3 Best Restaurants in Alanya, The Turquoise Coast

A few blocks north of the fray, Flash attracts more locals than tourists and survives on word of mouth. It’s known for soups, steaks, kebabs, and meat stews cooked in a clay pot (kiremit); it also makes nice, oven-fired pide and lahmacun (wafer-thin spiced-meat flatbread). Come ravenously hungry, and you may have room for a dessert of künefe, a rich confection of cheese, strands of dough and sugar syrup sprinkled with pistachio.

This long-standing favorite has a panoramic view of the harbor and excellent traditional Turkish fare that's focused on fresh seafood, though meat, chicken, and pasta dishes are also on the menu. If you're lucky, it will have grida (grouper) as a daily special; if not, try the fried squid with tarator sauce—a mixture of yogurt, garlic, lemon, walnuts, olive oil, and bread.

Though the sweeping sea view is the star attraction of this meyhane above the harbor, the service and the food hold their own. Fresh fish, seafood, and meze are the traditional pairings with the rakı and Turkish wines on offer, but the menu include steaks, fajitas, and chicken curry as well.