This family-run winery makes a great stop. Huge windows add a touch of glamor to the modern construction, while the Nif Gastro Wine Bar presents a menu of dishes featuring produce grown in the estate’s own garden, all meant to highlight the flavors of wine pairings.

Home to an architecturally gorgeous wine cellar, Lucien Arkas is Turkey’s largest single-parcel organic vineyard. Taste a few wines, wander the vineyard, and end with a meal at La Mahzen Restaurant, where you can pair dishes with the brand’s Consensus Chardonnay or Mon Reve Marselan.

The Güners, one of the oldest winemaking families in Turkey, own the Sevilen vineyards, as well as this estate. Sample local and international cuisine at the on-site restaurant, check out wine tastings, and book a night at the İsabey Guesthouse for the full experience.

Seasonal and daily menus at this casual restaurant feature plenty of olive oil, fruit, and Anatolian flavors that are almost forgotten in modern Turkey. Ahmet Güzelyağdöken serves home-style dishes just like a local grandfather: Alaşehir kapama (big fried dumplings served with a yogurt- and butter-spiked broth), oğlak tandır (goat tandoori), and olive oil-braised produce like artichoke, fava beans, and quince. Coming from a family of cheesemakers, Güzelyağdöken also sells his own varieties of cheese, as well as olives, bottarga, smoked salmon and other fish, dried meat, and more.

As many travelers have learned, some of any city’s best food can be found at the casual lunchtime eateries that fuel its working class. In Turkey, that place is the esnaf lokantası (tradesman’s restaurant). All types of people — women fresh from the hairdresser, bankers, shopkeepers — sit together at this esnaf lokantası, tucked away in a small alley in the Kemeraltı neighborhood. Mahmut Usta guards his amazing hot food counter, chatting animatedly with his regulars as they peruse items like işkembeli nohut (chickpeas with tripe), kelle paça (head and trotter soup), balık çorbası (fish soup), kuzu sarma in springtime (lamb intestines cooked in its own broth with potatoes), and ekşili köfte (meatballs in lemon sauce). Green chiles come with every dish, as do heaps of dried and fried red peppers on fatty yogurt.

Surrounded by olive groves and vineyards, near the ancient town Teos, Ayda is the first wine producer in the Gödence area. The winery offers various tours and tastings, as well as a restaurant serving dana yanaklı keşkek (wheat pounded with ox cheek), lemon lamb shank, çi börek (mini puff pastries), and other local dishes.

Chef Atilla Heilbronn serves his food in a 12-seater restaurant on the top floor of the Narımor Hotel, a boutique seven-room mansion in the center of Urla that he runs alongside his partner, Buse Ünal. Heilbronn creates excitement in each dish without too many details, a simplicity of technique picked up from years spent working with chefs at Michelin-starred restaurants. The tasting menu (the only option) changes frequently to capture the best of each micro-season: celery root with hazelnut, isot (fermented dried chile), green apple, and armola cheese; wild Aegean greens with beluga caviar; or duck consommé with egg yolk and mushrooms. Ünal carefully chooses global wines that offer a little something different than the other establishments around town.

You’ll find Urla’s chefs and their friends dining at Beğendik Abi, a homey restaurant that welcomes guests with a warm interior decorated with antiques, flowers on the tables, and a long case filled with comforting dishes. Urla native Handan Kaygusuzer is happy to mother guests with an array of seasonal, daily, local specialties. Dishes could include çalkama (seasonal wild greens and cheese baked in a thin batter), sakız artichokes with lamb, elbasan tava (baked lamb with yogurt sauce), lahana sarma (baked cabbage rolls), Urla güveci (seasonal vegetable and lamb stew typically sent to the neighborhood bakery to be cooked), artichoke stuffed with rice and herbs, karışık ot kavurma (sauteed wild greens), nettle salad, or fennel salad. Whatever you do, do not miss the Girit böreği tatlısı (curd cheese-stuffed pastry with syrup).

This boutique patisserie has regular customers from all over Turkey. Baker and owner Esra Özkutlu sells the best goat milk ice cream and French patisserie around. The ice cream comes in flavors like lavender or salted caramel, alongside baked items like a chocolate tart and acıbadem kurabiyesi (bitter almond cookies). Özkütlu only uses the best ingredients.

Surrounded by large windows looking out on olive groves, Od Urla offers a true taste of every season. Led by chef-owner Osman Sezener, staff members make cheese from the milk of the restaurant’s own goats and grow vegetables in summer and herbs all year round. Though the a la carte and tasting menus cycle throughout the year, you might start your meal with blue-tailed shrimp from the Özbek region served with citrus dressing, followed by sakız artichokes from Urla with pickled stems, crispy baklava dough, and pea cream. Then it’s on to signature dishes such as oxtail cooked 12 hours in a wood-burning oven, served with fig molasses and caramelized onion; roasted celeriac with mastic gum tarhana (dried fermented wheat berry and yogurt soup) and celeriac cream; or grouper with sakız artichoke. Along with an excellent wine cellar and whiskey collection, the bar offers a Negroni menu and other signature cocktails made from local botanicals and fruits. If you can swing it, book a stay in the property’s Guesthouse — a handful of rooms set among the olive groves, where breakfast features local produce — but the restaurant can also arrange a car to fetch you from other accommodations.

Enter the casual Levan through a small courtyard and let chef-owner Onur Canbulat make everything simple from there. The menu, listed on a blackboard alongside local wines, might include karamelize soğanlı ege otu kavurması (sauteed Aegean edible greens with caramelized onions and mustard yogurt), mücver (vegetable fritters), artichokes with green fava beans, fried beef liver served with hummus and sumac onions, or lamb slow-cooked in a wood-fired oven with almond rice. On Sundays, the menu features pizza from that same wood-burning oven.

Lush green lawns and cypress trees frame the view from Teruar’s floor-to-ceiling windows, set in a modern farmhouse constructed with Urla stones. Influences mingle from chef-owner Osman Serdaroğlu’s local roots, his experiences working at Michelin-starred restaurants in Italy, and his travels. Across the a la carte dishes and tasting menus, the chef’s plates are minimal and clear, showing a great balance of local seafood and seasonal vegetables. Options might include Urla sakız artichoke with broad bean veloute, blessed thistle with cuttlefish ink and clam sauce, or Karaburun tuna with asparagus. Start the night with a signature cocktail, such as the Plum (vodka, plum, Karaburun lemon) or Red Chili (tequila, triple sec, hot sauce), and continue with wines from the Urla Wine Route and beyond. While Osman Serdaroğlu runs the kitchen, Ezgi Serdaroğlu oversees the ambiance, the lounge, and the rooms of the on-site hotel.

At Urla Winery, the biggest producer in the region, founder Can Ortabaş cultivates local wine grapes such as Urla karası (which he blends with nero d’Avola) and beyazkere (a mutation of boğazkere). Don’t miss either of those bottlings, or the brand’s Tempus (merlot, syrah, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, and petit verdot). While the winery doesn’t have a restaurant, it does hold wine tastings at the vineyard and the 2 Rooms Hotel is on the premises.

With terraces and a restaurant set against the vineyards, Hus feels entirely integrated with nature. An innovative and refreshing menu, prepared with local and seasonal ingredients, matches the house wines. Look for bottlings featuring Turkish grapes such as kara sulu and öküzgözü-boğazkere. The winery also has two rooms for guests on the premises.

Akın’ın Yeri in Özbek has been serving the freshest seafood since 1970. Located just across from the daily fish auction on the pier, this restaurant is preferred by locals (and in-the-know tourists) for its warm, understated atmosphere. Take your pick of the seafood and fish on ice — shrimp, octopus, fried red mullet, all kinds of mussels, fried calamari, fish patties, catch of the day — alongside a vast variety of meze. Reservations are definitely needed on weekends. 

Chef Can Aras’s comfortable modern seafood restaurant in the center of Alaçatı is outfitted with a retractable roof, allowing customers to enjoy their meal beneath enveloping foliage. Amongst the indispensable dishes of the dinner-only restaurant, look for the lobster roll, grilled dry-aged fish, mackerel crudo with truffle vinaigrette, sea bass ceviche, dog snapper crudo with wakame, and — the talk of the town — the seafood paella. Aras brings a modern approach and handles local ingredients masterfully, layering flavors and visuals on each plate. There are a la carte and tasting menu options, a selection of local wines, and cocktails to complement every flavor. Unpretentious, elegant, and delicious is what you get at Amavi. 

Note: Amavi is open six months of the year, from April to October.

What began as a fish wholesaler is now the most popular seafood restaurant in Çeşme, where diners watch as Ahmet Horasan expertly mans the grill every day. The restaurant is located in the town center and customers are seated in a garden amongst lemon and olive trees. The daily menu includes an array of fish and seafood — shrimp with orange, crayfish, sardines, grilled cuttlefish with ink, fish carpaccio, lobster pasta, and other dishes — as well as local meze, but most regulars leave the decision up to Horasan. Whether your order is grilled or raw, you are in safe hands. Nabbing a table is the biggest challenge.