Gebora Restaurant

Gebora Balik (Fish) Restaurant 

Ortakent Yahsi Yalisi

Bodrum

Tel: 0252 348 33 40

This is a very typical restaurant if you are in the neighborhood (Ortakent or Yahsi) and want to eat the usual mezes that can be found in most fish restaurants in Turkey.  We had heard about it from a couple of different sources and decided to give it a try since we live 5 minutes from it.  We called to make reservations and got directions to the parking lot.  Even with directions, the back streets were a maze and we had to call the restaurant again to be guided all the way.  The parking lot looked like it actually belonged to the motel in the back but we were able to locate a valet to park our car.  You walk in through somebody's garden and I started to talk to the smiling lady watering her newly planted flowers while waiting for my husband.  It turns out, she was the owner/chef of this family run establishment and in fact this was her house and her garden.  I found it charming to be personally passing through their life to enter their establishment.

Gebora (which is how people from Bodrum say 'Gel Buraya' which means 'come here' in Turkish) has been in business for 24 years and has gotten excellent reviews.  It is one of the line of restaurants that has tables set on the sand, next to the water, all along the Ortakent- Yahsi main pedestrian street (similar to a boardwalk but without the boards).  I wasn't impressed with the service - my husband had to go back and give the order at the entrance where they have all the meze set up in a refrigerator - this actually might be the best idea since you get to point out what you want.  The food was good quality but nothing imaginative or out of the ordinary.    We had the usual mezes that we always have everywhere - fava (broadbean paste), kopoglu mancasi (fried eggplants, potatoes, peppers and tomatoes mixed with garlic yogurt), deniz borulcesi (blackeyed-peas from the sea) ahtapot salata (octopus salad) and a freshly prepared salad.  My husband and I both agreed that we probably wouldn't go back but we have so many other alternatives of this kind even in Istanbul.