The 14 Best Restaurants in Turkey, From Istanbul to Gaziantep

The best restaurants in Turkey are spread across the whole country. This list covers 14 of them: three Istanbul heavyweights, two Gaziantep kebab institutions, seafood houses on the Aegean coast in Alaçatı, Izmir, and Bodrum, Black Sea home cooking in the Rize highlands, and two dining rooms with valley views in Cappadocia. Each entry names the dish to order first.

Turkish cooking changes sharply from region to region, which is exactly why one city cannot hold all of its best tables. If your trip stays in one place, our Istanbul food guide and our list of the best restaurants in Istanbul go deeper on the city. This page covers the country.

All 14 at a glance

1. Seki Restaurant, Cappadocia

Seki sits inside the Argos hotel in Cappadocia, in a building that began as one of the oldest and largest monasteries in the world. The restaurant has collected a long list of awards, both national and international, and the cooking backs them up.

The menu runs from slow-cooked meats to handmade pastas, built on local produce wherever possible. The mushroom fettuccini is the pasta to order. The crispy duck leg arrives with prune marmalade, grilled figs, and sour cherry sauce, and it makes the case for the whole kitchen on its own. Save space for the charbroiled vegetable platter too.

2. Ferdi Baba Restaurant, Alaçatı

Alaçatı draws celebrities and wealthy Turks every summer, and Ferdi Baba is one of the reasons the little town keeps them coming back. It is a fish restaurant first, and a very good one.

Two dishes show the range. The seafood kokoreç (deniz mahsullü kokoreç) leans on a fragrant, cumin-heavy seasoning, and the mustard-flavored anchovies (hardallı hamsi) are unlike anything else on the coast.

The desserts hold up their end. The raspberry soufflé (frambuazlı süfle) and the almond-honey soufflé (bal badem) are both worth saving room for.

Add the view over the Aegean and the polished service, and this is one of the best restaurants in Turkey, full stop.

3. 7 Mehmet, Antalya

7 Mehmet works at any hour. Late breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, or one long afternoon that covers all of them. The views are wide and the bar is well stocked.

The egg dishes (yumurta) alone justify a morning visit: with spicy, garlicky Turkish sausage (sucuklu yumurta), with minced meat (kıymalı yumurta), or as menemen, the tangy Turkish omelet.

The meze classics are all here, next to twists like acılı haydari cevizli, a thick tzatziki-style meze with crunchy walnuts and chili. The stuffed cabbage (lahana sarma) is a standout. Those are just the appetizers.

Mains rotate with the season. The avocado salad (avokadolu kırma salata) mixes seasonal greens, cauliflower, and a zesty lemon and olive oil dressing. The dish to plan around is the tandoori goat (oğlak tandır), served with bergamot jam and a rice studded with pineapple and almonds.

4. Platoda Mola, Rize

Platoda Mola doubles as an escape into the Black Sea highlands and a serious case for Black Sea cuisine. The hosts cook with eggs from their own chickens, vegetables from their garden, and their own dairy.

The table starts with freshly made bread, handmade jams, cookies (kurabiye), and hot tea. If the tea does not warm you up, the traditional Turkish cuisine will: stuffed black cabbage (kara lahana sarması), a spread of böreks, mıhlama (regional cheese melted with cornflour), and a stewed white bean dish (kuru fasulye) so good that, back in the city, you may find yourself seeking out the lokantas that built their name on it.

5. Turk Fatih Tutak, Istanbul

Turk Fatih Tutak was the first restaurant in Turkey to receive two Michelin stars. Fatih Tutak spent years cooking alongside top international chefs before opening his own room, and it shows in the precision of the service and the inventive approach to local cooking.

The menu changes with the seasons, so no two visits read the same. If the persimmon with buffalo cream (cennet hurması, manda kaymağı) is on, order it. Tutak also backs small local producers, and the cellar is a strong place to explore Turkish wines from the Anatolian regions.

6. Kebapçı Halil Usta, Gaziantep

Gaziantep is the food capital of Turkey. Baklava, içli köfte, shish kebab, lahmacun, beyran, and even katmer all emerged from this one city before spreading across the world.

Dozens of restaurants here deserve a visit. Our pick for this list is Halil Usta, where top-quality lamb, generous portions, and low prices meet in one room.

Start with the küşleme: a fatless, sinew-free cut from along the sheep’s spine, cut into small pieces and grilled over charcoal. It is rare by definition. A whole sheep yields only about 100 grams of it.

The kebabs here are reason enough to put Gaziantep on your route.

7. Deniz Restaurant, Izmir

Deniz Restaurant sits in Izmir, the country’s third-largest city, and serves Aegean cooking and local seafood through three tasting menus. The stuffed sardines (sardalya dolması), the seafood pancakes (deniz mahsullü krep), and the “sea pastry” (deniz börek) would each justify the table on their own. The fish meatball (deniz köftesi) pairs so well with rakı that we are surprised it is not more famous.

Three brothers run the place, and their service is known to locals and tourists alike. Book ahead.

8. Orfoz Restaurant, Bodrum

Bodrum pulls in superyachts, cruise ships, and international celebrities with its beaches, clear water, and nightlife. Its restaurant scene matches the crowd, and Orfoz stands out in it, consistently ranked among the top dining rooms in Turkey.

The progressive tasting menu is the move. You can add extras, but the core courses satisfy on their own. Time dinner for sunset, then start with the parmesan oysters (parmesanlı istiridye) and a glass of Kavaklıdere Altın Köpük, an award-winning Turkish sparkling wine.

The homemade chocolate tastes better than it sounds, and the regional fruit is sweet enough to close the meal by itself.

9. Mikla, Istanbul

Mikla has shaped Istanbul’s fine-dining scene for more than 15 years and still lands on every list of the best places to eat with a view in Istanbul. Quality and creativity have not slipped in all that time.

Chef-owner Mehmet Gürs impresses across the menu, and the Turkish ravioli is the proof: roasted garlic adds a little sweetness, and smoked buffalo yogurt lifts the dish to a level other kitchens still chase. The kitchen also caters well to different dietary requirements; the Pumpkin and Celeriac plate is good enough to make a vegan of you.

After dinner, head up to the rooftop bar for live music and a pour from the local and imported bottle list. At sunset, the skyline takes in the Golden Horn and the Hagia Sophia at once.

10. Tavacı Recep Usta, Izmir

If meat is the reason you eat out, the Alsancak favorite Tavacı Recep Usta belongs on your Izmir list. Its story began in 1978 with the Diyarbakır master Recep Usta, and the kitchen is known for lamb tava made with milk-fed Diyarbakır lambs, along with stuffed ribs and boiled lamb neck.

The restaurant holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and reviewers consistently praise the quality of the meat, the balance of flavors, and the precision of the cooking. Order the lamb tava first; the rest of the menu will argue for a second visit.

11. Maçakızı, Bodrum

The Istanbul-born chef Aret Sahakyan plates every dish like a work of art, the granola included. He treats food as a canvas and serves only the freshest organic produce.

The short ribs with wild Bodrum herbs are the plate to anchor the meal. The whole menu reads like a perfumer’s notebook, with local aromas rising off each colorful dish.

12. Elai, Cappadocia

Elai sits in Cappadocia with one of the most extraordinary restaurant views anywhere, and the Ottoman-styled rooms make even the wait between courses pleasant. On a summer day the view does the work. On a winter evening, a glass of Turkish wine by the fireplace does it instead.

Start with the arugula salad in a sweet yet sharp cherry sauce (vişne soslu roka salatası); you will look at salads differently afterward. Smooth jazz plays behind it all while the mains arrive: a beef satay built on sesame, soy, and garlic, or the grilled poppy-seed salmon (haşhaşlı somon izgara) with its zingy, buttery sauce.

13. Neolokal, Istanbul

Neolokal joins “neo” (new) and “local,” and the name is the whole mission. Chef-owner Maksut Aşkar reworks traditional recipes, his mother’s flavors among them, checking each dish for authenticity and running the kitchen on sustainable practices so the tradition stays alive.

The dining room looks over the Golden Horn through floor-to-ceiling windows. Our favorite plate here is the sea bass with confit garlic cream, and the Frigo, an iced, chocolate-drizzled mahleb cake, is the dessert you will still be thinking about days later.

14. Metanet Lokantası, Gaziantep

The menu at Metanet Lokantası is short, and everything on it is cooked with heart. The eggplant kebab (patlıcan kebabı) carries a deep smoky flavor, but the signature is beyran, and Metanet serves one of the best versions of the rich lamb soup in all of Turkey.

Where Istanbul fits in

Three of these fourteen are in Istanbul, and they are the fine-dining end of a city whose food runs much deeper: street carts, meyhanes, market stalls, neighborhood lokantas. If you would rather taste that range in a single day than book a single tasting menu, our Istanbul food tours have been running since 2013, always in groups of 10 or fewer.