Ticket Includes
Greeting with French Champagne
6 Course Dinner with Select Wines
Live Jazz Band between 21.00-01.00
Midnight Toast
Open Bar with Unlimited Imported and Local Drinks
One of the young generation Turkish jazz groups EVO Trio has been working on jazz and improvised music since 2006.
While playing jazz standarts and tunes in their repertoire, they call attention with their unique improvised mix of jazz, blues and country. Up to now, EVO Trio has played in various festivals like 2008 Eskisehir Jazz Festival,
2008 Karya Jazz Days, 2007 and 2008 Kadiköy Jazz Days, 2008 Barisarock Festival and
2007 Bucharest Music Festival including numerous club performances in Istanbul.
Currently the trio has been working on their upcoming new album.
Jazz with Fine Ottoman Cuisine
18/25 October 2009
Akbank Jazz Fest Brunch with Evo Trio This year 19th Akbank Jazz Festival has lot to offer not only for your ears but also for your palate. EVO Trio will be the guests of Brunch With Jazz session that will take place for the first time this year.
One of the young generation Turkish jazz groups EVO Trio has been working on jazz and improvised music since 2006. While playing jazz standarts and tunes in their repertoire, they call attention with their unique improvised mix of jazz, blues and country. Up to now, EVO Trio has played in various festivals like 2008 Eskisehir Jazz Festival, 2008 Karya Jazz Days, 2007 and 2008 Kadiköy Jazz Days, 2008 Barisarock Festival and 2007 Bucharest Music Festival including numerous club performances in Istanbul. Currently the trio has been working on their upcoming new album.
During the concert that take place in Asitane's tranquil courtyard as one of the best sheltering spots of Istanbul, you can also visit Chora Museum..
Delicacies of Ramadan It's the story of Ramadan heralding the far-reaching dinner tables lying under the everlasting shadow of the illuminated minarets, the elderly respectedly seated at the table, children waiting in line for the first bit of the flat bread, Hacivat & Karagoz acting on the muslin screen at the square of the neighborhood, cordial feasts springed with a sip of water and a single olive and the long hours extending from the sunrise to sunset.
Revitalising the long-forgotten tastes of the Ottoman cuisine with the archived recipes of the palace chefs, Asitane Restaurant, continues to cherish the traditions of Ramadan. Combining the rare flavors of the Ottoman culinary arts with the generosity of this sacred month, Asitane's menu is enriched with special delightsprepared for Ramadan.
We invite you and your friends&family to our open-air garden sheltered by the chestnut trees by the magnificient Chora Museum, to share this prosperity with us.
We are currently serving our new seasonal menu "Summer Delicacies of the Ottoman Palaces" in our shady and
serene courtyard. Live Turkish classical music in the evenings from Thursday to Sunday.
Ottoman cuisine is a buried treasure, the heritage of a great empire which lasted for 700 years...
A synthesis of Central Asian, Anatolian, Middle Eastern and Balkan flavors. Unfortunately, very
few recipes from this rich cuisine have survived due to a tradition which demanded that cooks
guilds keep their recipes and cooking techniques secret...
For Asitane Restaurant Winter 2008 - 2009 Menu please click here
Specialities from the Ottoman Imperial Cuisine
For Asitane Restaurant Summer 2008 Menuclick here.
Asitane Restaurant
Asitane Restaurant is located in Edirnekapi, considered by many to be one of the most important areas of historical Istanbul. The restaurant lies in the shadow of the mighty Chora Church which is famous for its mosaics and is one of the most important and well kept buildings of the Byzantine era. Located high up in the foot hills overlooking the Golden Horn, Asitane opened its doors in 1991, together with the Kariye Hotel, now a restored 19th century traditional Ottoman mansion.
The restaurant, whose dishes reflect the eclectic nature of the Turco-Ottoman neighbourhood, was named Asitane which not only means "Head Gate" in Farsi but was also one of the many names given to Istanbul throughout the reign of the Ottoman Empire. Thus it was decided that the restaurant should specialize in fine Ottoman court cuisine.
Extensive research was undertaken six months prior to the opening of the restaurant as kitchen registries deep from the archives of Topkapi and Dolmabahce Palaces were scoured for recipes, and relevant documentation was found in Istanbul's Beyazit and Millet libraries. Additional important sources of information for the duration of the preparation period were dug up using old Ottoman dictionaries, the written historic accounts of various statesmen, medical practitioners and soldiers.
In the thirteen years that it has been open Asitane Restaurant is now able to boast an impressive archive comprised of over 200 forgotten sweet and savory recipes, which are prepared in keeping with the cooking methods of 500 years ago.
Nearly one hundred recipes had to be discarded or modified in order to either suit today's modern palate, or simply because the ingredients no longer exist in this day and age.
The menu now features dishes originally prepared for the sumptuous celebration feast given for Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent's two sons, Bayezid II and Cihangir, at Edirne Palace in November 1539.
The restaurant periodically has themed weeks such as "The Age of Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror", "Ottoman Aphrodisiacs", "Fish and Seafood Ottoman Style"as part of its mission to introduce the tastes of a bygone era to all.
Asitane Restaurant is open everyday from 11:00-24:00 and serves a mouth watering brunch on Sundays. Additionally the restaurant caters for weddings, organizations and other special events.
Eating here is a live history class.
"Under the Ottoman Empire the guilds of cooks were fiercely secretive about their culinary tricks. Consequently few recipes survive from the four and a half centuries of Ottoman rule (1453 to 1918).
In a district of old houses just off a little3 square lined with plane trees, next door to one of the Byzantine churches, St. Savior in Chora, Asitane has devoted itself to the re-creation of this lost cuisine."
New York Times - October 2006
Imperial Authenticity
"The large and airy Asitane Restaurant serves imperial Ottoman cuisine, incorportating Centeral Asitan, Anatolian, Middle Eastern and Balkan flavours, resulting from the intensive research undertaken at theree palace kitchens (Dolmabahce, Topkapi and Edirne) to test and recreate long-forgotten imperisl dishes, whose recipes were traditionally kept secret. Some of the rediscovered dishes on the menu, such as veal in apple sauce, were serverd at the circumcision feast held for two of Suleyman's sons in 1539. The location might be off the beaten track, but Asitane is the one and only restaurant in the city where intrepid diners can experience such unlikely-sounding treats as almond soup. This is a restaurant for the serious culinary adventurer."
From Style City Istanbul
Bosphorus Bites
"... Heady stuff, but Turkey has a history of fusion food. The imperial Ottoman kitchen prided itself on blending recipes and ingredients from across its vast territories: Circassian chicken and Arabic hummus, to name two. For Ottoman flavor, head for Asitane, www.asitanerestaurant.com, in the Old City, which re-creates dishes served at a feast given by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in 1539, based on archival research. The sumptuous menu reflects Greek, Persian, Arab and even North African influences. The Sultan, it turns out, was an early fan of fusion."
Time, May. 17, 2007
One of the young generation Turkish jazz groups EVO Trio has been working on jazz and improvised music since 2006. 
