# Cocktails Meet the Bosphorus: Istanbul's Modern Bar Scene

> Istanbul's modern bar scene by the water: cocktails with a Bosphorus view, rakı as the classic counterpoint, and pairing a drink with the sunset.

Istanbul's **modern bar scene** has grown up around one thing the city has in abundance: a view of the water. The short answer for a visitor is this: the best drinking in Istanbul is increasingly done on terraces and rooftops, where a cocktail is paired with the Bosphorus and the sunset rather than served in a closed room. Alongside the new bars, the old counterpoint endures, rakı, the anise spirit that has anchored the Turkish table for generations. The result is a drinking culture that runs from the traditional to the contemporary, and almost always wants a view to go with it.

## What is rakı, and why does it still matter?

Before cocktails, there was *rakı*: a clear, anise-flavoured spirit that turns milky white when you add water, which is why Turks call it *aslan sütü* (lion's milk). It is the classic Turkish drink, sipped slowly over ice, traditionally beside a spread of meze and never rushed. Rakı is less a drink than a ritual, paced across a long evening of small plates and conversation.

That ritual still shapes how Istanbul drinks. Even as cocktail bars multiply, the rakı table sets the template: slow, social, food alongside, the evening measured in hours rather than rounds. A modern Istanbul bar may serve an inventive cocktail list, but the underlying rhythm, drink slowly, eat as you go, stay a while, is inherited from rakı.

## Why are terrace and rooftop bars the heart of it?

Istanbul is a city built across water, and its bars have followed the obvious instinct: get up high and face the Bosphorus. The rise of terrace and rooftop bars is the defining shift in the city's modern drinking scene, because the view is half the reason to order a drink. A glass on a rooftop, with the strait below and the light changing over the minarets, is an experience the room itself cannot provide.

What you tend to find on these terraces:

- **The view as the main draw**: the water, the ferries, the old city skyline, the drink is part of the setting, not the whole event.
- **Sunset timing**: the best tables fill as the light turns, so an early arrival is rewarded.
- **A slow pace**: terrace bars suit lingering, one well-made drink stretched across the golden hour rather than a fast round.
- **Food alongside**: meze and small plates keep the rakı-table habit alive even at the cocktail end of the scene.

## How do you pair a drink with the sunset?

The simplest pairing in Istanbul is a drink and the golden hour, and the trick is timing. Arrive before the light turns, with enough of the evening ahead that you are not watching the clock. The sun moving across the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn is slow theatre, and a good drink is something to hold while it plays out, not something to finish before it begins.

Choose by the mood of the evening rather than a rule. A long, cooling drink suits a warm summer dusk on a terrace. Rakı, sipped beside meze, suits an evening built around the table and conversation. The point is less what is in the glass than where you are sitting and how long you intend to stay. A drink with a view is an occasion to settle into, and the city is generous with the settings for it.

## Where does the view-and-drink culture lead the evening?

A drink on a terrace is rarely the whole night. It tends to open into a longer evening, dinner as the light fades, the city lighting up below, the unhurried stretch after dark. The view that drew you up at sunset only deepens once the lights come on across the water. For the wider picture of how an Istanbul kitchen travels from the Mediterranean to the Far East, our [guide to world cuisine in Istanbul](/en/blog/world-cuisine-istanbul/) sets out what a modern table here can hold. And because so much of this culture is inherited from the slow, shared rakı table, the [art of mezze](/en/blog/art-of-mezze/), Turkey's small-plate tradition, is the natural companion to a drink at dusk. If your evening is centred on the historic peninsula, the [visitor's guide to Süleymaniye](/en/blog/suleymaniye-guide/) maps the quiet old quarter where the view comes without the crowds.

## A drink and the view in Süleymaniye

If you would like a drink with the water in front of you, **Moss Lounge the Bosphorus** sits in Süleymaniye, on the historic peninsula, with a rooftop terrace between the Süleymaniye Mosque silhouette and the Bosphorus. Adem Özen, who opened it in 2019, runs the place as a home rather than a restaurant, with drinks and cocktails, food that travels from the Mediterranean to the Far East, and a calm terrace made for the sunset hour. It is an unhurried corner to hold a drink while the light moves across the strait.