Leyla recently opened but is already packing them in, apparently soaking up the latent demand for a clean well appointed café-bar in Cihangir, the center of bohemian and foreign resident life in Istanbul. Although the food is not quite up to snuff, the real action takes place after 11:00 when the Cihangerians arrive en masse and sneer down at yuppies from other parts of town invading their club house of the moment. The music mixes funk, disco and house classics to give the too smoky interior a feeling of a London Soho bar that is only dispelled by the occasional bearded Turkish intellectual in naff gear.
Open daily 08:00-04:00. Credit cards accepted