34 Best Restaurants in Turkey

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.

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.

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.

Forget the printed menu and order from the meze case, where the wide range of tempting starters includes unusual mushrooms from the mountains out back, fresh seaweed dishes, and squid in garlic, oil, and lemon. Özcan's mains are predominantly seafood but there are also excellent kebabs and local lamb dishes. It's set on the wide esplanade that makes up Göcek's main public harbor.

Popular with locals, this restaurant specializes in the Arab-influenced cuisine of Hatay (originating near Turkey's border with Syria), which features delicious meze like hummus, baba ghanoush, muhammara (a spread of mashed chile peppers and walnuts), kısır (a spicy version of tabbouleh), and a wide range of uncommon kebabs. The venue's famous "meter kebab" serves several people and requires advance ordering, as does the salt-shell-baked chicken and lamb.

With ornate Arabesque decorations and mosaic lamps, this centrally located café is an atmospheric place to spend a long morning. The picturesque breakfast spread is expansive and includes a mixture of Turkish and Lebanese dishes. Arada has two other outposts, one a five-minute walk up the hill from this one and the other in Üsküdar.

In good weather, the place to sit is the stone-lined terrace with wooden picnic tables that look over the mountains and the waterfall. The kitchen turns out trout and local dishes such as stuffed cabbage and turşu kavurması (roasted pickled vegetables), as well as meat options, and serves an open buffet breakfast every day.

This busy harborside fish restaurant is popular with Göcek locals and visitors alike, and is considered an institution of the town. In summer, the seating extends out toward the waterfront, under tropical trees and with romantic views of the water. Main dishes (kebabs, steak, seafood) are typical, but the pride of the menu is its wide selection of hot and cold meze. The homemade bread is delicious, and wild mountain mushrooms are served as a side dish in spring and fall.

Tucked among the antique stores of Cukurcuma, Cuma is a casual café by day and a cozy place to sip wine at night. Its seasonal menu uses local produce and offers a range of day-to-night options, along with fresh-baked bread and a comprehensive wine list.

This airy café-bakery, filled with lush green plants and big greenhouse-style windows, has an extensive menu of coffees, sweets, and brunch foods.

A real neighborhood spot located close to the seaside, Doorstep is a meeting point for locals and visitors to drink coffee by day and alcohol by night. With a limited lunch menu and a mix of indoor and outdoor seating, the place has a laid-back vibe and an easy charm.

Stopping here for pide (Turkish-style pizza or calzones, piled with a variety of ingredients that can include cheese, spinach, meat, or egg) is a highlight of a trip to Ilıca and a great choice for a quick lunch, or even breakfast, though on the pricey side compared to similar fare elsewhere. The menu also includes kebabs, soup, pizza, and traditional Turkish desserts.

From late-night soup to early morning breakfasts, pide to full plates of grilled kebabs and döner kebabs, everything here is served fast and efficiently in a very clean restaurant that's popular with local families and all age groups. No alcohol is served. It's open 24 hours in summer, and late hours into winter.

A few blocks north of the fray, Flash attracts more locals than tourists and survives on word of mouth. It’s known for soups, steaks, kebabs, and meat stews cooked in a clay pot (kiremit); it also makes delicious oven-fired pide and lahmacun (wafer-thin spiced-meat flatbread). Come ravenously hungry, and you may have room for a dessert of künefe, a rich confection of cheese, strands of stringy pastry, and sugar syrup sprinkled with pistachio.

Tour groups often fill this restaurant at dinner for good reason: the food is both delicious and inexpensive, a combination that also makes it popular with locals at lunch. The restaurant also offers a nice, traditional Turkish breakfast. Expect all the usual Turkish dishes, plus local specialties including soups, stews, and börek pastries.

The largest and one of the most popular branches of this local chain of chic eateries is directly on the waterfront, with stylish furnishings and two enormous open-air terraces. The international menu ranges from starters like Asian-style crispy chicken fingers and salmon ceviche to main-course salads, pastas, pizzas, steaks, and the signature house burger.

Part of the Gunay's Garden villa complex, this tranquil spot in the far corner of Kaya village blends the best of Turkish and European cuisine, using homegrown ingredients as much as possible. There is a good range of largely organic starters; try the mixed meze plate for a taste of everything. Mains include excellent fish, steak, pizzas, and a lovely oven-cooked lamb. As befits the hotel's family-friendly ethos, there's also a kids' menu.

With a prime spot right on the beach, Karakuş is a beautiful spot to enjoy any time of day—and if you spend 500 TL on food, you'll get sunbed and umbrella use for free. The mezes, grilled fish, and oven-fresh flatbreads are delightful, and the beachfront scene is serene.

This cafe serves delicious, sourdough gluten-free toasts, breakfasts, omelettes, focaccia, vegan breakfast, cold homemade limonata, and reyhanli (purple basil syrup) limonata. Its modern decor stands out amongst the traditional tea houses and döner shops in the small square under the ancient plane tree. Their good choice of coffee rounds off a start for the day, after a good breakfast or brunch.

Hidden away on a side street off busy Cumhuriyet Bulvarı, this peaceful garden oasis attached to the French Cultural Center offers a range of well-prepared Mediterranean dishes, including fresh, flavorful salads, pastas, and grilled meats. There's a winter garden for cold-weather days and regular live jazz or Latin music, generally on Wednesday and Friday nights.

This waterfront spot in pleasant Şevket Sabancı Park, just on the outer Turgutreis city center, has grand views of the sea along with a nice selection of Turkish and international dishes (though, perhaps surprisingly given the location, no fish). Alcohol is served and reservations advisable in high season.

The location is its best asset, and a fantastic one it is at the eastern end of the harbor. Mermerli is a spacious, breezy terrace that offers phenomenal views of the sea and the otherworldly mountains in the distance. A stalwart Antalya harborside dining scene, the Mermerli restaurant opts for a crowd-pleasingly broad menu that includes fish, steak, pastas, burgers, Turkish grills, and all-day breakfasts—but the prices reflect the location and the cooking won't blow you away. It's a good place to eat if you want to relax on Mermerli Beach, too—the private bathing spot (costing 250 TL to enter) is just down the steps, and the restaurant controls access.

Simple, hearty, traditional dishes are what’s on offer at this casual restaurant in the middle of Turgutreis’s bazaar, usually known as Osman's Place. Choose from traditional Turkish favorites starting with the traditional soups in the early morning, to hot vegetable and meat casseroles on display from cabinet at any time of the day. A good selection of baklava and desserts round off the offerings. No alcohol is served. It's a favored place for the working and the local residents, so it's busy at meal times, and on Saturday, market day.

This excellent, straightforward Turkish restaurant is on the western edge of the bazaar and favored by locals for its kebabs, pide, and traditional casseroles. It's open all day, morphing from a breakfast joint in the morning to a family restaurant in the afternoon to the perfect place for a late-night snack at 3 am. The same owners also operate the somewhat more upscale Meğri Restaurant in the center of the bazaar.

This brasserie-in-a-bookstore is a cozy place to enjoy a coffee surrounded by an extensive collection of Turkish and English-language books. The menu has a wide range of breakfast and lunch options.

This always-hopping waterfront bistro draws a local and tourist crowd with its broad Turkish-international menu of pastas, salads, bar snacks, and grilled meats. Some good local wines are available, too. It's open for breakfast onwards. 

Bright aqua sailcloth shades one of the long-established spots along the Bitez seafront where breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner are served to guests who may be there for a swim, all-day sunbathing, or dinner and drinks. A full Turkish breakfast on the sunny Bitez beach is a delight, particularly in the low seasons. It's not the cheapest but an extensive international and Turkish menu meets most tastes of families and diners, all year around. 

This restaurant on the Netsel marina has a lot more style and dignity than you would guess from the name, and it's a great escape from the mass tourism of Marmaris. The house specialty is tender, oven-cooked, Anatolian lamb; however, the chef also prepares octopus, pasta, pizza, steak, Turkish grills, and divine desserts.