13 Best Restaurants in The Turquoise Coast, Turkey

What was once the house of a prosperous Greek merchant is now a fine restaurant specializing in steak and ultra-tender lamb kleftiko (lamb shank marinated in red wine and slow-cooked in a 400-year-old oven). The wine cellar has more than 10,000 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. Free transportation is available to and from hotels in the Fethiye–Ölüdeniz area.

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 a decent value compared to its American counterparts. Part of the Tuvana Hotel, it is set in the leafy courtyard of a historic house, with indoor and outdoor dining areas and live jazz on weekends. The menu tends European, made with quality Turkish ingredients—90% 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 a touch of Asia and includes items (like foie gras) that you don’t see too often in Turkey. 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.

One of Antalya's flashiest restaurants serves seafood carpaccio, lobster, duck, chocolate soufflé, and warm chestnut cake, along with a full range of foreign spirits and cigars from a humidor. Its spectacular location halfway up the main road from the old harbor gives it a panoramic view of the old town and the sea. Inside, airy stone arches give it elegant style despite the fact that this was once the port's petroleum depot.  At 11 pm, the dance club alongside swings into action.

The adventurous menu at this harbor-front eatery includes excellent pasta, salmon en croûte, stuffed sea bass with bacon, extra-large steaks, and occasionally wild boar shot in the mountains. The restaurant caters predominantly to the well-heeled British ex-pat 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 relaxed restaurant by the harbor has a “back to basics” approach focusing on fresh fish, seafood, and a well-stocked counter of mostly vegetarian meze made daily. Service is solicitous and the atmosphere serene (if sometimes intruded on in the later hours when the nearby bars crank up the volume).

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.

Even if you don't stay at the Kocaev–Mehmet Ali Ağa Konağı, consider soaking up the ambience for an evening at its restaurant. The seating is right beside the hotel (effectively the mansion's courtyard), and, as you'd expect in such a stellar location, the food is a gourmet's delight, the service five-star, and the prices enthusiastically high. The menu changes regularly, with a focus on Mediterranean and Ottoman dishes that make good use of the area's wild herbs. The mezes are excellent, and the mixed platter recommended. There is also a fine wine cellar.

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.

A casually stylish restaurant-bar in the old town area with a contemporary look and food to match, Kalamaki offers a well-prepared and presented menu of fusion and traditional Turkish dishes. Entrees range from sea bass with prawns in cream sauce to hot chili Mexican beef to sweet-and-sour chicken, but the kitchen manages to pull off this large selection with aplomb. Upstairs terrace seating (summer only) has a great view over the harbor, and there’s a lounge on the ground floor where you can stop in for a coffee or cocktail.

This lively local favorite just outside the Netsel marina has been in business for more than three decades, and stays open year-round. It’s known for its fresh mezes and seafood including the house specialty, grilled sübye (cuttlefish). A reservation is advised if you want to sit at one of the long outdoor tables on the seafront promenade.

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; if there's a chill in spring or autumn, attentive waiters will even bring out blankets. Reservations are highly recommended for dinner, especially in high season.

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.