Bodrum Cuisine

Bodrum cuisine is healthy and non-fattening, except if one indulges too much in good Turkish bread, pastries or rich sweet desserts. Bodrum cuisine is well known with its traditional Mediterranean flavors. Vegetable dishes prepared with wild plants such as chicory, radish leaves, bull mallow, Bodrum’s special pastry baked with cheese (su boregi), stuffed zucchini flower (kabak cicegi dolmasi), smoked eggplant mixed with yogurt (kopoglu mezesi), gypsy salad ( cingene salatasi), Purslane salad with yogurt, bitter orange marmalade, pickled cucumbers etc… Dishes cooked or prepared with olive oil is served cold and all they are only appetizers.

Turkish style fast food is also popular in small restaurants of Bodrum. You can try Turkish pancake (gozleme), grilled lamb, chicken or beef sliced and sandwiched in 1/4 or 1/2 loaf of bread (doner ekmek), Turkish pizza (pide), lahmacun etc. If you like to do same like locals do, don’t miss to drink Ayran. Turks love to mix yoghurt with cold water and salt to prepare their refreshing drink and they call it “ayran” something like buttermilk. Ayran will be perfect drink to match with these snacks. It is very easy to find buffets and little restaurants offering Turkish version fast food at about every corner of streets in Bodrum.


Eating out in Bodrum offers countless possibilities. In addition to small restaurants you will also find many chic and fancy restaurants serving many different staff from different countries’ cuisine. Also it is not possible to think a vacation in Bodrum without tasting fresh wish accompanied by a glass of Raki. It will be great experience to taste some dishes and drinks you’ve never tasted before. Beside fish, Bodrum’s special main dish is a steak or chicken with potato, garlic and special yogurt sauce.


There are different types of desserts but two of them are so special in Bodrum. First one is “sarayli” something like a rolled light pastry, and second one is “katmer” which is a folded pie pastry. Both are stuffed with almonds and sesame seeds. Locals in Bodrum also like semolina with ice cream.