Ara Kafe occupies a converted garage on Tosbaga Sokak in Galatasaray, a few steps from the Galatasaray Lycee in Beyoglu, founded in 2001 by the photographer Ara Guler. It reads less as a cocktail destination than as a Beyoglu institution that happens to pour wine and beer beneath walls hung with Guler's black-and-white Istanbul.
Who would love it: a drinker who wants atmosphere, an unhurried glass, and the city's photographic memory on the walls. Who would not: anyone hunting a long spirits list or a late-night dancefloor, since the room trades on quiet and warm light rather than a bar program.
The space is wood, amber lighting, stained glass, and large prints of Guler's photographs, which Lonely Planet describes as turning the room into something closer to a small exhibition hall than a cafe. The garage bones still show in the high ceiling and the lane-facing front, and on a mild day the tables spill toward the cobbles opposite the Lycee.
The list is short and honest. Wine by the glass and Turkish and imported beers anchor it, while the kitchen sends up meze, salads, and mains from a basement kitchen, per Spotted by Locals. This is not a room built for stirred classics or a deep whiskey shelf. Marcus Webb's read is to order a glass of Turkish white, an Okuzgozu red, or a cold Bomonti and let the setting do the work. Expect mid-range cafe pricing rather than a Beyoglu rooftop tariff.
The crowd skews local and literary: regulars, students from the Lycee quarter, and visitors who came for the Guler connection. Mornings run as a cafe from 7:30am, and the wine-and-beer half of the day builds after dark, with the room closing around midnight midweek and 1am on Fridays and Saturdays, per Yelp's current listing.
The history is the hook, and it is real rather than decorative. Ara Guler was one of only two Turkish photographers to join the Magnum agency, and the prints on these walls are his record of a vanished Istanbul, from the Galata bridge fishermen to the back streets of Beyoglu. He kept the cafe as a working room until his death in 2018, and Spotted by Locals notes the kitchen still sends up the same kind of unfussy Turkish home cooking he favoured: meze plates, salads, and a few warm mains rather than a printed cocktail card. The drinking here is built around the food and the photographs, not the other way round.
On Foursquare, where the venue has collected more than a thousand tips across tens of thousands of check-ins, the recurring notes are the photographs, the long breakfast, and the calm. The common caution is that service slows when the room fills, and that the draw is the setting more than the cooking. Treat it as a place to sit, not to rush.
Best time to go is a weekday late afternoon, before the dinner tables turn, with a glass of wine and a slow look at the prints. It earns a place among the most atmospheric rooms to drink in across the city. See where it sits among the best wine bars in Istanbul, and read the wider guide to wine bars by city for the global picture.
Pair this bar with
For a serious bottle list nearby, compare Sensus Wine Bar Istanbul. For a Bosphorus view with a glass in hand, Leb-i Derya Istanbul is the natural second stop. And for a quiet late drink in Beyoglu, Olden Istanbul rounds out the evening.
Sources
Lonely Planet: Kafe Ara · Spotted by Locals: Ara Kafe · Yelp (accessed 2026-06) · Foursquare (1,000+ tips)
Reviewed by Marcus Webb, barsforKings. Published Feb 25, 2026 · Last reviewed Jun 9, 2026.
