Istanbul Restaurant ETIQUETTE: 9 Things You Need To KNOW!

rude and inappropriate or just like leave the restaurant there will be a service fee you would get complimentary foods they will be happily surprised insist on showing you where to sit is it acceptable to share a plate i'm deliberately not talking too loud like big no-nos okay istanbul and turkey is massively famous for turkey is a big food country it has one of the richest cuisines in the world and one of the most frequently asked questions we get is what is the restaurant etiquette in turkey so how do you order food what is okay what is not okay what should you expect today in this video we're covering all of these topics starting with choosing your table so when it comes to choosing a table it's quite relaxed like you can pretty much always choose where you want to sit you don't need to wait to be seated in most places in istanbul and turkey however in some cases they will insist on showing you where to sit and in that case just sit where they show you to sit but if you don't like the place they show you to sit you can always suggest the waiter to sit somewhere else like you can always ask is it okay if i sit on this table rather than the one you want me to sit and in most cases like eighty nine percent of the time they're going to be okay with this and they will say sure you can sit there or they will say no you cannot sit because that's that table is reserved but they will not get offended this is okay to ask it and it is okay to choose where you want to sit in turkey so this is this is open so now that you're seated the second thing you should know is how to call the waiter now when you're calling the waiter you should always politely raise your hand or do like this or like this and just wait and one thing you can say is like excuse me we actually use the french word pardon in turkish as well and so the typical turkish way to call a waiter would be bakarmısınız so bakarmısınız would be translated as like can you look like can you come over and take a look have a look so if that's uh complicated to remember you can also just say pardon you know because we use that but never like this okay because that would be rude and also when calling the waiter it is rude to call loudly of course you might need to raise your voice a little bit so they can hear you but still do it in a polite fashion so as not to be received as rude now step three so you've uh you're seated you call the waiter now you're going to order so can you make substitutions and the short answer is yes absolutely this is completely okay and acceptable and so as long as you're not recreating the entire dish and let's say like a salad or maybe maybe like a kebab plate right kebab on a plate you don't want onions or you don't want rice and or you you want to substitute bread with rice because you're you cannot eat gluten right in that case it's completely and totally fine it's acceptable and you don't need to have any reason to substitute it's always okay to ask for substitutions as long as they don't need to recreate the dish for you it's okay and the next topic is sharing the plate so now that the food has already arrived to your table is it acceptable to share a plate and answer is yes it is totally acceptable and you can see that we're already sharing a plate today uh Hakan is shooting the video and i'm speaking and here's the food which we're going to share together after we finish the video in a few minutes how about some things which you shouldn't do in the restaurant let's talk about that because this is important one of the things you shouldn't do is to speak loudly as you can see since we're inside the restaurant and i'm making this video i'm deliberately not talking too loud as not to be rude to the other people sitting in this restaurant and eating in this restaurant generally speaking it's a considered rude to speak louder than the average of the restaurant and now we come to the other things which you shouldn't do in a restaurant and these are like big no-nos okay so one of the things which you should never do is to blow your nose now blowing your nose is in a restaurant like if you gently wipe your nose without producing any sound it's okay but i'm talking like you know like blowing your nose in a restaurant is considered very rude in fact in turkey in general blowing your nose loudly you know in a fashion that it produces a sound in any public place will get you looks it's like even in public transport or you know just in a place with other people like in a party or something but especially in the restaurant because while people are eating hearing the sound of someone blowing their nose is considered very bad so if that if you need to do that just use the washroom and come back or just like leave the restaurant and then come back so that's good manners but in general it's not just about blowing your nose it's like in general like producing unpleasant sound in a dining atmosphere so any anything like even smacking your lips in while eating is considered rude for example in some asian cultures this is a good sign like in some cultures like for example in japan uh if you smack your lips while eating this is a compliment to the chef and they're like happy that you're making that slurping sound while eating noodles right but here in turkey that would the same act would be considered so try avoiding producing any loud chewing or slurping sounds while eating or dining in turkey what about you couldn't finish your meal is it okay to ask for a doggy bag and the short answer is yes but the long answer is depends on the restaurant now the thing is it is always okay to ask from the restaurant's perspective so even if you go to like a very high end expensive restaurant it is still okay to ask but it's just like we locals we tend to not do that especially if it's like a high end like expensive restaurants but you can still ask and the restaurant isn't gonna judge you for doing that and uh so yeah you can you could ask for it another thing you should know is that in turkey it is very common that you would get complementary foods and drinks especially if you're eating at a good restaurant but even in you know typical backstreet restaurants like even in like really affordable restaurants it is common to get some free complementary or like tea coffee even so this is something you can ask so for example when i go to a new restaurant which i've never been before and if they bring me something which i didn't order i will always ask if it is complementary if it is on the house because in some cases it might be on the table like for example an unopened water bottle and you might think it's on the house but it's not so the moment you open it they will add it to the bill so it's always good to ask these things like for example they bring you a small you know appetizer or a salad or something it's always good to ask if it's on the house the word for this in turkish is so ikram means complementary and the most common complementary thing they will bring you is tea so in a lot of places after you finish your meal they will ask if you want tea and almost always it will be on the house but in some places they might charge you for it so if you would like to make sure just ask for it and it's okay to ask if it's on the house or not so asking for the bill it's this is international i i suppose in every country you have the same hand movement like this like right like you're writing the check in the air so you can just do the same in turkey everyone will understand and the last thing you should know is service fee and tipping tipping culture now for this you can also check out our money guide video in that video we went into greater depth about money related to topics and questions however when it comes to paying the bill in turkey in a restaurant in some places there will be a service fee and in some places there won't be a service fee generally speaking two types of restaurants either like high-end good quality like fine dining places or in touristic places but when you go like you have like a kebab wrap on the street or something they will typically not include the service fee and if they do include a service fee it's usually going to be 10 percent that is visible on the bill so when you before you pay when you get the check you can see at the bottom now if that's not the case then they will be expecting you to tip up to 10 percent okay and here's a bonus three most commonly used phrases in a restaurant so the first one would be bakar mısınız bakar mısınız is a polite way of asking for the waiter so that's like can you have a look like bakar mısınız it's like saying excuse me the second one is hesap or hesap lütfen hesap means the bill and lütfen means please so the bill please or just the bill it's also okay and the last one is teşekkürler which means thank you or thanks or kolay gelsin which is even better because it's not a big surprise that you learned how to say thank you but if you learn this phrase kolay gelsin they will be happily surprised that you know this phrase because this is a this is a very turkish phrase it's not thank you but it's is used instead of thank you in a lot of cases so this will be it for today's video everybody i hope you liked today's video and i hope you found value in this video if you like this video also check out our money guide video and our food guide video for more useful tips and like and subscribe and follow us for more useful tips when it comes to visiting istanbul