Mekane in Bodrum

The Cumhuriyet trattoria that has held the Michelin Bib Gourmand for Neapolitan pizza and seafood risotto since 2013

Pomelan beach compound bundling beach club, brasserie, balıkçı and a jazz room under chef Cüneyt Kırsan.

A 24-room boutique on Omurca with a rooftop restaurant, two pools and the owners' own H&G organic wine

Erhan Usta's fish house on the Gümüşlük iskele since 1983, still the chef's name on the door

Naru and Dereköy Lokantası team's all-day bistro-bar on Adliye Caddesi, DJ programme on weekends.

Birdcage 33 Hotel's terrace restaurant, karma mutfak (assorted cuisine) over Yalıkavak Bay.

Mehmet and Tülin Çuhadar's seafood room at Milta Marina; Bodrum's reference fish house since the early 2000s

Hilal Tayfun's Le Cordon Bleu kitchen above the village — brasserie, artisan bakery, French patisserie under one roof

Bitez seafront kitchen next to the Yalı mosque, the bay's long-running all-day room.

Melina Kırmacı's family-recipe Italian kitchen, set inside a mandarin and lemon orchard in inland Bitez.

Konacık's culture-and-gastronomy compound — library, kitchen, garden and a 400-capacity outdoor stage running jazz, theatre and author nights.

MICHELIN Guide modern kebab — the most ambitious kitchen in Bitez, kebab as fine-dining grammar.

Twenty-eight-year-old Yalıkavak beach village — capped capacity, bohemian-mature, the anti-marina antidote.

Bib Gourmand 2026 — Ümmühan Girgin's mandarin-garden meze house in the back lanes of Bitez

Bib Gourmand 2026 — a chic all-day meze room on D-Marin Göcek with the yachts in the foreground and the Reşadiye mountains behind

MICHELIN Young Chef Award 2026 — Duru Akgül's restored olive-oil mill on the Reşadiye Peninsula

A bougainvillea-shaded hilltop terrace that has been the Gümüşlük sunset for two decades

Bitez Yalısı beachfront kitchen and beach club, kitchen-led seafood from morning to late.

İlknur and Cengiz Özbaşaran's family fish house on the Gümüşlük beach since 1992, recommended in New York Times

Long-standing rakı and fish house on Yahşi shore, catch of the day on ice, large dining room.

HYDE Bodrum's poolside Aegean bar — small-plate tapas, cocktails, weekend DJ residents

Family-run beach hotel restaurant on Torba Bay — Mediterranean and Mexican kitchen under Chef Eduardo Luna

Müskebi Caddesi beach club opened 2023 — bohemian daytime room on the Yahşi sand with cabanas, long pier and a kitchen running into the evening.

Beach-restaurant opened in Küçükbük by Danış Ulaş in 2021; Mediterranean cooking and a natural cove.

Cafer Karakaya's fish counter and beachfront room on the Yahşi shore, TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice 2025.

The Yalıçiftlik fisherman's room — tables set directly in the shallows, the day's fish off the boat, the family Mustafa Bey runs to a fifteen-cover register.

A small Adliye Sokak family kitchen, a meze tray and a chalkboard fish list — and a returning crowd that knows the names

Türkbükü pier institution since 1970 — the bay's longest-running family-run fish house, candlelit dinner over the sea.

Bitez village Mexican cantina from İrem Gürses, fire-grilled meats and handmade tortillas with a DJ programme.

Susona's all-day Aegean kitchen above the infinity pool — micro-local produce, Saturday Taverna nights

18-room Gölköy Bay seafront hotel and beach restaurant — Chef İsmail Ceylan's Mediterranean kitchen on a 150-year-old stone-house property.

Right on the water in Gündoğan, the village reference that runs fish and beach service together.

A 5,000-bottle boutique winery rooted in the ancient Myndos terroir — Şiraz, Chardonnay, Öküzgözü

Aspat Anthaven seafood bistro — the southern-bay alternative to the harbour fish rooms, garlic shrimp and shrimp bruschetta on a Google 4.9.

Akyarlar harbour fish house on Yalı Caddesi, the village's #2-ranked seafront room with live music nights and full meze counter.

Blue Flag beach and restaurant on Yahşi cove, stone-oven pizzas and a boutique room with a generous garden.

Yahşi boutique beach-hotel restaurant on Asma Sokak — Aegean kitchen, blue-flag private beach, six-to-seven happy hour with DJ.

Köşebaşı's Bitez branch since 2022, year-round Adana-Tarsus kebap programme with a real garden.

Yahşi seafront chef-led beach-and-fine-dining room — Melisa Yördem, Paul Moisson-trained, daytime beach into evening restaurant.

Mehmet Çuhadar's classic Aegean fish house, Gölköy 2001, Yalıkavak branch since 2007.

One of Gümüşlük's oldest tables, 160 seats with a direct sightline to Tavşan Adası and the sunset

A Gümüşlük classic since 1990, fish-grill room on the Yalı Mevkii with the same logic three decades on

Small rakı-balık room on Müskebi Caddesi, grilled octopus and prawn casserole as house signatures.

Yahşi seafront fine-dining beach restaurant since 2014 — Aegean steakhouse-and-seafood with Travelers' Choice and a clear view of Kos.

Long-running rakı-balık and beach room on the Ortakent-Yahşi waterfront, open from eight in the morning to midnight.

A 1991-opened fish room on the iskele, navy-blue tables, white walls, the same family on the floor

Yahşi seafront hotel restaurant — Tripadvisor #2 in Ortakent, Travelers' Choice, steak-and-meze on the sand with Friday-night live music.

Chef Murat Deniz Temel and Kerem Tanel's 2025 Türkbükü opening — Aegean and Anatolian flavours with a sunset pier bar.

A direct-on-the-water Gümüşlük fish room with the boats and Rabbit Island a metre from the table

Bitez modern-Aegean kitchen — careful sourcing, calm room, the established middle of the bay.

Garden table overlooking Rabbit Island — Aegean meze and grilled meat, sunset choreography.

Year-round Mediterranean room in Bitez — minimalist, kitchen-first, the off-season anchor the bay needed.

The quiet fifteen-room Türkbükü alternative — small cove, slow service, no DJ.

Sunset cove fish house — consistent, family-run, the working version of the Gümüşlük template.

Yalıkavak all-day beach-to-cocktail arc — the accessible version of the chapter, without the marina markup.

Neyzen Tevfik cocktail room run by two ex-Lucca Bebek bartenders — the chapter's working answer west of the castle.

Summer outpost of the Arnavutköy bartender-led original — Yalıkavak village side, sunset-anchored, serious cocktails.

Small-plates and sushi room in Türkbükü — the modern street-food-meets-cocktail format the bay was missing.

The Adana / Tarsus kebab institution's Gündoğan summer outpost — the cove's reliable meat night.

Bitez seafront daytime room — shallow-water bay, kitchen-led lunch, the right answer for a long midday.

Gündoğan fish-and-meze room — the cove's second iskele address, smaller and lower-pressure than the anchor.

Bitez seafront beach club since 1993 — the bay's longest-running daytime room, residential rather than spectacle.

The Gündoğan iskele fish anchor — Mustafa's family, the day's catch, the cove's quiet evening.

Yahşi-side Aegean kitchen — the meze counter the producer-market crowd circles back to for dinner.

The Yalıkavak village-waterfront cousin of the Bodrum-merkez bar — smaller room, harbour-facing, late-shift cocktails.

Gündoğan's seaside fish house, run by Chef Ali Akbalık and the village's first reference for two decades

The Yalıkavak breakfast institution's Türkbükü branch, with garden tables and its own jetty

Güvercinlik's quieter waterside fish house, on the same Sahilyolu address since 1985

A geography-of-Türkiye meze and kebab room under the mandarin trees, Bib Gourmand 2025-2026

No:81 Hotel's beach deck — a Türkbükü bay restaurant that turns into a proper night room

A third-generation Akyarlar fish house since 1978, on a wooded cape fifteen metres above the strait to Kos

Torba's classic family fish house, on the Kilise bay since 1987 and open through the off-season

Yalıkavak's original family fish kitchen, opened in the early 1980s and still on the same corner

An 18th-century-Ottoman meyhane on Cumhuriyet Caddesi with a terrace over the bay — Bib Gourmand 2026

A speakeasy cocktail bar set inside a 500-year-old stone house behind the marina, lemon tree in the garden

The mother-and-son Aegean fish house that has held the Yahşi-Ortakent waterfront since the marina was built

Bodrum's only real Spanish house — Neco's San Sebastián tapas on a 300-year-old stone street

A stone-house seafood room on Güvercinlik's quiet bay — Bib Gourmand 2026 and the reason to drive past Bodrum

The Akyarlar harbour fish house run by the same family since 1986, with Kos a sunset away across the strait

The Gümüşlük meze house's Türkbükü sister, on Liman Caddesi with thirty cold and hot starters

Tilkicik Cove's original fish house, on its own jetty since 1993 and still family-run

A meyhane built into Sadun Boro's old Bodrum house, with kanun on the terrace and the castle in view

The peninsula's serious grill — dry-aged steak, kebabs and a wood-fire ocakbaşı that has held the Bib Gourmand three years running

An intimate Türkbükü beachfront kitchen with a small chef-led menu that turns over with the season

A Roman chef's intimate trattoria in Kumbahçe — pasta alla genovese and a roof terrace over Bodrum bay

A Çarşı-side cocktail bar with the castle in the frame and a list that takes itself seriously

The first table on the Gümüşlük iskele since 1962, still run by the family

A quieter alternative on the Gümüşlük iskele, run by a fishing family

A long-running fish house at the western Bodrum harbour, with a serious raki sofrası

Garden-style Aegean cooking in an old village house behind the marina

The old D-Marin Bodrum members' room, open to non-members for lunch on the western harbour

An understated Bitez seafront fish house that runs to the proper meyhane register