With a name meaning "Rosewater Pudding Palace," how can you go wrong? Our first night we almost passed Saray in our kebab-induced haze. But those of us who zero in on desserts were drawn to the display window, with its centerpiece pastry tower in a pan of syrup flanked by baklava, fried syrupy dough balls, kunafe and more. Various staff members laughed as we stumbled over each other trying to rush in.

Saray is a cavernous place on Istiklal Street where many Istanbulis also come for dinner. However, we were focused on dessert. We blocked the front counter while the clerks chuckled at our excitement, ordering one of everything we saw. We had baklava, pistachio rolls, kadayif (similar to baklava) and various puddings. Some were covered in chocolate sauce, but not a type that was familiar or particularly good to me.

The most intriguing pudding was the tavuk gogsu, made with everyone's favorite sweetstuff: chicken. An odd flavor combination, as the chicken pieces are clearly identifiable while the pudding is very sweet—it's weird but sort of hard to put down.

After we finally tore ourselves away, paying about 3YTL each for our many desserts, the staff volunteered to pose for photos. One in particular was VERY excited about being featured, posing in the doorway, putting his hat on April, and running to dramatically pour syrup over the pastry tower in the window for our amusement.

Saray is popular with locals for good reason, and is one of the few pastry shops with late-night hours—if you stumble out of the clubs and crave chicken pudding, you can hit up Saray until 2AM.

Saray Muhallebicisi (Turkish only)

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