Good place to stay around Karakoy and Istiklal. Very clean and Emre is great! The eateries around are kind of upscale and expensive. Not much cheap Turkish food around, mostly expensive foreign flavored foods. You may have to take metro to get to Taxim area, though it is also walkable if you’d like to walk. So I recommend to stay here if you want a more upscaled experience of Istanbul. They provide tea and Nescafé and do laundry for you during your stay. Very kind of them.