2 Best Restaurants in Cappadocia and Central Turkey, Turkey

Sitting just beneath Ankara Castle and with an incredible panorama of Ankara, this Turkish-style brasserie couples excellent food with first-rate service. An open kitchen gives way to an elegantly furnished dining room with floor-to-ceiling windows, and the views continue on the restaurant’s large outdoor patio, where guests sit before white tablecloths and underneath oversized umbrellas. The menu offers a blend of Turkish and contemporary cuisine, with local specialty Ankara tava, slowly cooked lamb over a bed of bed of seasoned rice, alongside starters like shrimp casserole with porcini mushrooms.

By far the most unique restaurant in Konya, Somatçı is the project of a passionate local chef who spent several years recreating dervish cuisine from Rumi’s time through historical and ethnographic research and a bit of improvisation. The menu features combinations not typically seen in modern Turkish cuisine; some dishes are downright unusual, but all are worth trying. The interior is decorated with stylized illustrations of Sufi symbols, and, in summer, there is additional seating in an enclosed back patio.