The Best Restaurants in Bodrum, by Area

Bodrum eats the way the rest of the Aegean eats, only with more boats in view: a table of cold meze, a plate or two of hot ones, a whole grilled fish chosen from the ice, rakı on the side and a long argument about the bill at the end. The food is at its best in the simplest settings, which is lucky, because the simplest settings here are on the water. This guide is organized by area and by type of meal rather than as a ranked list, because restaurants here change hands every few seasons and the dishes do not.

At a glance

The local dish

Çökertme kebab: strips of veal on matchstick potatoes with garlic yogurt

The classic meal

Meze, then whole grilled fish, with rakı; sea bream and sea bass are the standards

The local flavor

Bodrum mandarins, in jam, cologne, liqueur and ice cream

Best setting

The waterfront fish restaurants of Gümüşlük at sunset

Most expensive

Yalıkavak Marina and the Türkbükü beach clubs

Dinner time

Turks eat late; 9 pm is normal in summer

Tipping

Around 10 percent, left in cash

What to eat in Bodrum

Start with the meze. The cold ones to look for on this coast are the wild greens, called ot or deniz börülcesi for the salty samphire, dressed with olive oil and lemon; stuffed zucchini flowers (kabak çiçeği dolması), which are a Bodrum specialty; octopus salad; fava; smoked eggplant; and lakerda, cured bonito, when it is in season. Hot meze means fried calamari, shrimp baked in a clay dish with tomato and cheese (karides güveç), and pan-fried cheese pastries.

Then the fish. Sea bream (çipura) and sea bass (levrek) are farmed and available all year; wild fish like red mullet (barbun), grouper (orfoz) and dentex (sinarit) cost much more and are better. You choose your fish from the display, it is weighed, and the price is by the kilo, so ask before you nod. Grilled with nothing but olive oil and lemon is the right answer.

The dish Bodrum calls its own is çökertme kebab, from the village of Çökertme near Milas: thinly sliced veal over a nest of fried matchstick potatoes with garlic yogurt and tomato sauce. It is on menus everywhere and is worth ordering at a kebab house rather than a fish place. The other local thing is the mandarin. Bodrum's winter crop turns up all summer as jam at breakfast, as a liqueur after dinner, as cologne on the table and as ice cream on the waterfront.

Bodrum town: the widest range

Town has everything from grilled-fish shacks to tasting menus, which makes it the easiest place to eat for a week without repeating yourself. The waterfront on the Kumbahçe side east of the castle is a row of fish restaurants with tables on the sand; pick by how full it is with Turkish families rather than by the menu board. Inland, the streets behind the bazaar and around the mosque have the kebab houses and the lokantas, the steam-table restaurants where you point at trays of stews and vegetables cooked in olive oil and eat better and cheaper than anywhere on the water.

Long-established names worth knowing, with the usual caveat that you should check they are still open: Orfoz, a seafood restaurant at the eastern end of town that has been a special-occasion place for decades, and Kocadon, in an old stone house in the center. The Tuesday and Friday markets by the bus station are the place for breakfast ingredients and a gözleme flatbread fresh off the griddle.

Gümüşlük: the waterfront fish restaurants

This is the Bodrum meal people come back for. Gümüşlük's harbor is lined with fish restaurants whose tables sit a step from the water, facing west, so dinner starts in daylight and ends under lanterns with Kos and the islands black against an orange sky. The village is a protected archaeological zone, so nothing has been built up, and the restaurants have stayed family-run and relatively honest.

Order the full sequence here: a spread of cold meze, zucchini flowers and calamari, then a fish split between two. Mimoza, at the far end of the harbor, is the best known and has been there for a very long time; check it is still open and book in summer. Up the hill behind the village, Limon has for years done breakfast among the olive trees and a sunset dinner with a view over the whole bay; the same caveat applies. Arrive before 7 pm in summer if you want a front-row table without a reservation.

Yalıkavak and Türkbükü: polished and expensive

Yalıkavak Marina is where the international restaurant names are: Japanese, Italian, steakhouses, and Istanbul's fashionable brands with a Bodrum branch for the summer. The cooking is often good and the setting, among the yachts, is the point. It is the most expensive eating on the peninsula by a distance. The old village of Yalıkavak, a ten-minute walk inland, still has ordinary lokantas and a good weekly market, and the fish restaurants along the bay road are a middle ground.

Türkbükü is beach-club dining: you spend the day on a platform over the water and lunch arrives there, usually a long one of meze, salads and grilled fish or a steak, with the music rising through the afternoon. Maçakızı, a hotel at the edge of the bay, has been the famous version of this for decades; check it is still taking non-residents. Dinner in Türkbükü is mostly at the same places with the volume turned up.

Bitez: home cooking and a village square

Bitez is the family bay, and it eats accordingly: beachfront restaurants doing grills and pide for people who have been in the water all day, and in the old village inland, among the mandarin groves, a few places doing proper home-style Aegean cooking. Bağarası, in the village, has been the long-standing name for an unhurried dinner under a vine; check it is still open. Bitez is also a good place for an evening ice cream walk along the beach road.

Breakfast, the long way

Turkish breakfast (kahvaltı) is a spread rather than a dish: white cheese and aged cheese, olives, tomatoes and cucumber, honey and clotted cream, several jams including mandarin, eggs cooked with sucuk sausage or peppers, fresh bread and simit, and endless small glasses of tea. In Bodrum the version to seek out is the village breakfast at a garden place in the hills, served on weekends from mid-morning and lasting until lunch. Ask for menemen, eggs scrambled with tomatoes and peppers, if you want one hot dish. If you only want coffee and a pastry, the cafes in town and Yalıkavak do that too, but it would be a waste of the setting.

How to order, drink and pay

Meze is ordered from a tray or a cabinet the waiter brings or walks you to; you point, and it is fine to say two or three for a table of two and add more later. Nothing obliges you to take what is set down unasked, so send back a plate you did not order. Hot meze and the fish are ordered after the cold ones arrive, not all at once.

Rakı is the drink with this food: anise spirit poured a finger or two into a tall glass, topped with cold water until it clouds, with ice on the side rather than in. It is sipped slowly across the whole meal, not thrown back, and a bottle or a half shared across the table is the usual order. If you would rather not, Turkish white wine from the Aegean and Thrace is good now and the local beer is Efes.

Frequently asked questions

What food is Bodrum known for?

Çökertme kebab, a local dish of thin veal strips over matchstick fried potatoes with garlic yogurt; stuffed zucchini flowers; grilled whole fish with meze; and anything made with Bodrum mandarins, from jam to liqueur.

Where is the best place to eat fish in Bodrum?

Gümüşlük, a fishing village on the peninsula's west coast, where family-run fish restaurants line the harbor with tables at the water's edge facing the sunset. Bodrum town's Kumbahçe waterfront and the bay road in Yalıkavak are the other reliable rows.

How much should you tip in Bodrum restaurants?

Around 10 percent, left in cash on the table. Service is rarely included, and tips added to a card payment often do not reach the waiters.

What time do people eat dinner in Bodrum?

Late. In summer, Turkish families sit down around 9 pm, and good restaurants are still seating at 10:30. Arriving at 7 pm gets you the best waterfront tables without a reservation.

What is a lokanta?

A simple Turkish restaurant serving ready-cooked food from a steam table, usually stews, rice, and vegetables cooked in olive oil. You point at what you want, it is served immediately, and it is some of the best and cheapest food in Bodrum.

Is Yalıkavak Marina expensive to eat at?

Yes; it is the most expensive dining on the peninsula, with international restaurants and Istanbul brands aimed at the yacht crowd. The old village of Yalıkavak, a short walk inland, has ordinary lokantas and a weekly market at normal prices.