Ficcin

Ficcin has to have one of the oddest layouts of any restaurant in Istanbul - it's spread over 4 or 5 different buildings all on the same street. They all serve the same menu, so you can sit wherever is most pleasant.

There are a lot of mezze / "Zeytinyaglar" options on the menu which are usually cold veg. dishes, but be aware that a number of them come with yoghurt. If you're especially unlucky you may even end up with circassian chicken as part of a mixed dish - this happened to me one time. Try to check with the serving staff if unsure, although this doesn't necessarily guarantee anything, at least you have some comeback if they screw up the order.

Inexplicably, they did at one stage have vegan options marked on the Turkish menu, but not the English menu. Either way, it's better to ask - the vegan marked menu I saw looked not entirely consistent with the general understanding of the term.

The dishes are good value, and you can order a few of them together to get a good variety of tastes. It's kind of useful as an all-day breakfast alternative, since you usually get served bread also by default. The hummus, fried aubergine with tomato, and red pepper paste dishes are pretty good. I never bothered with any of the mains since they all seem fairly unappealing.

The location is very central in the middle part of Istiklal street / Galatasaray. There is also the health shop Ambar nearby on the same street.