Foxy Nişantaşı

Sea bass cut to the order

Sea bass tartare is cut à la minute at the bench while Chef Marcos Flores works the modern kitchen at Foxy Nişantaşı in Istanbul. The fish takes tangy mayonnaise, croutons, grated bottarga, paprika, and smoked beetroot, a plate built for a room where wine leads and food answers with salt, fat, acid, and texture. Flores arrived here with a route shaped by leadership posts rather than a single apprenticeship story: Executive Chef at Fort Lauderdale Marriott North in Fort Lauderdale, Executive Chef and General Manager at FARE GROUND in Austin, and Director of Outlets at Latinicity Food Hall in Chicago, all named in 2022. The following year, in Aventura, his cooking language was described through South American ingredients and Latin-fusion technique, with red snapper, beef short ribs, quinoa, smoked vegetables, polenta, root vegetables, and leeks carrying the proof. At Foxy Nişantaşı, his stated specialty is modern cuisine. The house places that discipline inside a Turkish wine bar format, where small plates need enough clarity to sit beside native grapes without flattening them.

Small plates against native grapes

The program rests on sharing: small plates, ordered à la carte, with a menu that moves further in the evening than it does earlier in the day. Beef tartare comes with Russian salad; another house signature, octopus platter, belongs to the same appetite for plates that can stand at the counter as easily as at a table. Lakerda and topik give the kitchen older Turkish and Armenian forms to work from, while the sea bass tartare keeps the knife work visible. The wine side carries more than 200 native Turkish bottles, moving through Narince, Öküzgözü, Kalecik Karası, orange wines, natural bottles, and local sparkling. That number matters here because the food is not arranged as a procession of courses. It is a conversation between the pass and the glass: high-acid white with fish, red fruit and tannin against tartare, textured orange wine beside smoke, chickpea, onion, currant, pine nut, and tahini.

A relaxed room with the pass nearby

The room is modest by design, with cozy lighting, simple lines, and a local ease that suits Nişantaşı better than theater would. Conversation stays at a human level. The counter and tables feel close to the work, not because the kitchen performs, but because the format asks the guest to notice sequence: a plate lands, a bottle opens, another small dish shifts the table. Foxy Nişantaşı began in 2019 as a second location after the Karaköy original, and this branch in Harbiye, on Mim Kemal Öke Caddesi, carries the neighborhood bistro brief with more polish in the operation. Its recognition includes a Bib Gourmand in the 2026 Guide Türkiye, alongside a total award count of 3. Awards do not change the room. They sharpen the attention on the beef tartare with Russian salad.