The Culinary Capital of Turkey: Gaziantep


Gaziantep is one of the most developed cities located in South-Eastern Anatolia in Turkey. Gaziantep is the ninth crowded and multicultural city of Turkey. It has a rich and worldwide famous cuisine. Not only it’s the cuisine, kebabs, and desserts, but also historical museums, neighborhoods, bazaars of Gaziantep are worth seeing.

Travel to Gaziantep in 5 Steps

How can I go to Gaziantep?

From Outside of Turkey

Gaziantep is a location that is easy to go with flight and the bus. If you want to travel to Gaziantep, you can use both flights and busses. There is a direct flight from the biggest airports worldwide. Gaziantep Oguzeli Airport is located in Oguzeli, Gaziantep. You can use public transportation or a taxi for reaching the city center.

If you are already in Turkey

If you are in another city in Turkey. You can go by flight and bus, again. Turkish Airlines, Pegasus Airlines, AtlasJet have flights to the Gaziantep Airport. Also, you can use bus transportation. It will take almost 15 hours from Istanbul to Gaziantep.

baklava gaziantep

Where can I stay in Gaziantep?

There are lots of choices for accommodation in Gaziantep. You can stay in hotels, pensions, and Airbnb.

What must I eat when I’m in Gaziantep?

Gaziantep is famous for its pistachios all around the world. Gaziantep pistachios are exported to 94 countries that have 130.5 Mio $ capacity in 2019. Therefore firstly you can eat fresh pistachio products in Gaziantep, which baklava is the most famous dessert including Gaziantep pistachios. Apart from baklava, there are many other desserts which are made with pistachios.

Therefore, if you are in Gaziantep, all baklava products, kunefe, and katmer absolutely must be tasted.

Baklava in Gaziantep

There is no limit to baklava choices in Gaziantep. The shapes, ingredients, tastes, the intensity of sherbet, different nuts… And they are all high-quality and made by the great baklava masters’ hands.

If you want to eat in Gaziantep, we recommend the ones which include the most milk cream. Because those can be spoiled a bit faster than others, because of milk cream. It can stay fresh until 1 week, but if you want to bring them to your country, you can choose dry baklava choices and other long-lasting baklava products. And please be careful that your packaging is made properly in an airtight and protective container.

Naturally, in Gaziantep, there are lots of baklava stores. The most popular ones are, Imam Cagdas, Gulluoglu, Kocak Baklava and Zeki Inal.

Also, there is another famous dessert in Gaziantep which is made with pistachio and very thin phyllo, milk cream, and butter which is called ‘katmer’. It must be eaten fresh, right after it's made. You can eat the best katmer in ‘Katmerci Zekeriya Usta’. Please notice that they are made freshly in front of your eyes and they finish all katmer generally until afternoon.

Kunefeh is a unique taste that is made from kadayif, milk cream, butter, pistachios, and cheese. Kunefeh belongs to the Hatay cuisine which is a South-Eastern Anatolia City close to the Gaziantep. But in Gaziantep, you can find delicious kunefeh. There are Koz Antep Kunefe and Cumba Kunefe are the best dessert shops where you can eat delicious kunefeh here in Gaziantep.

After all, we must mention that Istanbul is a city where you can find the best quality of everything, at least the same quality of Gaziantep baklava. Karakoy Gulluoglu, for example, Gaziantep origin family store. Since you cannot be in Istanbul or Gaziantep all the time you want to eat original baklava, TurkishTaste.com brings that privilege until your doorsteps in a couple of days. Not only some regions of the world, but we also have international fast shipping for the customers all around the world.

Also, some high-quality baklava brands are unknown to our international guests, but famous and trustable baklava brands in Istanbul, originally Gaziantep. If you want to see them more in our online shop, please write to us.

We, as TurkishTaste.com, always intend to embrace our brand and product choices according to our guests’ requests and needs.

Kebab Restaurants in Gaziantep

Gaziantep is also famous for Kebabs. When you go to Imam Cagdas, you can taste its Ali Nazik Kebab and Patlican(Eggplant) Kebab.

Kusleme and Simit Kebabi is another delicious food that you can taste in Gaziantep. Kuslemeci Halil Usta is the most famous one.

Beyran soup is the one that you must taste. It includes lamb meat, broth, rice. The best place for Beyran Soup is Metanet Restaurant.

There is another soup named Yuvalama which is made with minced meat, rice, chickpea, and yogurt. It has a high nutritional value. If you want to taste it, Asina Restaurant is the best place. Ready while you’re there, you can try Icli Kofte too, which is made with bulgur and in the middle walnut, minced meat, spices, and onions.

And there are other lots of unforgettable tastes like Lahmacun, Zahter Tea, Menengic Coffee, etc. If you decide to go to Gaziantep, you should always be ready to be full.

Coppersmith Bazaar of Gaziantep

If you want to buy some handmade, natural, and healthy products, the best ones are in Coppersmith Bazaar. Also, you can buy them as a gift. In Coppersmith Bazaar, several beautiful artworks are hammered by hand with copper kitchenware products or home design products. There are copper Turkish coffee pots, Turkish teapots, copper water cups, copper saucepans, etc.

There are not only kitchen products, but also natural spices and herbal teas, tomato sauces, jams, etc.

The bazaar is close to the Gaziantep Touristic Center. There are lots of museums and historical places and also the restaurants I mentioned above within walking distance.