The highlight for us of any trip to Fethiye is a visit to the fishmarket for dinner. The system is excellent – you choose and pay for your fish from any of the fishmongers in the market, tell them how you would like it prepared and ask them to give it to the restaurant you have chosen from the many that surround the fish stalls. The restaurant will cook your fish and provide the meze, salads, breads and wine (or rakı if that’s your thing).
Checking in to the hotel, which has a panoramic view of the harbour, we were greeted by a snowy backdrop – testament to the cold nights we’ve been having recently.
The day’s catch included mullet, snapper, grouper, stone fish and mackerel, as well as the usual octopus, bass and gilthead bream. We were spoiled for choice – in Kaş, we have surprisingly little variety of fish, as the surrounding waters were over-fished in the 1970s, and stocks are only just starting to recover, so Fethiye fishmarket is a real treat.
All of the restaurants in the fishmarket are excellent. If you have a party member who doesn’t eat fish, there is also a fantastic butcher and any of the restaurants will prepare meat for you, as well as fish.
Our favourite is Hilmi. We went there the first time purely because it was extremely cold and they have a cosy inside room with a wood-burning stove, whereas most of the restaurants rely on gas patio heaters, but now we daren’t go anywhere else, for fear of our defection being spotted.
Afiyet olsun!
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