Rice baked in a pastry curtain: Çiya Sofrası in Kadıköy

Çiya Sofrası sits on Güneşli Bahçe Street in the Kadıköy market. The kitchen is run by chef Musa Dağdeviren, and it's known for regional Anatolian cooking, including stews and dishes from across the country. That's a good reason to cross the Bosphorus for lunch.

Start at the counter. Our editor's photos show a long row of hot dishes behind the glass, with stews, beans and rice, plus a second counter of cold plates: stuffed vine leaves, dips, greens and salads. Food writers who cover the place describe the trays as changing with the day, so you order by pointing at whatever looks good. If you've ever stood at a nasi campur counter unable to decide, you already know how this works.

The dish to look out for is perde pilavı, which means curtain rice. Rice, bits of chicken and nuts are baked inside a thin layer of dough, and it arrives as a browned pastry drum on a pewter plate stamped with the restaurant's name. Our editor's photos show it whole, then cracked open with the rice tumbling out and dark currants among the grains. Reviewers name it again and again as a standout, and it's easy to see why it gets ordered for the table.

Then there's the platter. In our editor's photo, a huge flatbread freckled with black seeds sits over everything like a lid. Lift it and you find grilled minced meat kebabs, chicken, charred green peppers and blistered tomatoes, with parsley, pink onions, a mound of yoghurt and a slice of lahmacun on the side. Guides to Kadıköy also point to the kebabs as a reason to visit, and the Çiya family includes a separate kebab shop close by, so check which door you're walking through if grilled meat is your main mission.

Diners also keep mentioning dishes that are harder to find elsewhere. The sweet and sour cherry kebab comes up as a must try, along with stuffed aubergine, spicy kibbeh and yoghurt kebab. Many say the room feels like eating at a family home.

A bowl of soup with a wedge of lemon and thick slices of bread also sit on the table in our editor's photos, a comforting addition to the big plates.

🍽️ What to order

• Perde pilavı, rice with chicken and nuts baked in a pastry shell
• The grilled kebab platter with flatbread and lahmacun
• Cherry kebab, the sweet and sour dish diners rave about
• Whatever looks good from the day's hot trays and cold meze counter

💡 Good to know

• Dishes change from day to day, so order by pointing at the trays
• The perde pilavı is rich and filling, so share it if you want to try the counter too
• It stays open from lunch through dinner, so an off-peak late lunch is an easy option
• Take the ferry to Kadıköy and walk through the market to get here