad were both good and incredibly reasonably priced, nice guys who served us, probably unlicensed.

 

Dehliz, Vezirhan Caddesi, is just outside the grand bazaar and a great place to refuel after bargaining for all your purchases, it is an excellent example of a lokanta, a tradesman’s restaurant. Choose your dishes from the range on display such as stuffed potatoes, filled peppers and numerous vegetable dishes, not licensed. The staff are really helpful and it is incredibly cheap. In Beyogu try Armada at 231 Iskital Caddesi a slightly wider range of dishes is on offer.

 

Ficcin, Kallavi Soka, off Iskital Caddesi, have three or four places in the same street, and produce dishes from the Caucusus region and was recently mentioned in an article as one of the top ten lokantas in the city. Sit outside and try the traditional dishes including minced meat in pastry, sip a beer and watch the world go by, two mains and two beers just over £10.

 

Lastly whatever you do you must take the ferry over to Kadikoy on the Asian shore, is it home to the very well known restaurant Ciya, www.ciya.com.tr , that should really be three restaurants as they have 3 locations in Guneslibahce Sokak. All three are unlicensed, two are more menu based, the third you choose from the dishes on display. We were fortunate to have first visited six years ago with locals, when there was no English menu because there were so few visitors. This has changed and while reports say it is not as good as before our lamb kebabs, two different types, were as good as I remember, the service can be abrupt, the prices have gone up but are still incredibly reasonable. The same street has some wonderful food stalls, fish, vegetables, olives, all such fresh produce it is a delight to wander and soak up the atmosphere. Check out www.cityhaunts.co.uk Istanbul page for more information on other places to eat and the excellent bar scene in the area.

 

Enjoy the food and wine delights of Istanbul.