Avoid restaurants with no printed menus near Sultanahmet! Total bill scam
Hey guys, I need to vent and warn everyone visiting the Sultanahmet area right now. My friend and I went to a place near the tram line that had a big sign outside advertising "Homemade Local Food".The guy outside was super friendly and told us to just come inside and pick whatever we wanted directly from the open food display. Stupidly, we didn't ask for a physical menu with prices because he made it sound like a cheap, casual cafeteria. We just had a very basic lunch—some stew, rice, and two teas.When it was time to pay, the waiter refused to give us an official machine receipt. He just wrote a random number on a small scrap piece of paper: 2,780 TL (around $55 USD) for a simple lunch!! When I argued and pulled out my credit card, they said "Sorry, our card machine is broken right now, cash only".They completely exploit the fact that you don't know the local prices and don't have a menu to prove them wrong. Is there any way to report these kinds of places to the Tourist Police? I feel absolutely robbed and it ruined my day.
