Where to sit with a laptop near Merter, Laleli and Osmanbey
Somewhere between the third and fourth showroom of the day, you need forty minutes: answer eleven WhatsApp messages, send a supplier the photo of the style you want, charge a phone that is on nine per cent. And that is when you find out that most cafés in the wholesale districts are built for a glass of tea and leaving. Put a laptop on the table and you can feel the waiter wanting the table back. Here is where you can actually sit.
The short answer
In Merter, go to the Espressolab Roastery — it is the only real option, and a very good one. Near Laleli, walk up to Beyazıt: the state library is free, and the student cafés around Vezneciler expect laptops. From Osmanbey, Nişantaşı is a short walk and has the city’s laptop-café culture. And buy a Turkish eSIM before any of it, so café wifi stops being your problem.
Why it is harder than it should be
The wholesale districts were not built for sitting. Merter is showrooms, workshops and warehouses, and the cafés that serve it are small places for tea, a toast and a cigarette between deliveries. They turn tables quickly, and a foreigner with a laptop and one coffee is in the way.
It has also become harder across the city. Turkish press reported through 2025 and 2026 that cafés in Şişli, Beşiktaş and Kadıköy had started limiting the time on wifi passwords, capping power sockets and asking laptop users to order again every couple of hours. So the places below are the ones built for it, not the ones that put up with it.
Merter
One strong pick and one fallback. Most of the rest is tea houses.
The one real answer in Merter. Espressolab’s 6,000 m² flagship in a converted cardboard factory, opened in 2022, with a garden, long shared tables and separate co-working rooms. It feels more like a campus than a café, which is exactly what you want between showrooms.
A proper coworking floor in the Merter Platform towers on the E-5, next to the metro and metrobüs. Day-pass prices are not published, so ring ahead rather than turning up.
One warning: older listings still show a Starbucks in Merter, but the one I can find is marked as closed. Check the map before you walk there looking for it.
Laleli and Beyazıt
Laleli itself is wall-to-wall wholesale, but it sits at the foot of the university quarter. Walk about ten minutes uphill to Beyazıt and Vezneciler and you are among students, and students work on laptops everywhere.
Beyazıt Devlet Kütüphanesi, on Beyazıt Square next to the university gate, restored into a modern reading space and free to use. It has been reported as open around the clock, but check the current hours before you rely on it. Library rules apply: quiet, and no coffee at the desk. I could not confirm wifi, so plan on mobile data.
Right at Vezneciler metro, in the student quarter around Istanbul University, where working on a laptop in a café is normal rather than tolerated. Wifi is listed by the chain.
If both are full, there is a Kahve Dünyası at Aksaray metro, open 10:00 to 22:00 — fine for an hour, not somewhere to settle in.
Osmanbey and Nişantaşı
This is the easy one. Osmanbey backs onto Nişantaşı and Teşvikiye, which is where Istanbul’s laptop-café culture actually lives. It is also where the new café rules started, so expect to order more than once.
Listed in laptop-friendly café directories for its roomy seating and quiet. Nişantaşı prices, so expect to pay more than in Merter.
A quieter specialty café that turns up on Istanbul “places to work” lists, with late hours that suit an evening of catching up on messages.
Not exciting, but reliable: a mall Starbucks with space, air conditioning and predictable hours. Cevahir has three of them.
A coworking chain with a Nişantaşı branch. Day passes exist, but the price is on request.
How not to get the look
None of this is written down, but all of it is noticed.
- Order again every hour or so. A second coffee or a water is the rent on the table.
- Stay clear of 12:00 to 14:00. Lunch is when a café needs its tables, and a laptop at a table for four at one o’clock is the fastest way to be asked to move.
- Take the small table. Sit alone at a table for two, not four.
- Ask before you plug in. Some places now switch sockets off or keep charging behind the counter.
- Do not open a laptop in a lokanta or a tea garden. They are for eating and talking. Nobody will say anything, and everybody will think it.
The wifi problem
Public wifi in Turkey often asks you to log in with a phone number for an SMS code, and sometimes an ID number. How each chain handles a foreign number, I could not confirm — and standing at a counter trying to receive a code on a phone with no signal is a bad use of a buying day.
The simple fix is to buy a Turkish eSIM or a local SIM before you land or at the airport, and hotspot the laptop from your phone. Then every café is a working café, and the wifi question disappears. It is also how you will be sending WhatsApp messages to suppliers all day anyway.
What I have not tested
Honestly, the only place I have ever opened a laptop in Istanbul is a Starbucks, a handful of times — which is why I went looking. This list is the result of looking properly: official addresses, the chains’ own branch pages, laptop-café directories and Turkish press. I have not sat in every one of these with a laptop, and I would rather tell you that than pretend.
On my next trip I will work from each of them for an hour and update this page with what I actually found — sockets, noise, and whether anybody minded. If you get there first, tell me.
Common questions
Where can I work on a laptop near Merter in Istanbul?
The Espressolab Roastery in Merter, a 6,000 square metre café in a converted factory with shared tables and co-working rooms, a short walk from Merter metro. For a quieter desk, the eOfis coworking space in the Merter Platform towers sells passes on request.
Is there a free place to work near Laleli and the Grand Bazaar?
Yes. Beyazıt State Library on Beyazıt Square is free and has been reported as open around the clock. Library rules apply, so it is quiet and there is no food or coffee at the desk. Check the current hours before you rely on it.
Is it acceptable to work on a laptop in Turkish cafés?
In chain and specialty cafés, yes, as long as you order again roughly every hour and avoid the lunch rush. Some cafés in Şişli, Beşiktaş and Kadıköy have started limiting wifi time and sockets. Traditional tea houses and lokantas are not the place for a laptop.
Do I need a Turkish phone number for café wifi in Istanbul?
Often the login asks for a phone number to send an SMS code. The easiest way round it is a Turkish eSIM or local SIM, so you can use mobile data and hotspot your laptop instead.