Hala has village women in the front window rolling out thin dough with broomstick rolling pins as you watch.
The dough is then baked into paper-thin lavaş (lah-VAHSH) bread, or used to make traditional country dishes such as mantı (mahn-TUH), a Turkish lamb-filled ravioli served with a light yogurt sauce. It's authentic and delicious, which is why most of the patrons here are locals, not tourists.
The flat dough is also used to make gözleme, thin dough folded over various ingredients, then baked on the griddle.
You can get full meat meals here, but most people have soup, gözleme or mantı and ayran (the refreshing yogurt drink).
Hala on İstiklal Caddesi.
There's a Hala on İstiklal Caddesi and another a few blocks away on Çukurlu Çeşme Sokak (around the corner at the far end of Büyükparmakkapı Sokak)(map).
Hala
İstiklal Caddesi No 137a (at Turnacıbaşı Sokak), Beyoğlu, Istanbul
also...
Çukurlu Çeşme Sokak at Büyükparmakkapı Sokak, Beyoğlu, Istanbul
—by Tom Brosnahan
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