263 Best Restaurants in Turkey

Authentic Turkish mezes with delicious imaginative twists such as added peach or apple are displayed in the cabinet, where one of the family, Ümmühan, will assist with her infectious pleasure in explaining their dishes. Mains can be meatballs, kebabs, tender meats, liver, mushrooms, or if the fresh fish of the day. All dishes are attentively served at tables tucked into a lovely hidden garden in summer or in cooler weather, in a quaint, Bodrum-style, white one-story house. Local and regional Turkish wines, plus a menu of raki blends are offered to the many local and visiting diners who return to this haven of dining.

Getting lost amongst the fields and vineyards becomes worth it when arriving at Hus to receive polite but interested, professional service, beautifully curated menus, detailed explanations, and suggestions for wine pairing. The modern building houses the busy kitchen led by three chefs, while the tables are set out indoors or around the lawns looking over the Hus vineyards. There are two rooms available for bed and breakfast accommodation upstairs. Cheese platters accompany afternoon tastings of five wines for 450 TL.

Revithia offers perhaps the most exceptional dining experience in Cappadocia, if not all of Turkey. Eight- and five-course tasting menus are served in an intimate 25-seat dining room. Revithia derives from the Greek word for chickpea, reflecting its homage to the region's Greek heritage. Drawing on "forgotten dishes" of the area, the chef reimagines traditional flavors, showcasing local fruits, cheeses, and, of course, lamb. Revithia is one of the few fine-dining options in Cappadocia—and Turkey—that offers a vegan tasting menu. 

With fine food and excellent service, stylish Seraser aspires to be the best restaurant in all of Turkey, and its inventive international menu certainly lifts it above other options in Antalya. This is considered a special-occasion restaurant, yet it's wonderfully relaxed and decent value compared to its American counterparts. Part of the opulent Tuvana Hotel, it's set in the leafy courtyard of a historic house, with indoor and outdoor dining areas and live jazz on weekends. The menu reflects international favorites with a Turkish twist, made with quality Turkish ingredients—most of which are organic. Starters include goat cheese and aubergine soufflé, mussels Provençal, and superb house-made pastas. Grouper and char-grilled steak are popular mains, but do save room for dessert: the Turkish coffee-infused crème brûlée is a showstopper. The wine list is impressive, with more than 300 options, though prices are steep.

If you are kebabed out, this old town restaurant has some of the best contemporary cuisine on the coast and serves it in an appropriately stylish setting. The menu changes regularly, though it's basically modern European with lashings of Southeast Asia. There's also a stylish lounge area where you can order coffee during the day or cocktails at night. It's on the pricey side for Turkey, but so is most of Kaleiçi—and this is some of the best food you'll find here.

A dazzling array of inventive seafood and vegetable mezes in the cold cabinet, for hot or cold consumption, makes for a hard choice but yields very tasty plates. The decor is of a beguiling old-school fish restaurant, photos of years of past clients and friends, raki bottles and fish posters which fit the view of fishing nets piled on the harbor path from the small fishing boats moored there. The single tempura prawn with chili sauce is superb. The mains are fried or grilled fresh fish, but check the fish in season, weight and price before ordering. Father and sons have built a respectful, popular following, amongst the many fish restaurants along the old port walkway.

Chef and owner Melih Teksen moved his deliciously inventive dishes and Mediterranean restaurant out to a superb setting and partnership at Buradan Vineyards in early 2024, after 25 years of Agrilia leading the trends in a la carte restaurants in Alaçatı's center. From April to September set menus of fresh seasonal foods are paired with the wines in a superb setting of sunset in the vineyards.

At this waterfront restaurant, you should begin your meal with a selection of meze, like stuffed zucchini flowers, roasted eggplant with tulum cheese, and octopus salad. Then you can let the owner, Cengiz Bey, or his waiters help you select the best local fish for the grill. Whatever you choose, don't skip dessert: Gaziantep baklava or irmik helvası (traditional warm semolina halvah) served with ice cream.

Owned by a local butcher, this sophisticated waterfront spot serves up the high-quality, perfectly cooked steaks and chops that you’d expect, along with burgers, kebabs, and lighter options like mezes and salads, though the selection of non-meat mains is slim. There’s a full bar and a great view, especially at sunset.

With excellent food and stylish ambience, this restaurant has won itself a place at the top of Mardin's dining scene. There is a mix of Western dishes such as steak and pasta, with Turkish standards and local specialities like kaburga (stuffed lamb) and kuz tandir (slow oven-cooked lamb). The meze dishes are also unusual regional specialities and very tasty. Local wine is available. Meals are served on a pleasant outdoor terrace in the evening and the vaulted stone rooms of an old house during the day.

In the pedestrian center of town, a few steps up into the old 19th-century building takes you to the long display of dishes cooked as their mother, auntie, and grandmothers used to. In this Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant (2024), that means a combination of Turkish and old Greek influence, using wild greens and the famous Urla artichokes. At the rear, the indoor dining room is flanked by a popular terrace shaded by trees in summer. The large lamb shanks on potato puree, a very meaty Urla Guvec (casserole), Mucver (a large courgette fritter), and many versions of stuffed artichoke Enginar Sarma (e.g. stuffed with rice, and dill and herbs) are just some of the delicious dishes.

Excellent coffees, detox juices, herbal teas, croissants or healthy sour-bread breakfasts, vegan dishes, German-style baked cakes, cookies, and desserts are served in this bright yellow corner cafe on the traffic road leading away from the Bodrum Marina. A breakfast Bellini is possible, as it is licensed for alcohol service. The team also creates the Munchbox takeout or delivery boxes of savory or sweet platter nibbles.

One of Mardin's best restaurants (known throughout Turkey) occupies a restored stone house with several terraces that provide spectacular views of the plain that unfolds below the town. Dishes served are authentic local ones, such as lamb braised in a tangy green plum sauce and kitel raha, layers of mince and chickpea dough. There is also a full spread of tantalizing cold and hot mezes, including tasty chickpea fritters and, owing to the Arab influence on Mardin, hummus and falafel. A locally made red wine is served traditionally, in metal bowls, although you can ask for a glass.

This outdoor terrace overlooking the waterfront is an ideal spot in Dalyanköy for a splurgy seafood dinner. After meze of kabak çiçeği dolması (stuffed zucchini flowers) and deniz börülcesi (samphire), and a main of tuzda balık (fish baked in salt), try to find room for sakızlı muhallebi, creamy traditional milk pudding flavored with gum mastic.

Don’t be put off by the entry through a narrow passageway: follow it and it opens up into a cheery, sophisticated café-style dining area that's airy and filled with plants. The family-owned restaurant near Hadrian's Gate serves up tasty home-cooking, and is a great-value option with a small menu focused on meatballs and other grills, traditional Antalya-style bean salad, and meat- or potato-filled mantı (dumplings).

This small and colorful eatery serving Greek and Turkish fare is an increasingly rare find in ever more chic Bodrum. Choose from meze like smoked fish or roasted eggplant with tahini sauce, followed by fresh fish, ending perhaps with a cream-topped candied mandarin for dessert. Reservations are essential, and the service does get harried when the tables are filled.

This popular spot overlooking the Selçuk aqueduct is run by a friendly family team—husband, wife, and son—and offers a menu that includes such traditional vegetarian dishes as exemplary stuffed peppers and fried eggplant. It may sometimes take a while for the generous juicy lamb and chicken kebabs to cook in the small hearth, but it's worth the wait.

The peripatetic Turkish-Armenian maestro Garo heads the kitchen at this enduringly popular stone cottage-turned-waterfront restaurant in Türkbükü with a comfy Greek-taverna feel, friendly staff, and an outdoor terrace with blue-and-white checkered tablecloths. If you're not in the mood for seafood and meze, there are spicy Turkish meatballs or a Bodrum specialty, çökertme kebabı (beef strips over fried potatoes with yogurt sauce).

Popular with locals and visitors alike, Giritli offers a prix-fixe multicourse dinner menu of well-prepared Cretan specialties that includes unlimited local alcoholic drinks (wine or rakı). At least 15 different cold mezze—such as sea bass ceviche, herb-covered cubes of feta cheese with walnuts and olives, and various uncommon wild greens—are followed by hot starters like fried calamari in olive oil; the main course is a choice among several grilled fish, followed by dessert.

This lovely restaurant on the waterfront specializes not only in fresh fish, seafood, and meze but also serves an excellent summer brunch. Tables are only a few feet from the peaceful waters of the bay, with a truly romantic view of the ancient ruins of Rabbit Island, often with a soft breeze. The waitstaff are cheery and attentive, and though the kitchen has been refurbished almost beyond recognition, it retains a 300-year-old hearth from when it served as the bakery for the surrounding villages.

Tucked in a leafy corner of the fish market, this smart, upscale restaurant is something of a diamond among the more rough and ready crowd of restaurants that encircle the market. Specialties of the restaurant include zesty octopus salad and rich shrimp casserole, plus other seafood and fish dishes which really showcase the best of Aegean flavors. The bustling market setting adds a fun environs, especially for people-watching.

Fresh, creative mezes, eclectic seafood dishes, and zingy salads are accompanied by a great list of high-quality Turkish wines at this local culinary institution, which recently moved from its former terraced setting to a new, tranquil garden setting among pomegranate and fig trees. It's the same owners behind the tantalizingly inventive but great value menu, whose culinary combinations are not often found elsewhere.

Open since 1887, Imam Çağdaş is certainly doing something right, as the crowds that pack this restaurant in the bazaar district day and night will tell you. Besides top notch lahmucan (crispy stone baked dough topped with spiced minced meat), there's a small menu of standard kebabs such as ali nazik (minced-meat kebab served on a puree of roasted eggplant, garlic, and yogurt) and the sebzeli kebab, a skewer of grilled vegetables and lamb minced with garlic and parsley. The star however is the terrific syrupy baklava, so widely regarded as the best in the country that orders have regularly been received from Turkish presidents and from as far afield as Fidel Castro.

Chef-owner Musa Dağdeviren, who hails from the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep, is something of a culinary anthropologist, offering truly unique dishes made using recipes from around Turkey. This restaurant, Çiya Sofrası—the original of the three no-frills branches along the same street—is known for its seasonal meat- and vegetarian-based daily specials that feature unusual flavor combinations. Nearby Çiya Kebap serves top-notch kebabs along with home-style dishes.

Though the sweeping sea view is the star attraction of this meyhane above the harbor, the service and the food hold their own. Fresh fish, seafood, and meze are the traditional pairings with the rakı and Turkish wines on offer, including a wide array of tasty grilled shrimp dishes, köfte, and lemony fried fish.

One of Sultanahmet's most outstanding restaurants emphasizes the Arab- and Kurdish-influenced cuisine of southeastern Turkey, including mezze like hummus, muhammara (hot pepper and walnut spread), and thyme salad, as well as tasty kebabs like lamb shish. One of the interesting non-kebab main dishes on offer is the chicken stew, which has chunks of meat in a thick sauce of onions, mushrooms, and sweet pumpkin.

This long-standing, family-run fish house overlooks the harbor and is especially noted for a wide selection of Cretan dishes and seafood appetizers that include delectable shrimp cooked in butter, garlic, and seaweed. A local institution with courteous waitstaff, Körfez also serves some meat dishes.

Summer and winter, the restaurant associated with and just 50 meters (164 feet) from the Kırkınca Houses Boutique Hotel is the best in town, overlooking the lovely landscape and serving delicious and authentic dishes prepared with oil produced from olives harvested in their orchards. You can accompany your meal with wines produced in Şirince, and the sound of mellow live music on Friday and Saturday nights. Among the delicacies on the menu are creamy eggplant soup; şevketi bostanı, a root vegetable cooked with tender pieces of lamb; and delicious homemade pasta, erişte, served in a light cream and almond sauce.

Long established in a beautiful old Bodrum house and courtyard, this restaurant serves tapas, paella, beef cheeks, scallops, and a variety of other Spanish and Mediterranean dishes, available for lunch and dinner. Chef-owner Neco regularly visits Spain for inspiration. Desserts include San Sebastian and Creme Catalan. An impressive wine room offers a range of Turkish and international labels. They also run an economical pizza cafe in the alley next door.