Stanbuli
While travelling to Istanbul and Northern Cyprus Ibrahim dreamed of reinterpreting the cuisine of his own cultural heritage. Years later the dream of his own restaurant took on the form of a style of eatery known as a Meyhane.
Intrinsic to a Meyhane is a sense of nostalgia and romance. Underpinning the Meyhane tradition is a convivial atmosphere characterised by a fun, social style of eating and drinking. Food is always shared – a central tenet of Turkish custom and an underlying feature in hosting guests.
Meze – abundant / colourful and creative / seemingly endless little dishes – invites the diner to commence their evening with cold dishes serving up an array of vegetables, yoghurts, cheeses, fish and offal.
What Insiders Are Saying
Enjoy a delicious Turkish dinner at Stanbuli, and then settle into the marble-top bar for the rest of the night.
We ordered the tasting menu and asked the chef to select the dishes. Everything was fresh and delicious. We also made a special request to try the Beef Rib as part of the tasting menu and the friendly staff were so kind to make this happen. We felt very lucky and very special. The beef rib was INCREDIBLE!
OMG. I didn’t eat the entire next day - I was so full. The food was sensation and the service was outstanding. So much food with the banquet- I would probably al la carte next time as we had so much food leftover but it was anazing. And the baclava sooooooooo delicious abs I’m not a desert person. It’s not to sweet and big delicious chunks of pistachio. So impressed - loved it ❤️
First time there but would go again. Food is excellent and service good. Ambience is buzzing. We were downstairs. Considering having a party upstairs.
Fantastic food and fabulous service highly recommend
Was absolutely fabulous. The food was a high end version of Turkish food. Staff really attentive and helpful.
Amazing place to dine in , their Turkish cuisine is quite yummy and tasty. Great staff and awesome service.
It was a delicious but uneven experience.It has a wonderful ambience and the small mezi plates and the whole whiting were absolutely delicious.However the lamb was tough and uninviting and coloured my view of the meal.Interestingly there was a bordeaux blend from the gallipoli peninsular which was a curiosity but perhaps overrated for the price.A very enjoyable experience which next time will be sculptured to the strengths of the restaurant.
The food was tasty but I feel it was very overpriced
Food yumm, service fantastic... loved it.
Stanbuli is our favourite restaurant in Sydney, and we always dine here when up from Melbourne. We loved the new menu and the stand-our dish was most definitely the grilled calamari, beans and celery dish. The most amazing combination of flavours! Unfortunately, we weren’t able to order dips with our pita bread, which we thought was rather silly. Everyone around us was eating it as part of the banquet menu, but we weren’t able to order it as it wasn’t on the menu as a separate item. And it is not an item that would normally sell out. This was disappointing, as the pita was very bland without it. We also thought the previous spiced bread was so much better - please bring it back! The service was not up to it’s usual standard. The waitress forgot one of our kingfish dishes and was not apologetic, so we were left hungrier than normal.
Restaurant was too noisy. A table of four and we callus not hear each other. Food and service excellent. Please get some sound attenuation installations.
It was great - unusual food - and we were helped with the choices. I did think we could have been explained that the cauliflower dish (which was delicious) was very large - certainly way too big for two women. The ambiance and we loved the atmosphere. Probably would have liked a choice to have had a table rather than sit at the bar - still it was great anyway.
As is often the case, the entrees are outstanding and the mains are kinda boring nice, but not amazing. Great service but this place is very expensive. Worth a try though. Won’t rush back.
We had the banquet with dessert. The Gavurdagi Salata (green olive salad) and Zeytin (warm black olives with holey oil) were the stars of the starters. Delicious Kofte and perfectly cooked Ton Balik (grilled tuna) were also stand-outs on the menu. We also tasted the Raki, served traditionally, which was a great divider between main and dessert. Overall, the food was amazing, but the noise level was making it a little difficult to converse with the whole table of four. Would definitely visit again.
Upstairs is unbearably noisy. We couldn’t hear people at our own table.
Wayyyy toooo noisy. I don't like to dine out and raise my voice to be heard.
The chicken and tuna amazing, however the vegetables and proportion of olives to same unbalanced & overpowering.
I don't dine out at noisy restaurants more than once.
Gotta say the staff were outstanding though, very cheerful and welcoming. Five stars for the staff.
Loved it! Food was amazing. Service was great but ordered a bottle of wine and waitress neglected to top up glasses so ended up drinking half a bottle before needing to leave, would have preferred it to have been staggered.
But overall amazing!
Gorgeous food and really excellent service. We had the chefs banquet which was absolutely divine, I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Second visit and just as amazing as the first. Took family members for the first time and they loved the place and want to definitely come back as we will too. Beautiful food.
The absolute best service. Cannot praise the waitstaff enough - efficient, friendly, attentive, professional. They knew what we needed before we even did!!
Can't wait to come back!
Amazing food, friendly and professional service, great menu, also devine drinks
Always great food!
Food was amazing. So tasty. Service friendly, helpful in navigating menu, attentive to detail and observant as to what was happening on the table. Couldn’t recommend high enough.
We visited to celebrate my birthday. Being a group we decided to go for a banquet. The food was absolutely delicious and the quantity of food was nothing short of biblical. In regards to wine, we stuck with the Turkish selections and were not disappointed. Great food, interesting and delicious wine. Most definitely coming back!
A really disappointing experience.
It is written when you book that bookings for 2 may be seated at the bar but I thought it wouldn't actually happen for a booking and was just written there as a backup, just in case, due to the word "may" being used in place of "will be seated at the bar". This is a really unpleasant way to have an expensive meal, especially when this neighborhood has great food for a fraction of the price.
The chicken skewer was tough, we could only eat about half of it. The food was fine but definitely wouldn't recommend dining here on a date or ever with two people.
An absolutely delicious meal. I’d been here three times before so I knew the feast that awaited. But I took a couple of friends who’ve never tried stanbuli. They were suitably impressed. We had the cauliflower and the pumpkin, the spectacular salad, the koftas and the octopus, as well as olives and their ridiculously good bread. It’s not cheap. But i consider the high quality and innovation of the menu well worth the price. The only downside is the noise. Positively deafening if you’re seated next to some large parties as we were. We could barely hear ourselves think.
Food was absolutely amazing. We shared a lamb shoulder which was on the specials menu, which was beautifully tender. The pumpkin main was also really tasty and definitely worth ordering. Staff were attentive. Would recommend!
I had been looking forward to going to Stanbuli for some time and was quite disappointed, unfortunately. The service was good and the restaurant is well-appointed. The music was a little too loud for comfortable conversation, particularly since it was only 6pm and the restaurant was largely empty...so even though the staff liked it loud, it should have been clear when we couldn't hear ourselves to submit an order that it needed turning down. Mostly though, while the food was OK, it really is overpriced for what it is. In particular the lamb four quarter chops - the cheapest meat you can buy when eating lamb and a choice only my broke old grandpa would use at a family bbq - was priced at $40. The flavour was good but, as it is with this cut of meat, it was full of sinew and was largely too tough to eat. We also ordered 5 chicken skewers, for which we paid nearly $80....surely that cannot represent value for money, no matter how it tastes. I really didn't want to be disappointed, but sadly, I was.
This is one of my favourites. Great service and incredible food.
Amazing Food! I brought a group of friends here to eat on the weekend for their first time and no one could stop raving about the food! Authentic, incredible spices, loads of veggie options, just loved it! A must try in Enmores foodie scene.
Excellent food and excellent service. We had the banquet and it was very satisfying, but the desert was substandard. If I was you I wouldn’t pay the extra for desert and if you feel the need for desert go to one of the many other fine establishments in the area after your meal.
I would also say that it is slightly overpriced, but deliscious.
We have to Stanbuli a few times last year and it was amazing! This time, the same meals were average, and below. Very disappointed. I wouldn’t recommend
The waitress were very accommodating and they explained to us every single dish we ate.
We chose the banquet menu for 74$ with dessert included and it was just amazing: we shared some starters then the mains were lamb and chicken very well cooked and tasty with lots of species.
They brought us three different dessert to share: the brownie was really nice.
It was a bit noisy upstairs with the music but overall just incredible!
We will repeat shortly,thank you!
I have been wanting to try this place for a while now and my expectations were high, with many good reviews and having a kitchen that is run by the same team as Porteno, it's hard to go wrong. Staff were very good, attentive and know the menu. Our mix of Mezes arrived sooner than expected, the eggplant and broadbean dishes were served chilled straight out of the fridge, definitely not freshly made to order, flavours were locked in as temp was way too cold. The octopus dish was the star of the night, so juicy and tender we ordered a second serving. The worst dish of the night was the Iskender made with skirt of Waigu beef. It was so hard to cut, took forever to chew and some of group could not swallow it, almost half of this dish is made up of bread, very disappointing. We made a complaint about this dish to the kitchen with no acknowledgement or apology. Overall the fit out and staff very good but a poor performance from the kitchen and for this reason I have cancelled my other booking in a few weeks time so as not to disappoint others.
Amazing food, amazing service, can't recommend it enough!
The food at Stanbuli is consistently of a very high standard - fresh, interesting and healthy ingredients prepared creatively and to maximise the produce and flavours. Service from the staff is both friendly and attentive. We always feel welcome and comfortable in the relaxed atmosphere of the restaurant. Happy to return any time.
A mediterranean mix of flavours to drool over even a few days after!
Notable experience due to the impeccable service from the team at Stanbuli; attentive, prompt and personable staff made our meal and night all the more enjoyable. We were never left waiting a minute or needing to request service.
The food was WOW! Flavour burst with every mouthful - we opted for the banquet and are grateful we did! There was A LOT of food, and so much variety - it would have been difficult to pick from the great options otherwise.
Impressed with Stanbuli overall, we will definitely return and will definitely be recommending it as a place to visit!
Amazing service ! The waitress is very attentive and helpful.
Food is a combination of fire works of flavour.
Will I go back ? Definitely.
One of my favorite places. Great service, food & cocktails.
Our first visit to the restaurant after many recommendations, excellent in every way. Look forward to visiting again soon