What and where to eat in Antalya
2 h route6 stopsBest: Turkish breakfast: weekends, no rushUpdated July 2026
Most people eat at the resort buffet or on a harbour terrace with a view. Both are fine. Neither is the food of Antalya, which exists and almost nobody goes looking for.
The local thing comes down to one dish: Antalya piyazı, the white bean salad that in the rest of Turkey is dressed with oil and lemon and that here, and only here, comes with a tahini sauce that changes it completely. You order it with köfte and it’s what people eat at midday.
The route, stop by stop
6 STOPS- 01
Antalya’s piyaz
The city’s dish. Piyaz exists across Turkey (white beans, onion, parsley, lemon) but Antalya’s comes with a thick tahini sauce with vinegar and garlic that turns it into something else: creamy, sharp, with sesame underneath. Boiled egg on top. It isn’t a starter: it’s lunch.
You order it with grilled köfte and it comes together, and there are houses in this city that have done nothing else for generations.
Look for it in Muratpaşa and around the market, not at the marina.
- 02
Hibeş and the local meze
Hibeş serves as Antalya’s meze: tahini whipped with cumin, garlic, lemon and oil, paprika on top. It sounds simple and it’s one of those things you finish without noticing, with hot bread.
It follows the local logic: tahini goes where other regions would use yoghurt.
Order it before the piyaz and you’ve understood the city’s cooking in two dishes.
- 03
Tandır, and the meat
Tandır spends hours in a pit oven, lamb with no ceremony, until it collapses. It’s a midday dish from a plain place: ordered by weight, served with bread and onion, and it needs nothing else.
The other meat here is grilled şiş köfte, which is what comes with the piyaz.
If you’re on all-inclusive, this is the reason to skip one dinner and go into town.
- 04
The Turkish breakfast, seriously
Serpme kahvaltı works as an institution more than as a breakfast: the table fills with little plates (cheeses, olives, tomato, cucumber, jams, honey with clotted cream, eggs with sausage in a copper pan, börek) and the tea never stops. It runs two or three hours and it’s done in company.
It’s the best value eating in Antalya, and at the weekend it’s what the whole city does.
Here the fruit is local, too: the province’s citrus is famous across Turkey. Careful about planning anything afterwards: you won’t want to.
- 05
Fish at the harbour, with a caveat
Eating fish at the Kaleiçi marina, with the wooden boats and the lit wall, is one of those things to do once. But be clear about the deal: you’re paying for the location, and paying well.
If what you want is to eat well, the fish is at the market and in the eating houses in the districts behind, with no view and for a fraction.
General rule in Antalya: the better the terrace, the further from the local food.
- 06
The weekly pazar
The pazars set up on a fixed day per district and pack away at night: travelling markets with fruit and vegetables from the province’s market gardens, cheeses, olives, spices and clothes, with people haggling by the kilo.
It’s the best place to see Antalya unfiltered and to taste the fruit, which here is the point.
Ask where you’re staying which day yours is: there’s no central pazar, there’s one rotating around the city all week.
Frequently asked
What do you eat in Antalya?
The local dish is Antalya piyazı: white beans in a tahini sauce used nowhere else in Turkey, served with köfte. Alongside it: hibeş (tahini with cumin and garlic), lamb tandır and the twenty-plate Turkish breakfast.
What is Antalya piyazı?
A white bean salad with onion and parsley that here is dressed with a thick sauce of tahini, vinegar and garlic and topped with boiled egg. In the rest of the country piyaz is just oil and lemon: the tahini version is Antalya’s alone.
Is dinner at the Kaleiçi harbour worth it?
As an experience, once, yes: the wooden boats and the lit wall are worth a dinner. But you pay for the view, and the real local food is in the districts behind the old town, in Muratpaşa, at city prices.