Gaziantep cooks more registered dishes than any other Turkish city, and eats them on a schedule: beyran at dawn, katmer mid-morning, kebab at dusk. This three-day route follows local markets, family bakeries and 17th-century coffee houses.
Antep's spice and nut market: sacks of green Antep fıstığı, sumac, dried aubergine garlands and smoky isot pepper. Traders open around 08:00 and close by 19:00; a kilo of shelled pistachio runs 700–900 TL, isot about 150 TL.
Beyran headquarters since 1966 — lamb shank, rice and garlic simmered in bone broth and finished with a ladle of chilli fat. Locals eat it at dawn and the pot is usually scraped clean by 13:00. A bowl with bread runs about 200 TL.
A restored 1904 stone mansion devoted to Antep's 400-plus documented dishes: mannequin kitchens, copper cauldrons, wedding-feast dioramas and a wall listing every regional kebab by season. Open 09:00–17:00, closed Monday.
A working coffee house since 1635, vaulted and smoke-stained, where menengiç (wild terebinth) coffee is roasted and ground on the premises. Dibek and Turkish coffee too, served with pistachio paste. Cups from 90 TL, open until midnight.
Katmer breakfast: paper-thin yufka folded around clotted kaymak and crushed green pistachio, baked in seconds and cut into wedges. Sold by the portion from 07:00; a full katmer with tea is roughly 300 TL. Arrive before 10:30.
Large family kebab house on the Şehitkamil side, known for kuşleme, simit kebabı and yuvalama — the yoghurt-and-chickpea soup Antep families cook for holidays. Mezze plus kebab lands near 700 TL a head, with garden seating in summer.
Third-generation bakery whose kuru baklava travels well and whose şöbiyet is layered with kaymak. The yufka is rolled at a counter you can watch. A 100 g tasting plate is about 200 TL, a kilo box around 1,400 TL. Open 08:00–22:00.
Charcoal ocakbaşı grilling Antep classics: patlıcan kebabı in aubergine season, soğan kebabı wrapped around whole onions, and fıstıklı kebap studded with green pistachios. Meat is hand-minced daily on a stone block.
Gaziantep's municipal culinary academy, housed in a restored konak, running hands-on workshops in yuvalama, katmer folding and stretching baklava yufka to newspaper thinness. Morning sessions only; a half-day class is around 1,500 TL.
Ottoman caravanserai off the old bazaar, now packed with dried-fruit stalls: walnut-and-grape sucuk strings, sun-dried apricot pestil sheets, roasted pistachio and jugs of şıra. Courtyard tea houses grill simple gözleme at lunchtime.
Named for the grape must (şıra) once traded in its courtyard, this arcaded han mixes workshops with cafés pouring meyan şerbeti — liquorice-root sherbet shaken from a brass back-tank and served ice-cold. A glass is about 40 TL.
Nineteenth-century stone mansion in the Bey quarter with a fig-shaded courtyard, serving regional wine, nargile and small plates of fıstık ezmesi and cheese. Live saz most evenings from 20:00.