The Lemon Tree

Lemon Tree sits on the Çökertme seafront next to the Bitez Yalı mosque and trades on a register the bay has lost almost everywhere else: a full all-day room, kitchen open early to late, a sandy strip with free loungers and umbrellas for guests, and a Sunday brunch programme the Bitez second-house regular has been turning up to for the best part of a decade. The kitchen is broad rather than tight, which is the point on this part of the seafront — Aegean mezes off the chiller, day-boat fish on the grill, the Bodrum signature çökertme kebabı, homemade brownies from the back, and the live music most evenings that the strip otherwise lacks. The Bitez page reads it as the seafront anchor a Bağarası or Memedof booking can be planned around rather than against.