Frommer’s

In its heyday, the Pudding Shop was an obligatory stop on the “hippie trail,” a starting point for restless vagabonds from the West on their way through the exotic East. With its anti¬establishment clientele, it wasn’t long before it gained the reputation of ground zero for drug dealings and other unsavory business propositions — in Oliver Stone’s Midnight: Express, Billy Hayes gives up his cabdriver supplier here. Today, the Pudding Shop fades into history alongside the other fast-food restaurants on Divanyolu Caddesi, with fluorescent backlit menu displays and stacks of expat publications. Turkish and Ottoman staples are pre-prepared and displayed in steam tables behind a counter; just point at what looks good. The menu features stuffed grape leaves, lentil-stuffed eggplant/aubergine, as well as köfte and sis, but you should get these last two things next door at the Sultanahmet Köftecisi, if that’s what you plan on ordering.