At noon, the door of the Istanbul City Diner opens and people begin trickling inside. They are university students and retirees, housewives and hospital workers, white-collar professionals and shopkeepers. They are all drawn to the restaurant by the promise of a cheap, healthy meal that, at around £1.40, defies Turkey’s astronomical inflation rate.
“We just graduated and they immediately cut off our meal cards,” says Ege Uretmen, a 23-year-old medical student waiting patiently in line for a meal of chicken stew, rice, soup, salad, a piece of bread and a bottle of water for 29 Turkish lire, the price of a cup of coffee at nearby restaurants.
