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A man in a blue shirt holding out a tall cone of red and brown ice cream on a shopfront streetFrom Dondurmacı Yaşar Usta

Istanbul · dondurma

Dondurmacı Yaşar Usta

The strongest documented case in Istanbul for a small, still-family-run dondurma shop using real salep rather than an industrial base, corroborated across three independent sources spanning 2010 to 2019, and the only Istanbul dondurma shop on record here to carry an on-the-record professional comparison to a global reference point.

What to order
Karadutlu (mulberry) dondurma; also the walnut (ceviz) and tahini (tahin), both singled out by name in Vedat Milor's review.

What we know

  • Milk-based flavours made with sugar, salep and buffalo milk, no additives, colouring or preservatives, per a food writer's first-person 2010 account
  • Named seasonal fruit sourcing: strawberries from Düzce, figs from Aydın, per Time Out Istanbul
  • Sugar kept below a stated threshold across the range, per Time Out Istanbul
  • Only opens the flagship stall late spring to early autumn and closes it for winter, switching to home delivery, per a 2010 first-person account
  • Turkey's most prominent restaurant critic compares the mulberry ice cream directly to Paris's Berthillon in an unpaid review on his own guide site
Status
open
Address
Bostancı, Profesör Doktor Ali Nihat Tarlan Caddesi No:33 No:34/A, Kadıköy, İstanbul
Maker
Yaşar Usta, founder
Website
www.gurmanatlas.com/isletme/yasar-ustanin-dondurmasi/
Last checked
2026-08-21

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