A coastal ritual, not just a meal
Seafood restaurants specialise in fish and shellfish, usually prepared simply to let freshness carry the plate, with grilling, frying and raw preparations the common routes. In Turkey, eating fish is as much a ritual as a meal: the classic balık restoranı is a long evening of cold meze, rakı, and a whole grilled fish to finish, ideally by the water. We have 801 seafood listings across Turkey and a smaller, growing scene in the Netherlands.
What to order
- Grilled whole fish: sea bass (levrek), bream (çipura) or, in season, bluefish and bonito.
- Meze: the cold-starter spread that always precedes the fish: stuffed mussels, octopus salad, sea beans.
- Calamari and shrimp: fried or grilled, the staple shellfish plates.
- Balık ekmek: the famous fish sandwich, Istanbul's waterfront street version of seafood.
Where to find it
İzmir is the spiritual home, with the Kordon waterfront built for exactly this kind of evening, and the most-reviewed dining destination in the city is its seafront fish strip. Istanbul's Bosphorus villages and Kadıköy market do it superbly, and the whole Antalya coast delivers Mediterranean seafood. In the Netherlands, look to the harbour cities for the Dutch take, built around herring, mussels and North Sea fish.
Top-rated fish restaurants
Here are some of the most-reviewed seafood listings across our coverage, ordered by public Google review count. As ever the rating is Google's public figure, shown for reference and linked to each listing, not our endorsement, and kept separate from e.restaurant diner reviews. They cluster on the water, which is exactly where the Turkish fish dinner belongs: the İzmir Kordon, the Istanbul shore and the Aegean fishing towns.
Tagged seafood, ranked by public Google review count. Ratings are Google's, shown for reference.
- 1 İzmir Kordon Konak, İzmir The seafront promenade fish strip; the most-reviewed seafood destination in our data.
- 2 Galata Sunset Fish and Meat Beyoğlu, Istanbul A rooftop fish-and-meat restaurant in Galata; the highest-rated of this group.
- 3 Florya Tarihi Meneske Balikcilar Carsisi Bakırköy, Istanbul A historic fish-sellers' market and eatery on the Florya shore.
- 4 Kordon Yengeç Restaurant Konak, İzmir A long-standing fish restaurant on the İzmir Kordon waterfront.
- 5 Nazende Restaurant Kaş, Antalya A well-rated seafood restaurant in the Mediterranean town of Kaş.
How to order well
A few habits make a Turkish fish dinner much better. Ask what is fresh and in season rather than ordering off a fixed list; the answer changes month to month, and the seasonal fish (bluefish and bonito in autumn, sea bass and bream most of the year) will always beat the out-of-season option. Fish is usually sold by weight, so it is normal to be shown the catch and to agree the price before it is cooked. And do not rush past the meze: in a proper balık restoranı the cold starters are half the meal, and the table is meant to be lingered over with rakı, not turned over quickly.
Setting is part of the appeal too. The best seafood in our coverage tends to sit on the water, the Kordon in İzmir, the Bosphorus villages and Kadıköy in Istanbul, the harbours of the Antalya coast, because the whole ritual is built around a slow evening by the sea.
This guide is e.restaurant's own editorial. Listing data comes from open global sources; where a restaurant is named, any star rating shown is Google's public rating, labelled and linked to the listing, and is kept separate from e.restaurant diner reviews. See our methodology for how we build and stand behind our listings.