Cuisine of Konya for gourmets. Places for dinner - best restaurants

Local restaurants will variegate your vacations; restaurants of local cuisine are highly in demand among guests of Konya. Not far from the Mevlana garden there is a Turkish restaurant Gülbahçesi. It impresses not only with luxurious decor of the hall, but also with treats of excellent quality. In addition to classic national dishes, the restaurant serves a lot of interesting chef’s masterpieces. This restaurant is certainly worth to be visited by gourmets.

Literally at every turn there are budget restaurants and small stalls, which offer guests to enjoy fresh kebabs, vegetable salads and meat cooked on the grill. Among reasonably priced places the most notable is Adanali Köfteci restaurant located a few steps from the train station. The chef prepares signature barbecue right in front of visitors. Adanali Köfteci restaurant will also please with a variety of drinks.

We can also recommend to thrifty travelers the Mithat Tirit restaurant. Its specialty is kebab. It is a popular dish that is served here in more than a dozen variations. In a beautiful historic building Turkish restaurant Kösk Mutfagi is housed. Visitor will be able to choose suitable treats from an extensive menu; both fans of meat dishes and vegetarian food advocates would like it. The only drawback may be the lack of alcoholic beverages in restaurant; to complete the meal a cup of Turkish coffee is served here. Copyright www.orangesmile.com

Signature dish of Mahmut Keten restaurant is lamb cooked with an addition of a special cream sauce. In addition to this culinary masterpiece, visitors could enjoy fresh salads, as a choice of side dishes in Mahmut Keten is very large. Fans of other cuisines won’t be bored in Konya, as there are restaurants for every taste. Somatci restaurant specializes in international dishes, regular visitors appreciate its fish specialties. Large selection of European dishes is presented in the Oz Konya Mutfagi restaurant; it also serves popular national dishes too. In the cozy Ortakoy Nargile café lots of interesting salads, vegetable stews and soups are always offered for guests. Here you can relax after a long day in the city and enjoy a cold drink.

The traditional cuisine of Konya is not much different from the classical Turkish. It is based on meat dishes, various snacks, vegetable dishes, and amazing oriental sweets. One of the main everyday dishes for locals is kebab, which is prepared in dozens of ways. It is minced meat molded around a small wooden skewer and then grilled. Usually, kebab is served along with fresh vegetables and various sauces.

In local restaurants, you should definitely try pilaf, the cooking traditions of which are hundreds of years old. It can be cooked not only from rice but also from some types of wheat groats. In any case, pilaf can be cooked based on different meats. A variety of vegetable ingredients are added to it, the most common ones include onions, tomatoes, and peppers. Traditional Turkish "kofte" is also excellently prepared in local restaurants. The main feature of this meat dish is that it is made exclusively over an open fire. Kofte is a bit like classic meatballs, to which it is customary to add various spices and fresh greens.

Konya's traditional cuisine will surely be appreciated by vegetarians as well, as here they prepare a lot of interesting vegetable dishes. In local restaurants, guests are offered all sorts of eggplant and zucchini pates, very interesting vegetable cutlets are prepared, and salted or pickled vegetables are served. Fans of more original dishes should order “Karnyaryk” - stuffed eggplants, as well as popular vegetable stews.

The local cuisine is rich in meat and vegetable soups, which are prepared on the basis of meat broth with a variety of combinations of vegetables. An important component of many soups is various types of legumes. For example, popular Mercimek Corbası soup is cooked with lentils. There are so many first course recipes in local cuisine that even natives may be not familiar with some of them.

An important component of the traditional meal is bread, which is customarily served fresh and hot. Virtually all local restaurants bake their own bread in a special oven. Most often, it is served in the form of flatbreads. They can be sprinkled with cheese or cooked without adding any ingredients. Spices, greens, and even vegetables may be added to the dough of some types of bread.