Urla Gezi Rehberi ve Rotaları • Kişniş vs.

We are in Urla, a gastronomy center that attracts more and more attention every day with its artisan restaurants that have been serving for many years, winery & wine houses on the vineyard route, producers, farmers in the region and brand new projects!

With this guide through Urla and its villages, we start to discover the good food spots and producers of the region. In the following part of the series, a Çeşme&Alaçatı section awaits us, which we will prepare by continuing over the Çeşme peninsula.

We wander through the old streets of Urla, the Malgaca market. The most important of the streets in Old Urla, which bears traces of Greek architecture, is Art Street. The restored buildings are home to art workshops, restaurants & boutique producer shops.

Good Food Guide

In this list you can find our favorite good food stops and places identified with Urla:

Chef Restaurants:

Restaurants:

@yengecrestaurant
@seyhaneturla
@levanurla
Barba Urla
Öteyaka
İstifçi Urla
@dascantina
Beğendik Abi
Şafak Lokantası
@akininyeri – Özbek
@canin.yeri – Özbek

Coffee/Breakfast & Dessert:

For wine tastings:

HUS Wines
USCA Winery
Urla Wines
Urlice Wineyards

Bar/Cocktail:

Rast Urla
Dokuz Urla

Reservations are recommended before visiting the restaurants, taking into account seasonal changes and current opening hours.

Urla Travel Guide

When to go to Urla?

Urla is one of the most important destinations in the Aegean in terms of gastronomy, and although the peak season is June-September, we think it is much more enjoyable in spring and fall. Especially after the summer holidays, it is a very pleasant route to explore with the colors of autumn.

Places to visit in Urla:

Urla Vineyard Route and Wineries,
Urla Art Street,
Klazomenai Ruins,
Olive Oil Museum,
Kekliktepe Store,
Arkas Art Center,
Uzbas Arboretum,
Maritime Archaeology Museum,
Malgaca Bazaar,

Favorite spots for swimming:

Altinkoy Beach
Azmak Beach
Demircili Beach

In our previous trips to Urla, we usually stayed in vineyard houses or in houses we found on airbnb. However, in the center of Urla and its surrounding villages, there are quite a few establishments with few rooms that offer accommodation as well as good food. Here are our favorites:

Accommodation:

@narimorurla
@kiyidaurla
@gumrukurla
@kekliktepe.bagevi
@aysehanimkonagiurla
OD Guesthouse #NarımorOtelUrla – In a quiet corner right in the center of Urla. It has an atmosphere that makes you feel like you are in a village in Italy; One of the best chef restaurants in Urla, Atilla Heilbronn, is also inside this hotel. #KıyıdaUrla – As the name suggests, this hotel in Kalabak, Urla is right on the coast. Barba, their restaurant inspired by an old tavern culture with an exquisite sunset, is one of the newest places we discovered here. #GümrükUrla – This is one of our favorite places around Iskele. Even though we don’t stay here, every time we come we sit on one of the green chairs in front and watch the pier. Rast Urla, Ioki and Batis in Kahvesi are located here. #AyşeHanımKonağı – Gia Urla was one of the most recommended places in the guide we prepared last year. Gia Urla offers a successful culinary experience under the leadership of Chef Serkan Çakır in the garden of Ayşe Hanım Mansion. Towards Çeşmealtı beach in Urla. #odurla Guesthouse – Osman Sezener’s chef restaurant opened in 2018 in an olive grove; You can also stay in their guesthouses with a small number of rooms.#teruarurla – This is another chef’s restaurant in Kuşcular, among the vineyards and olive trees of Urla. This restaurant, where minimalism and simplicity are at the forefront, is also one of our favorite places to stay with a small number of rooms.

Another Successful Chef Restaurant in Urla: Atilla Heilbronn

We finally visited Atilla Heilbronn, whom we have been following for some time! We could only fit this much of the dishes we tasted in this short video, you can find the tasting menu at the end of the video.

This is a chef restaurant located inside the Narımor Hotel in Urla. It would not be wrong to say that Urla has brought a breath of fresh air to the gastronomy movement. We think it already has one of the most impressive menus in the region.

The chef has not only used local ingredients in his menu; He took his inspiration from the town in which he lives, from the people who call this town home. You get this feeling from the first moments. The dishes are not just good ingredients cooked right, they also tell you a story. The chef’s tasting menu is like a fluid journey that lasts about 2-3 hours, where you get excited before each dish. It definitely stands out from most chef restaurants with the story it tells and the memorability of its flavors.

The menu changes frequently. The chef explains this in his menu as follows: “The microseason happens whether you want it or not, and this sweet obligation connects you to nature. We are happy to be in Urla, which is perhaps the fastest and most stubbornly developing gastronomy and wine route in Turkey and the world. ”

Atilla Heilbronn lived in Europe for a long time and worked in different kitchens; He blends European experiences, cooking techniques and presentation styles with the culinary heritage of Urla and Turkey to combine the local with the global in his menu.

Open only 4 days a week (Wednesday-Saturday), this restaurant can accommodate a maximum of 14 people. An experience where all the service is done by the chef himself and Ms. Buse.

A good wine menu is also available, no wine pairing with the tasting menu yet. However, we learned that in the future there will be a beverage pairing that is not only about wine. We believe that the watermelon-cheese and Prototip Rakı pairing on the tasting menu was a good example of this.

Teruar Urla

We are in Urla, known for its unique nature and restaurants serving the best examples of Aegean cuisine.

We have already mentioned the Urla Gastronomy Route. This time we stop at one of the chef restaurants@teruarurla

🌞The dictionary definition of Teruar ‘terroir’ is the environmental factors that give a product its characteristics. During the cultivation of a product, the soil, air, water, climate, latitude, location and the contributions of the farmers who cultivate it determine the character of that product. Respect for the material is also at the heart of Teruar Urla.

🏡Teruar is a chef’s restaurant with a kitchen at its heart, with chef Osman Serdaroğlu at the helm of the kitchen, and a 7-room hotel in Kuşçular Village of Urla.

👨🏻‍🌾Şef Serdaroğlu describes it as an Agrotourism project. Agrotourism is a combination of precision agriculture and tourism, with a growing interest in rural life. Projects that give importance to locality and seasonality are of great importance in the steps taken to transform Urla into a gastronomy center.

👨🏻‍🍳Şef Serdaroğlu is one of those who, after completing his education in the field of informatics, changed his profession and turned to the kitchen. She enters the kitchen with the trainings she received at the Academy of Culinary Arts and then in Italy. It is also possible to see Italian influences in the menu they serve at Teruar.

📝Menus are divided into a la Carte and tasting menu. You can choose from these two menus for lunch and dinner. If you prefer the tasting menu, you can taste 7 different dishes selected by the chef for that season. The tasting menu has a condition that it must be served for everyone at the table in order not to disrupt the service.

🍤Mediterranean & Aegean cuisine is categorized as Mediterranean & Aegean cuisine, with plates full of simplicity, served with fresh produce from the sea and land. Don’t expect fancy, surprising plates, you enjoy the ingredients as simply as possible.

Od Urla

We visit Chef Osman Sezener’s Od Urla, who has two important restaurants in Urla, which has quickly become an important gastronomic destination in Turkey.

Urla is one of the richest regions in Turkey in terms of material diversity, full of gastronomically qualified products from the mountains to the sea.

OD takes both its name and inspiration from the first fire. It is inspired by the fact that human beings gathered around fire, learned not to be afraid of it and started cooking.

At OD Urla, it is always more pleasant to sit at the bar, which they call ‘chef’s table’, where you can closely watch the young team working in the kitchen. Many flavors are served cooked over an open wood fire.

Surrounded by olive trees, this restaurant has a farm-to-table concept. The ingredients, which are the most important part of the experiences, are sourced from their own gardens or local producers.

Here you can choose a tasting menu or A La Carte menu. The tasting menu is renewed every 45 days but it’s still a nice freedom to be able to make your favorite choice.

The tasting menu, called Chef’s Journey, starts with sourdough bread and olive oil. It continues with flavors from the garden and the sea respectively. After a break with roasted pepper sorbet, it ends with küşleme and desserts. Seasonality, artisanal processing of carefully selected local ingredients and zero waste concern are conveyed to you on all of the plates, but we can talk about how unforgettable the flavors are.

We found almost everything we tasted delicious but far from amazing. We can say that we expect more creative and story-filled plates at OD Urla, an important gastronomy venue since 2018. The atmosphere of the place, the poetry of the transparent space surrounded by olive trees, and the service, which we experienced minor glitches, were far behind;

We think that an important factor here is the capacity of the restaurant. A big operation is underway. Disruptions seem inevitable in this operation, which can serve about 300-400 people.

OD, one of the most important chef restaurants in the region, must be visited. It is also one of the most frequently mentioned for the Michelin guide that descends towards the Aegean after Istanbul.

Gümrük Urla, Rast and Batis'in Kahvesi

We are on the pier side of Urla!

🏛 Housed in a historical building built in the 1800s, Gümrük Hotel Urla is not only a hotel but also a food and beverage center with its cafe, bar and Japanese restaurant.

🐈 The 10-room boutique hotel, named after its use for customs work, is quite pleasant after the restoration carried out in 2020. It is a very authentic place with a garden with cats roaming around and doors opening to the harbor.

🍸Rast Courtyard, the bar inside the building, is very popular for the music performances it hosts. On our first visit, we were not very satisfied with the flavors we tried from the cocktail menu. Let’s add that the staff are caring enough and provide a good service.

🍳When we took a look at their menu, we wanted to evaluate it for breakfast the next day. I’m glad we came; We ordered a full ‘our breakfast’ and ‘mom fries’ from their breakfast menu. We can say that the breakfast and general food menu of the place is at quite accessible prices. This very filling breakfast was160₺.

☕️ Another feature of Gümrük, which has a sea view, is that it is home to Batis’in Kahvesi, which is very popular in the region. The Nobel Prize-winning Greek poet Yorgo Seferis from Urla took a photo in front of the building when he was 7 years old and included it in his memoirs, one of the 19th century’s most popular gathering centers in the region;

Gümrük Urla is a very nice building both for accommodation and for visiting and spending time at different times of the day. In the morning for breakfast, during the day to enjoy the harbor view and in the evening to have fun with @rasturla’s activities.

Beğendik Abi

Beğendik Abi | Urla #begendikabi #urlagastronomirotası

It would not be a lie to say that the most popular food stops in Urla – or even in Izmir in general – are artisan restaurants.

🍽 Again, we are going to a place that is part of the Urla Gastronomy Route, Beğendik Abi, which is known by almost everyone in Urla. However, there are many artisan restaurants in Urla that serve with the same care and for a very long time. All of these places around the art street are worth a try. You can progress by trying a different one every day in your Urla travels.

🥬 At Beğendik Abi, artichoke wraps, Cretan squash, stuffed zucchini blossoms, Çalkama, Çipohorta and olive oil dishes made from seasonally changing Aegean herbs are very popular. Olive oil dishes change according to the season. 🥘 But if we talk about the most famous dishes here, Elbasan Tava & Urla Güveci duo comes first.

🍲 When you enter the venue and approach the counter, these products attract the most attention. Elbasan Tava, with a sauce reminiscent of bechamel sauce, but much more flavorful, is an Albanian dish prepared with lamb shank. Broth, yogurt, egg yolk, flour and salt are the ingredients that provide flavor in the sauce.

🥩 Urla Güveci is one of the classics of the place, a casserole dish prepared by cooking the meat and vegetables in the broth for a long time. The only problem with these two dishes is that you have to dip a lot of bread in the sauce and water, which means a lot of bread :))

🥮 Dessert options include good examples of classic flavors such as Cretan dessert, rice pudding, kazandibi, curd dessert.

Located right next to the Malgaca Bazaar, Beğendik Abi is open every day from 12.00 to 22.00.

Barba Urla

A new venue discovery in Urla, Barba Urla.

The name of the place, Barba, comes from an old Greek tavern culture. This culture, which people visit for a drink or two, can be seen in the side streets of Beyoğlu in Istanbul and on the shore in the coastal towns of the Aegean region.

This is how they described the culture and the place they were inspired by, and we liked it so much that we are quoting it directly. ‘The kitchen of these places is located at the back of the bar and there is a tavern keeper who serves as ‘Barba’. At that time, people called the tavern keepers as such, making the barba a part of the tektekçi culture.

Barbas are in fact the dominant figures of the tavern, the cooks who cook the food and the face of the tavern. We are also doing ‘Barbalık’ on the shore. Every day we light our fire and cook the accompaniments for the glasses, as it should be on the shore. While doing all this, we build pleasant tables with Anatolian cuisine that we interpret by preserving the state of being “Barba” and the calmness of being on the shore.’

Before talking about the menu, one of the most impressive stories belongs to a seafood dish on the menu. The name of the plate: ‘From Şevket Abi’s Net’ Şevket Abi, who is over 70 years old, is a real character who goes out to sea early every morning from Urla Kalabak, and on his way back, he tells stories about what he caught in his net and distributes it to his friends and relatives. Barba’s owners have also known them since they were children. Now the ones caught on the net appear on the menu with variable ingredients.
Maybe it is too early to comment on the menu and flavors, but we can say that there menu isn’t really limited. Those who subscribe or channel on instagram have already followed the menu and our experiences instantly.

Don’t just think of raki when you think of two shots, wine, beer or a delicious cocktail can also accompany you here. A balanced menu with an emphasis on seafood and meat products;

We tried ‘kınalı bamya’, ‘zucchini flower balls’ and ‘beef ribs served with tirit bread’. All three were delicious, especially for such a new venue;

Don’t forget to give this newly opened place a chance on your next trip to Urla and order ‘Şevket Abi’nin Ağından’ if you like seafood.

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