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Pudding Shop Lale Restaurant

Posted by (Chicago) on

On a recent visit to Turkey, I had lunch at the famed Pudding Shop Lale Restaurant in Istanbul. In some ways, it might have been my favorite site as part of a two-week visit.

The Pudding Shop is the site where possibly hundreds of thousands of trips across the Hippie Trail/Overland started, including Rick's: I could almost picture Rick circa 1978 at the next table. The eatery is festooned with hundreds of photos, newspaper clippings and other memorabilia. The food was excellent. Packed on the first and second floors with regulars and travelers, visitors don't stand out: They're part of the "regular crowd". The eatery is easy to find near the Blue Mosque. Next door is an ice cream shop to top off a meal.

The Pudding Shop is only one eatery of the perhaps thousands in Istanbul, a city with no shortage of good food, but few offer the same charm, atmosphere and heritage.

Posted by
304 posts

It was pointed out to us on our Rick Steves Istanbul tour. We went for lunch and really enjoyed it. Lots of tourists and a few more local folks when we were there. It was packed and not a relaxed experience and but the food was good and we enjoyed it very much.

You just point to what you want and they dish it out. We were eating vegetarian and they told us which dishes to choose from. Not expensive, not fancy,but fun.

Posted by
3260 posts

I also ate there while on the RS Best of Turkey tour. No idea what I had for my main course but it was delicious. And I had pudding, too. Scariest part was hauling my tray up the narrow stairs to the second floor.

Posted by
1 posts

I was in Sultanahmet during the summer of 1973, on my way to do archeological work at Nemrut Dag (located in southeast Turkey). Reading the Ride Board at the Pudding Shop opened my eyes to travel throughout the rest of the world. So after college I ended up working in Scotland, Ireland and Morocco for five years and travelling throughout Europe, Turkey and North Africa on business. Now I am retired and my wife and I live in the Cote d'Azur and travel worldwide six to eight months each year.

Posted by
192 posts

I went there for meal in 2012. Sadly it was one of the worst meals I had on that trip and chalked it up to the place being a tourist trap/resting on past laurels. JMO.

Posted by
1 posts

OMG. The Pudding Shop is still there. I set forth from the Pudding Shop for Kathmandu in November 1972. I'd love to go back and see the memorabilia on the walls. Thanks, Craig, for that picture. Maybe someday. Just got Rick's book. I'm so looking forward to reading it.

At the Pudding Shop, as well as other eateries and resting spots along the Trail, they used to have these big journals type books where people would write in where they had been and recommendations for where fellow travelers should go and what we should read, and so on. Did you see any sign of that book? They had one there. I remember reading it. Somebody (Rick?) should find one of those books and publish it.

Posted by
560 posts

Remember the "yellow Bible," the Tony Wheeler guidebook??

We hitched through Turkey long ago.....one of my best trips ever!

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