45 Best Restaurants in The Turquoise Coast, Turkey

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

What was once the house of a prosperous Greek merchant is now a fine restaurant specializing in regional grilled lamb dishes. The wine cellar has more than 12,000 bottles, including a good selection of Turkish wines. The Turkish breakfast, served until 2 pm, is also popular. On hot summer days, you can take refuge in the cool basement; at night, the restaurant lights the abandoned buildings all around, creating an atmosphere that is romantic or spooky, depending on your take. Unusually, free transportation is available to and from hotels in the Fethiye/Ölüdeniz area.

If you want to eat in the harbor area, many would say this your best bet. The tables are well spaced, trees offer shade, the service is good, and the food is excellent (if expensive). Fresh seafood is the specialty, including melt-in-your-mouth garlic prawns, but there's something for everyone on the international menu. The view over the western beach is just right at sunset. Service is attentive; if there's a chill in spring or fall, you can count on the waiters to bring out blankets. Reservations are highly recommended for dinner, especially in high season.

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.

This restaurant in the Finike marina is famed for its kebab dishes, but it serves a full menu, including fish and meze. There is a pleasant garden shaded by plane trees and acacias. Everything here is so fresh that the chef refuses to add anything but olive oil and salt to flavor his meats and grilled chicken, and he doesn't need to.

Ata is a down-to-earth, traditional Turkish restaurant in often tourist-oriented Kalkan, and known for its tender, flavorful kebabs. The menu also includes pide cooked in a wood oven and the classic array of mezes, salads, and hot starters. The casual seating is on a patio overlooking the main road into town.

The menu at this harbor-front eatery focuses on wide-ranging international classics: think anything from chicken kievs to Asian stir fries. Despite the lack of focus, the restaurant offers tasty dishes, with big portions. The restaurant caters predominantly to the British expat crowd (hence the rather ambitious prices), and offers a nightly happy hour and a legendary party on New Year's Eve. All the desserts are made on site. It's worth calling ahead to reserve a table right by the water.

This Antakya-style meyhane draws a lively crowd of diners with its atmospheric setting and delicious local cuisine. Tables are arrayed in the courtyard (avlu) and on overlooking balconies in a restored mansion, making the place feel like one big dinner party. If you don’t fill up on meze like hummus, mütebbel (eggplant dip with tahini), olive salad with sour pomegranate molasses, or atom (yogurt laced with spicy peppers), there are kebabs and other grilled meats aplenty—and crispy candied pumpkin with tahini and walnuts for dessert.

This relaxed restaurant on a side street in the town center serves fish, seafood, and meze and is popular with locals, who prefer fresh, unfussy fare to a river view. Its small dining room would be utterly austere were it not for the decorative tile accents; most seating is outside, at tables decked out in a classic Mediterranean blue-and-white color scheme. There’s no menu, so ask the prices before ordering, especially for fish.

Almost opposite the Antalya Museum, but hidden a little down the hill towards the sea, this restaurant may well have the best view in town from its beautiful stone wall terrace. The menu focuses on usual fare—meat, pasta, pizza, and burgers—and regulars praise the steak. Owned by an Antalyan former basketball player (aka the Big Man), it's a popular place for locals to come for a special meal. 

This restaurant by the harbor has a “back to basics” approach focusing on fresh fish, seafood, and a well-stocked counter of mostly vegetarian meze freshly made daily. Service is fast and friendly, and the atmosphere, beside a road a line of busy bars, is fun and lively.

This simple little restaurant just off the main intersection is keenly kept by a chef from the town of Bolu, legendarily the hometown of Turkey's best cooks. Individual attention is assured. There is an extensive menu with many hot and cold meze, seafood, and grilled meats.

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.

"Chill" is the perfect word to describe this relaxed spot. Popular with locals, its tables are mostly set out in the prime open area, toward the southern end of the beach. The food ranges from snacks to grilled meat, seafood, and pasta. In the evening, Chill evolves into a bar and the closest thing Adrasan has to a disco.

Tucked away in the backstreets of the old city's bazaar near the clock tower, Ciğerci Memet Usta serves up some of the best kebabs in Adana, the country's reigning center for grilled meat. Try the specialty ciğer (grilled liver), the eponymous Adana kebab, or the homemade şalgam (spicy pickled black carrot juice).

This tiny upscale restaurant run by German-Turkish owners blends European style, atmosphere, and creativity with local ingredients and flavors. The result is a refined, low-key environment, with well-made food that provides an interesting variation on typical Turkish cuisine like zucchini flowers stuffed with local fish instead of the usual rice.

A homey little spot offering home-style fare, this is a good place to have a satisfying and inexpensive meal before or after embarking on excursions from the nearby minibus stop and riverside docks. Choose from a daily selection of meze behind the counter or a heartier traditional dish like pan-fried meat with peppers and onions. In the evening, there’s more of a mini-meyhane vibe, with beer and rakı available at its handful of tables, mostly outside.

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.

This long-standing favorite has a panoramic view of the harbor and excellent traditional Turkish fare that's focused on fresh seafood, though meat, chicken, and pasta dishes are also on the menu. If you're lucky, it will have grida (grouper) as a daily special; if not, try the fried squid with tarator sauce—a mixture of yogurt, garlic, lemon, walnuts, olive oil, and bread.

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.

One of the most popular traditional Turkish lokantas around the church of St. Nicholas, Ipek doesn't look like much, and the waiters can be surly, but excellent meat dishes and generous portions make this the restaurant of choice for many.

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.

This casual yet stylish bar-restaurant in the old town offers a well-prepared and presented menu of traditional Turkish hot and cold meze, combined with international crowd-pleasers like burgers, fried chicken, and pasta. It's a disjointed approach, but the kitchen manages to pull off this large selection with aplomb. The upstairs terrace has great views over the harbor (sometimes closed off-season), and there’s a lounge on the ground floor where you can stop in for a coffee or cocktail.

Situated in the heart of Kaleiçi, this meyhane that bears the same name as its neighborhood serves the best mezes in Antalya, as well as an array of hot appetizers and the freshest seafood. Expect great service in a spacious outdoor atmosphere.