12 Best Restaurants in Bodrum, The Central and Southern Aegean Coast

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 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 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.

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.

Bitez Dondurma's creamy ice cream concoctions full of fresh fruit have proved so popular that the shop now has branches all over the Bodrum Peninsula, and as far away as Istanbul. The waterfront location in Bodrum's town center is a convenient spot to grab a scoop or two as you stroll along the promenade. Sit down for coffee, waffles, and more ice cream.

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.

For almost half a century, this popular, no-frills restaurant near the marina has been serving the freshest seafood in town. House specialties include fish soup and octopus with pilaf, and their fried calamari has been voted one of the best versions in Turkey. Reservations recommended.

Down a quiet, pretty alley just a two-minute stroll from the waterfront, the white, candlelit tables at this seafood restaurant quickly fill with hungry locals. Accompany a heaping plate of fried local calamari (probably the most generous in town) with a tasting plate of up to four vegetable meze with toasted bread, and, if you're still hungry, order grilled fish and (more) rakı.

Turkish grilled meatballs and home-style cuisine with or without meat, served at just a few tables in a no-frills setting, have been a hit for more than half a century. Their soups are a great way to start or end the day. Dishes are accompanied with homemade plain yogurt and rice. Alcohol is not served. 

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. 

Italian-inspired pizzas, pastas, and salads are served alongside traditional Turkish chicken and beef dishes. It's always packed with local families and tourists sitting back at wooden tables filled with the enormous portions. Alcohol is served, and not at a ludicrous markup. There's also a branch in Turgutreis.

This popular bakery on Bodrum's main pedestrian shopping street is known for classic puddings, cheesecakes, pastries, luxurious fruit-and-cream parfaits, and more sweets than you can name. Tea and coffee are also available, which you can drink at the side bench. It's open long hours, making it ideal for night revelers or early starters from 6:30 am to 3:00 am