Bursa Restaurants

Everywhere you go in Turkey you will find one, if not many, kebab houses. In England these are a delight after a night out on the town, where the large doner is king.

In Turkey they are a veritable feast of fast food and the various ways of having a kebab is sometimes mind blowing, although there are usually plenty of pictures that you can point at to ensure that you get what you want off the menu.

I suppose you can liken a kebab shop in Turkey to a coffee shop in Italy. A simply must do part of the trip.

Favorite Dish: Most lamb kebabs with rice, although the wraps are also excellent. Also chicken is sometimes on the skewer.

Iskander is named after Alexander the Great, but that's where the connection ends. Turkish Iskander is famous and its origins are from Bursa. There are copious restaurants in the area that make it, and a visit would not be complete if you did not sample it.

Favorite Dish: Iskander - slight variations on the general theme. Thinly sliced spiced beef, served on a bed of chopped baked bread, smothered with a tomato sauce and hot butter. Usually has some peppers and yogurt on the side. Simply delicious!!

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The old city is on a steep cliff - not a good sign, usually means earth quakes - , called Hisar. At the foot of it runs a small street lined with restaurants. We think they're all family of each other. We ate at one of them Arap Sükrü. Fresh fish is on display and they do not wrong with it. Also good mezze's.

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Kalecik serves in a traditional two storey Bursa house with a garden, in the center of the citadel (Tophane / Hisar). Guest are able to have meals from both world and ottoman cuisine. This small and modest restaurant plays music genres of jazz, nujazz, lounge, chill out and world music.

Favorite Dish: Kalecik Han Kebab

It is best to do in the summer and sit outside, but indoor seats are also available in cold periods. The fresh local foods, the clean mountain air and the vistas are wonderful.

I was able to order on occasion my myself, but if you have a local Turk go with you, it will be to your advantage. Many times there are no menus, and simply have to choose from the verbal list given by the staff.

Favorite Dish: All food is good! Its local, which means a lot of meats from the grill and other dishes with a similar Mediterranean flavor.

Visiting Bursa without tasting its most famous speciality - Iskender Kebap - would be sacrilege. Iskender or Bursa kebap is doner kebap (meat roasted on revolving vertical spit) sliced thinly and laid out on chunks of pide (local pizza) bread and covered with specially created tomato souce and melted butter. It's like biting into heart attack itself, but it's all worth it (that is if you survive).

If you want to go for the 'authentic' Bursa kebap, head to Iskender Kebapci who claims to have invented this cholesterol friendly dish. They have a small, cozy, blue-and-white branch along Ataturk Cad near the tourist office, which I think is open during lunch hours only. Iskender's main branch is along Unlu Cad, a pedestrianized street at the tip of Ataturk Cad.

Favorite Dish: Bursa's famous speciality, Iskender kebap.

I have this feeling that Mahfel Mado is the focal point of Bursa's lively café culture. It's a gathering place for yuppies, students, academics, business people, and curious tourists like myself. More than a great place to people watch, the chocolate ice cream here is not bad at all.

Iskender kebap is one of the most famous meat foods of Northwestern Turkey and takes its name from its inventor, Iskender Efendi, who lived in Bursa in the late 19th century.

It is a kind of döner kebab prepared from thinly cut grilled lamb basted with tomato sauce over pieces of pide bread and generously slathered with melted butter and yogurt. Additionally, one cylindrical meatball can be placed on top. It is commonly consumed with sira as a drink to aid digestion. Tomato sauce and boiling butter are sometimes poured over the dish, at the table.

This explanation is from Wikipedia..But just one word for Iskender is DELICIOUS!!