How to read a Turkish menu

How a Turkish menu is laid out

The quickest way to learn how to read a Turkish menu is to know the order of the meal: soup, cold meze, hot starters, salads, grills and kebabs, pide, mains, then desserts and tea. Most menus in cities and resorts carry English beside the Turkish, but the Turkish names are more precise, and they're easy to sound out once you know six letters.

The usual sections:

• Çorbalar: soups, often lentil (mercimek) at every meal including breakfast.
• Soğuk mezeler and ara sıcaklar: cold meze and hot starters (fried calamari, börek, hot hummus).
• Salatalar: salads.
• Kebaplar and ızgaralar: kebabs and grills, usually served with bread, grilled pepper and tomato, and onion with sumac.
• Pideler and lahmacun: boat-shaped flatbreads and thin minced-meat flatbreads.
• Ana yemekler and zeytinyağlılar: mains, and vegetables cooked in olive oil and served cold.
• Tatlılar and içecekler: desserts and drinks.

The type of place matters as much as the menu. At a lokanta (esnaf lokantası) you point at trays of ready-cooked food and can ask for a half portion (yarım porsiyon). An ocakbaşı grills meat over a charcoal hearth you sit around. A meyhane serves rounds of meze with rakı. At a balık (fish) restaurant you choose fish from the display and it's priced by the kilo.

By law, eateries in Turkey must show a price list at the entrance and at the table, and since 30 January 2026 they can't add a cover or service charge.

Words you'll see on every menu

Turkish is spelt as it sounds, one sound per letter, so once you know the extra letters you can read anything aloud.

• c is j (as in joy): ç is ch (chair); ş is sh (show).
• ğ is silent and stretches the vowel before it: dağ is "daa", yoğurt is "yo-urt".
• ı (no dot) is a short, unrounded sound like the a in "about"; i (with a dot) is ee.
• ö is like the French eu (or German ö); ü is like the French u (or German ü).

Cooking methods

These words follow the main ingredient (tavuk şiş, hamsi tava, kuzu tandır) and tell you how it was cooked.

Meat, seafood and key ingredients

Allergy and diet watch-outs

Turkish cooking finishes a lot of dishes with butter and yoghurt, uses wheat in forms you might not spot, and loves nuts.

• Butter and yoghurt. İskender kebap, mantı and ali nazik come with yoghurt, and sizzling butter is often poured over kebabs and mantı. Pilav is usually cooked with butter. Cacık is yoghurt, and many desserts come with kaymak (clotted cream). See milk.
• Pistachio and other nuts. "Fıstıklı" means with pistachio, in kebabs as well as baklava and künefe. Walnuts thicken çerkez tavuğu (chicken in walnut sauce) and muhammara; hazelnuts appear in desserts; pine nuts go into iç pilav and stuffed vegetables. See tree nuts and peanuts (yer fıstığı).
• Sesame. Simit is coated in sesame, pide crusts are often sprinkled with it, and tahini is in hummus and some desserts. See sesame.
• Wheat. Bulgur turns up as pilav, in kısır (bulgur salad), içli köfte and çiğ köfte (now usually a meatless bulgur dish). Mantı, pide, lahmacun and börek are wheat dough, and köfte often contains breadcrumbs or bread. See gluten.
• Egg. Menemen is scrambled egg with tomato and peppers, and egg can bind köfte and some doughs. See eggs.
• Shellfish and fish. Midye dolma (rice-stuffed mussels) are sold on the street, and fried calamari and prawns often share a fryer with other starters. See molluscs, crustaceans and fish.
• Celery. Celeriac (kereviz) is a classic olive-oil dish. See celery.

For vegetarians, zeytinyağlı dishes are usually vegetarian and often vegan, but soups and pilav are often made with meat or chicken stock (et suyu, tavuk suyu), and "etsiz" dishes may still contain butter. Pork is rarely served.

Useful phrases

Turkish has no gendered forms. Lütfen (please) makes any request polite, and Bakar mısınız? is the normal, polite way to call a waiter.

Ordering and paying

Meze are shared; order a few, then add more or move on to grills. At a lokanta, point at what you want, and you'll usually pay at the till on the way out.

• No cover or service charge. From 30 January 2026 restaurants can't add a cover (kuver), table or service charge, or bill you for bread or starters you didn't order. Bread is brought free with meals.
• Prices on show. A price list must be displayed at the entrance and at the table, so check it before you sit down, especially at fish restaurants where prices are per kilo.
• Tipping. Voluntary. Around 5 to 10% in cash is common at sit-down restaurants; rounding up is fine at lokantas and kebab shops.
• Payment. Cards are taken almost everywhere in cities; small places may prefer cash.
• Alcohol. Many restaurants serve beer, wine and rakı, but plenty of lokantas and family places don't.

Dishes to know

• Döner kebab: meat roasted on a vertical spit, sliced into bread or onto a plate.
• Lahmacun: thin flatbread topped with spiced minced meat, rolled up with salad and lemon.
• Mantı: tiny meat dumplings with garlic yoghurt and chilli butter.
• Menemen: eggs scrambled with tomato, green pepper and often onion.
• Baklava: layers of filo, butter and pistachio or walnut, soaked in syrup.
• İmam bayıldı: aubergine stuffed with onion, garlic and tomato, cooked in olive oil and served cool.
• İskender kebap: döner over bread pieces with tomato sauce, melted butter and yoghurt.
• Mercimek çorbası: red lentil soup, sometimes thickened with flour and finished with butter.
• Künefe: shredded wheat pastry baked around cheese, soaked in syrup and topped with pistachio.
• Pide: boat-shaped flatbread with cheese, minced meat, egg or sucuk.

Questions

How do you pronounce ç, ş, ğ and ı on a Turkish menu?

Ç is ch as in chair, ş is sh as in show, and c on its own is j as in joy. Ğ has no sound of its own: it lengthens the vowel before it, so dağ sounds like daa. The dotless ı is a short, unrounded sound close to the a in about.

Do Turkish restaurants charge for bread or a cover charge?

Not any more. Since 30 January 2026 Turkish rules ban cover (kuver) and service charges, and restaurants can’t bill you for bread or starters brought to the table that you didn’t ask for. Tips stay voluntary.

What does fıstık mean on a Turkish menu?

On its own, fıstık usually means pistachio (Antep fıstığı), as in fıstıklı kebap or fıstıklı baklava. Peanut is yer fıstığı and pine nut is çam fıstığı, so read the whole phrase and ask if you have a nut allergy.

Is Turkish food halal?

Most meat in Turkey comes from animals slaughtered in the halal way and pork is rarely served, but restaurants seldom show certification. Many restaurants serve alcohol, especially meyhanes and fish restaurants, so ask if that matters to you.

Sources

1. Wikipedia: Turkish alphabet
2. Legal 500: New regulations in the food and beverage services sector under the Regulation on Price Tags
3. Daily Sabah: New price display regulation for eateries in full effect across Türkiye

Last checked 1 November 2026. Spotted something wrong? Email support@inventum.com.au.