Restaurant: Old Town Tanneries
Location: Türkmen, DoubleTree by Hilton Kuşadası Arkası, 09350 Kuşadası/Aydın, Türkiye. +90 543 638 60 60
Date: June 20, 2023
Cuisine: Modern Turkish
Rating: Hotel restaurant, but good
Old Town Tanneries is a restaurant cluster installed in a group of restored tannery buildings. These were in use from the 1930-60s and have been lovingly restored. They are also part of the Hilton and were restored, owned, and operated by the same lovely people who manage Gio.
The net result is a very attractive “neighborhood” of charming stone structures.
Our big 12 person table. We ate here with a big group of family and friends.
Mezze, of course.
Bread.
These “Turkish Spring Rolls” were delicious with the dips.
Beans.
Yogurt with purslane.
Spinach.
Humus with Beef Speck. The crispy beef resembles bacon.
Feta and Walnuts in olive oil with basil. Quite delicious with a bit of a pesto-like tone.
Yoghurt with Spicy Oil. This was actually REALLY spicy, much to my (pleased) surprise. Seriously hot actually.
Asparagus with cheese.
Salad. A touch under-dressed for my taste.
Shrimp with Chili Peppers and Garlic Butter. Very tender shrimp and more or less like “gambas pil pil.”
Fried Calamari. Quite excellent seafood fry. The sauce was more or less like a yogurt version of tartar sauce.
Grilled Sea Bass. Fresh potatoes and baby vegetables.
This time we remembered to have it filleted.
Beef slices with garlic and cheese. I’m not sure exactly what was going on here but it was delicious.
Lamb. Very tender and flavorful.
Pistachio Creme with Ice Cream. This was pretty insanely good. The crepe was stuffed with chopped pistachios (and probably some form of sugar or syrup. The ice cream was made from goat cheese and is very dense.
Fruit.
Turkish Tea.
Overall, a great meal — in no small part because of good company. There were some various Turkish wines as well, fairly generic but quaffable Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc mostly.