Alanya, Turkey: Adana Ocakbaşı

If you have been following my Instagram, you would have noticed that I am currently on holiday in Turkey! It’s been an incredibly busy couple of months and year for both me and my other half so we decided to treat ourselves to a beach holiday in Turkey. We ended up picking Alanya, which is in the Antalya region of Turkey (a rather cheap option especially when we booked it rather late).

The hotel we were staying at was actually not in the town centre of Alanya. The area we are staying at is the Konakli, which is a 15-20 minutes bus ride away from the town centre. Alanya is already not much of a.big town, so you can imagine there really isn’t that much going on in Konakli. After all we just want to proper relax, chill and get a sun tan, hence the option of a beach town away from the big cities. However we are actually staying for a whole week and you can only do that much in the hotel, an excursion or two, and an area that literally has nothing going on (except for this spot called Bistro Tommy we found nearby the hotel for some good food and shisha).

So we have been taking the bus to Alanya town centre to explore and see the bazaar etc. We have an all-inclusive package for our holiday so we normally had lunch already in the hotel (though the food wasn’t impressive) and then head out to town for the afternoon. But there’s this one day where we had a long swim after breakfast and decided to hit up town centre straight after.

We came across this restaurant called Adana Ocakbaşı -Alanya which is right by the bus terminal. The restaurant owner caught us checking out their food pictures outside the restaurant and started talking to us. He was super friendly and the other half really got along with him so we decided to have our late lunch there.

Their menu offers quite an extensive range of food items – pastas, pizzas, steaks, omelettes, seafood, Turkish dishes etc. The menu is also available in different languages so you need not to worry about not being able to understand Turkish.


After a good long thought, we ended up ordering a Mixed Grill and an Egg & Cheese Pide (Turkish pizza). After ordering, we were first served with complimentary pita bread and assorted condiments. The bread was freshly baked and served on a wooden board. Condiments included the classic Ezme (Turkish salsa), Tzatziki, tomatoes, chillies, fresh herbs, butter and cheese.


The pita bread was so soft, puffy and aromatic. It was proper hot out of the oven as well. It wasn’t too filling and was perfect with all the condiments. In terms of condiments, ezme has been my absolute most favourite. It was very refreshing to taste and appetising. We’ve had some that’s with more kick of spices whereas this one is pure freshness with hints of acidity from the lime.

The chillies were proper hot. My significant other can take incredible amount of heat, like when my tongue is burning with spices and my eyes all teary from the heat, he would say it tastes sweet to him instead of spicy. However these ones he admitted they were hot so  I guess I’m lucky that he tried it before me and I didn’t touch any of the chillies then. Nevertheless, look how pretty the colours are!

Then there came our dishes. Let’s begin with the Mixed Grill:


How gorgeous is this?! The Mixed Grill consists lamb chops, kebab, chicken shish, chicken wings, served with flatbread, grilled chilli, grilled onions, grilled tomatoes and salad.

The meat was incredibly fresh and flavourful. The kebab carries a little kick of spices and created a burst of flavours in your mouth. The other meats were all very well seasoned, tender, and have this beautiful charcoal grilled taste to it. The lamb chops were also very fragrant as well. It was all in all an absolutely amazing meat feast on a plate.
As for the Egg & Cheese Pide, it was a swift of freshly baked pizza plus cheese aroma speeading over the table when it was served. It was already slices and neatly presented over a wooden board with a grilled pepper on top.

I first tried a Turkish pide in a Middle Eastern restaurant back in Hong Kong years ago and have completely fallen in love with it ever since. It was my very first priority to get a pide once landing Turkey.

Well I didn’t get a proper one for my first meal but here I am with this gorgeous pide laid out in front of me. Typically the pide topping includes meat but I was feeling for something plain after quite a lot of meat a few days ago.

The colours was absolutely gorgeous. The pide bread was thin and soft. It was very eggy and of course filled with an amazing cheese fragrant. It felt really clean and simple but also very satisfyingly tasty. The bread wasn’t as puffy and leveraged as the one I had years ago which makes it lacking slightly on an overall full bodied texture.

We both were pretty full already after the main course. We were going to just order some Turkish coffee and then leave. However, before we even started to order the coffee, they came out with a massive water melon that’s carved out to serve a fruit platter (complimentary)!

I’m allergic to fruits so I didn’t get to try it out but how stunning it looks on the table! As my siginificant other is one fruit lover, he actually couldn’t be happier that I’m not going to be fighting for food with him on this one.

As I sat there watching him happily eat the fruit, the restaurant owner noticed me not eating and he came up to ask if I want some ice cream instead. He showed me the different flavours of ice cream available at their ice cream counter and I said I would like a pistachio one. I went back to my seat, then he asked if I like chocolate as well, I said yeah, and next thing I know is I got a proper nice sundae cup of ice cream served in front of me.

He even offered me ice cream toppings but I said I’m fine without any. Point is, he offered me this for free just because he noticed I didn’t like their original complimentary dessert. They really didn’t have to offer me an alternative. This shows they really offer great hospitality to their customers.

Then of course at the very end, we got our Turkish coffees. The coffee was strong and aromatic. It doesn’t leave you a bitter aftertaste even though it was pretty bold and strong. I wouldn’t say I’m particularly impressed with the Turkish coffee but it was surprisingly smooth to taste and was pleasurable to take.

To sum up, it’s been an absolutely scrumptious feast in Alanya. Not only does this place provides you quality food, it also offers you the best hospitality. Turkey has been super friendly to us but this genuinely makes me feel the most welcomed. We are both extremely with our meal and left them a nice tip. If any of you happen to be visiting this place, do check them out!

My Rating: 4.7/5

P.S after we left the restaurant we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around town and ended up at Cleopatra Beach watching the most spectacular sunset we’ve both ever seen – that is a precious moment and spot there

 

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