The Pudding Shop

Overview

On Divan Yolu, the old main street of Sultanahmet, a modest restaurant with a big sign calls itself “The World Famous Pudding Shop”. In the 1960s and 1970s, it really was famous: almost every traveler on the overland “hippie trail” from Europe to India stopped here, ate a bowl of pudding and read the notice board for a ride east. So if you want a taste of that era, the Pudding Shop is still open, a few steps from Hagia Sophia.

The Story of the Pudding Shop

Lale Restaurant and its nickname

The brothers İdris and Namık Çolpan opened Lale Pastanesi, the Lale pastry shop, in 1957. Soon, however, foreign travelers could not remember its name, but they did remember its long row of puddings. So, by word of mouth, it became the Pudding Shop, and the nickname stuck.

A stop on the hippie trail

In the 1960s, first beatniks and then hippies passed through Istanbul on their way to Tehran, Kabul, Kathmandu and Goa. For them, it was a meeting place with cheap Turkish food, books, rock music and, in those days, a garden with a view of the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. Adem Çolpan, the son of İdris, later remembered that it was the time of the Vietnam War, and many travelers simply “lived for the moment”.

The Famous Notice Board

For years, this was one of the few places in the area with travel information and direct transport to Asia. Therefore, the Çolpan brothers put up a notice board where travelers could find rides and leave messages for friends. Soon it filled with love letters and apologies too. The most famous was an open letter from “Megan” to “Malcolm”, asking forgiveness for “the business down in Greece”.

Later, in 1978, the restaurant appeared in the book and film Midnight Express, which spread its name even further.

Divan Yolu No. 6 and the Road East

The shop stands at Divan Yolu Caddesi No. 6, in the Alemdar quarter of Fatih. See also Divanyolu, the old main street. In the years of the overland trail, travelers heading east, often in old cars or Volkswagen vans, stopped here to meet one another and share costs. So the Çolpan brothers put up the board to handle all the messages from people offering or looking for rides to Europe and the Far East. Today, the same address keeps the name alive, a few steps from the Sultanahmet tram stop.

Eating at the Pudding Shop Today

Today the place is a self-service cafeteria with a lit-up menu, and the old garden is gone. Still, try the dish that made it famous: tavuk göğsü, a rare pudding of pounded chicken breast, rice flour, milk and sugar, dusted with cinnamon. Then compare it with the other Turkish milk puddings on the counter.

How to Find the Pudding Shop

The restaurant stands on Divan Yolu in Sultanahmet, close to the Sultanahmet tram stop, between the Hagia Sophia and the Hippodrome. Afterward, walk to the Basilica Cistern nearby, or read our guide to Istanbul street food for your next snack. We book your table at the Pudding Shop on your Sultanahmet day.

Pudding Shop fits easily into a day in the old city. On our Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque tour, lunch is in Sultanahmet, so ask us to make it your lunch stop. Book the tour as a private morning, and we finish it at the Pudding Shop door.