We run tours in Antalya, which is really just a fancy way of saying we eat here. A lot. Between hungry clients, arriving friends, and visiting family, our excuse for “research” has gotten completely out of hand. Over the years, we have happily eaten our way through dozens of kitchens to bring you our favorites.
Table of Contents
Our Unofficial Guide to Antalya Dining
We spent years exploring the winding alleys of Kaleiçi, the avenues of Konyaaltı, and the busy streets of Lara. Many places were heartbreakingly mediocre and some were surprisingly great, but only a rare handful made a permanent mark on our lives.
This list represents that carefully curated handful. You will find five absolute favorites. We keep returning to these tables week after week without fail.
You will not find any sponsorships, free meals, or hidden affiliate deals here. These are simply the authentic kitchens, lively neighborhood grills, and cozy dining rooms where we spend our own money and proudly send our closest friends and visiting family whenever they arrive.
1. Halis Erzurum Cağ Kebabı - For the Kebab Purists
If you’ve only ever had döner, cağ kebabı will reset your understanding of what a Turkish kebab can taste like. It’s the eastern Anatolian cousine — lamb leg, marinated overnight, threaded onto a horizontal skewer, and rotated slowly over a wood fire until the outside crisps into something almost candied.
Halis has been doing this in Antalya since 2008, and the smell hits you in the parking lot before you’ve even opened the door. The ritual is the part we love. You sit down, they bring you Erzurum-style lavash and a small mountain of fresh herbs, onions, and tomatoes, and then the skewers just keep arriving.
You eat one. Another shows up. You eat that one. Another shows up. This continues until you wave the white flag, which usually happens later than you’d like to admit. Pair it with ayran — trust us.
If you’re lucky, you’ll get to meet Murat, the owner — a former Izmir guy, warm, generous, the kind of host who’ll come over to make sure everything’s right and stay long enough to swap stories. The food is the reason we come back.
- Neighborhood: Konyaaltı / Uncalı (with a second branch in the Akdeniz Industrial site).
- Price range: $$
- Best for: Lunch, casual dinner, anyone who thinks they’ve already had “the best kebab“.
- Order: Cağ kebabı (obviously), and don’t skip the lavash while it’s still warm.
2. Mandjie Gastro Bar & Restaurant — for special-occasion nights
Mandjie is the place we send people when they want to feel like they’re somewhere — not just somewhere in Antalya. Tucked into Kaleiçi’s narrow lanes, the room glows: low lighting, elegant little details, and live jazz threading through the evening.
It only opens in the afternoon and runs late, which we appreciate; it’s a dinner restaurant that knows it’s a dinner restaurant. The menu leans Mediterranean with serious gastro-bar ambition — pasta done properly, beef cooked the way you actually asked for it, and seafood that tastes like it was swimming earlier in the day.
Our genuine, recurring obsession here is the shrimp with almond coatings — crunchy, nutty, sweet, just slightly rich, the kind of dish you order “to share” and then quietly stop sharing. We’ve tried to recreate it at home. It is not the same.
And do not, under any circumstances, skip the eggplant starter — smoky, silky, and the right kind of moody. It’s the dish we order before we’ve even fully sat down. Ask for Sinan when you go.
He’s been our waiter so many times we’ve stopped pretending he isn’t half the reason we book. Calm, sharp on the menu, knows exactly when to recommend and when to leave you alone — the rare front-of-house person who makes the whole evening feel easier.
3. Nejat Balık — for the fish, the rakı, and the view
If you only have one fish dinner in Antalya, make it this one. Nejat Balık sits up on Eski Lara Yolu with one of the prettiest patios in the city — sea on one side, mountains in the distance, and a breeze that does most of the work the air conditioning would otherwise be doing.
Owner Nejat himself is usually somewhere in the room, and the place has that good-natured, slightly unhurried energy that the best family-run fish restaurants always do.
You’re here for the meze parade first — hummus, smoked mackerel, anchovies, garlic butter prawns, whatever’s fresh — followed by the catch of the day, grilled simply, the way it should be. A bottle of rakı, plenty of ice, and the afternoon will dissolve gently around you.
Honorable mentions for fish lovers: Isa Balık (Balıkçı İsa) down on Lara Caddesi in Şirinyalı, and Lara Balık, which has been doing this for over twenty years and runs branches in Işıklar and Konyaaltı. If Nejat is booked, both are excellent fallbacks — Isa is more neighborhood-casual, Lara is more menu-deep with nearly 100 mezes.
- Neighborhood: Eski Lara Yolu, Muratpaşa.
- Price range: $$$
- Best for: Long Sunday lunches, a proper Turkish rakı–balık evening, anyone with out-of-town guests.
- Order: The barbun (red mullet) if it’s on — small, sweet, pan-crisped, and one of the best things we’ve eaten in Antalya, full stop. Otherwise sea bass and six mezes minimum.
4. Pablito Bistro — for the night that turns into dessert & cocktails
We were skeptical of a hotel restaurant. We’re not anymore. Pablito sits inside Akra and brings a completely different energy than the rest of this list — Cuban-leaning decor, colorful cocktails, a menu that wanders happily between Turkish, Mediterranean and international without trying too hard to be any one thing.
Wood-fired pizzas, grills, pastas, seafood. Coffee program worth lingering over. It stays open until 2 a.m., which is the kind of detail that matters when you’re traveling. It’s our go-to when a group can’t agree what they want.
Someone orders a steak, someone orders a pizza, someone orders a tiradito, and everyone ends up happy. The cocktail list is genuinely good — order a Cuban-style espresso drink after dessert and thank us later.
- Neighborhood: Lara Caddesi, inside Akra Hotel.
- Price range: $$$
- Best for: Pre-dinner drinks that become dinner, fusion food, groups with different cravings.
- Order: A wood-fired pizza to start, then a grill plate, and at least one cocktail per person.
5. 7 Mehmet Restaurant — for tromantic Kaleiçi night
7 Mehmet is the meal that effortlessly turns into an all-day culinary pilgrimage. It sits perched on a hilltop overlooking the turquoise waters of Konyaaltı Beach inside Atatürk Culture Park — white tablecloths, a sweeping terrace, and a breezy view that makes you immediately cancel your evening plans.
The concept is elevated Ottoman and Turkish-Mediterranean gastronomy, where deep regional heritage meets hyper-local sourcing. Now run by a third-generation chef, the kitchen treats time-honored family recipes with a level of precision and reverence that has made it legendary across Turkey. Ingredients are meticulously drawn from local Antalya farmers and Taurus Mountain producers.
It is the kind of place where you lose your mind over the meze display, order a second round of seasonal salads, and find yourself fighting over the last spoonful of bergamot-scented rice. Service is polished, deeply knowledgeable, and genuinely welcoming. Bring an appetite and your favorite people.
- Neighborhood: Muratpaşa (Atatürk Culture Park), Meltem Mahallesi.
- Price range: $$$$
- Best for: Long celebratory feasts, culinary enthusiasts, anyone wanting to taste the absolute pinnacle of Antalya dining.
- Order: A spread of seasonal mezes, the bergamot-scented almond rice, slow-cooked meats, you cannot leave without the iconic pumpkin dessert with tahini and walnuts.
How to actually eat your way through Antalya?
A small piece of advice from people who do this for a living: book ahead for Mandjie and Nejat, especially in summer. Antalya looks sprawling but its best tables are not infinite, and the city has gotten meaningfully busier in the last couple of seasons.
If you’re putting together a trip and want us to handle the reservations, the timing, and a little local context at each spot — that’s literally what we do at The Other Tour. Drop us a line. We’ll bring the appetite if you bring the curiosity.
