A Michelin-starred restaurant connotes many things: exceptional food, acclaimed chefs, a rarefied atmosphere, elite guests, glamour, and prestige. Arkestra, the Istanbul restaurant from the young Turkish-born, French-trained chef Cenk Debensason and his partner in life and business Debora Ipekel, has all these qualities, but with an added element few such restaurants share: fun.
Arkestra is home to a restaurant, a bar, and a bistro
The restaurant is one of the first in Turkey to receive a Michelin star – an achievement made all the more impressive since it only opened a little over a year ago. In addition to the restaurant, set in a refurbished 1960s residential villa, Debensason and Ipekel opened a buzzy bar upstairs called The Listening Room and, as of last month, a bistro called Ritmo across the hall from the main dining room. All three offer a different dining experience, but together, they suggest that the Arkestra project is poised to set a new, more joyful standard of what a fine dining restaurant can be.
From the outset, Debensason and Ipekel wanted their venue to have a casual but opulent atmosphere to make guests feel the excitement of going somewhere special without the rigidity or seriousness of many fine dining establishments. At Arkestra, guests can choose from a seasonal menu that is heavy on French influence but also draws from Japanese, Italian, Mexican and Thai flavours.
A restaurant’s bread and butter is usually a telling barometer of how the meal will be; if its most standard dish is impressive, chances are the rest of the menu will be as well. That principle is certainly true at Arkestra, where the potato bread is fermented for five days, baked into an airy roll, grilled and served alongside burnt butter, whipped in an ice cream machine and finished with bright green scallion oil. It has the soft, creamy consistency of challah with a malty, slightly smoky taste; unique but not so experimental that it loses its straightforward deliciousness. That balance between innovation and accessibility extends to all of Arkestra’s dishes.
Stand-out examples include the tuna sashimi – the most ordered dish on the menu – which combines delicate tuna slices with sushi rice ice cream and crunchy puffed rice for an intriguing texture combination that heightens the freshness of the tuna and its ginger ponzu vinaigrette. Meanwhile, the katsu sando is a perfect strip of succulent steak sandwiched between two buttery pieces of bread with a sweet and savoury sauce.
Debensason’s freewheeling and expansive approach to Akestra’s menu is echoed in the restaurant’s interiors. Designed by Tayfun Mumcu, an elusive architect who doesn’t have a website or any social media but with a prestigious reputation, the space combines cosy elements like wood-panelled walls and caramel-coloured leather booths with glamorous touches such as retrofuturist crystal chandeliers.
The Listening Room
At the Listening Room, Ipekel applies her former experience as a music programmer for Boiler Room and an NTS Radio host by curating a roster of local and international DJs with sets that range from jazz, disco, hip hop, and more. With a hand-painted mural on the walls and snug leather seats, The Listening Room is an elegant bar for pre-dinner drinks, yet on weekends, as the night wears on, the space transforms into a boisterous dance floor with a packed crowd spilling out onto balconies.
Ritmo
Ritmo has a slightly more tempered atmosphere than the Listening Room and offers a more intimate and relaxed alternative to the dining experience at Arkestra. The menu includes palm-sized oysters filled with champagne sabayon, rich beef tartare enlivened by gochujang sauce and served with crunchy rice crackers, and an unexpectedly delicious combination of caramelised Jerusalem artichokes with white chocolate potato.
Whether you are a dessert person or not, you shouldn’t leave without trying the churros with a decadent chocolate sauce spiced with Japanese togarashi spice. From the cocktail menu, a must-try is the Salted Grapefruit Mule, a dangerously drinkable, Paloma-like concoction blending vodka and orange liqueur with salted grapefruit cordial and spicy ginger.
‘We wanted Ritmo to have an entirely different identity to everything else on offer at Arkestra,’ says Debensason about the new space. ‘Working with Tayfun to create such an original space also influenced the plates we’re serving – we want guests to feel like Ritmo is their second home but that there will always be an element of surprise when they drop by.’
With Arkestra, Debensason and Ipekel have undoubtedly created a one-stop destination for every night out – an exceptional meal in a Michelin-starred restaurant, cocktails with friends, or an evening spent dancing into the early hours.
