The Turquoise Coast cooks meat better than seafood. It is probably a reflection on the Turkish way of cooking rather than the local ingredients themselves, but seafood tends to be more simple in its preparation here. Perhaps thats why my best memories of Turkish food are meat-based (and not only the 4am doner kebabs).
It was exciting to find a recommended fish restaurant (and also its sister mezze restaurant which I would liked to have had time to try too).
The setting at Bahce Balik is lovely and pleasant in the warm outdoors under lights, vegetation and English-cover music. There is a plethora of hungry street cats that do like to climb up the tablecloth or onto your lap to scavenge some bites. They are cute and harmless overall.
The cabinets of mezzes and fresh seafood catch allows you to choose what you like. The mezzes had a nice selection of many salads and small fish preparations that could be meals on their own. A pomegranate salad and local seaweed in garlic (15TL each) were chosen and served with some olives in excellent olive oil and oregano with fresh bread. A Turkish sweet white wine (16TL) was ordered also. A bottle of water was also opened upon arrival (5TL) which we didn't order - I think it they are going to automatically serve it, then it shouldn't be charged for. But it is 5TL only after all.
- Bahce Balik fish soup 15TL - an excellent soup, strong and fishy. The lemon drew out and contrasted the flavours well;
- Bahce Balik grilled octopus 50TL - I was surprised to find this was pre-cooked in the mezze cabinet. I'm unsure why - maybe for timesaving reasons. It was quite tender and charred. I do have to admit it was expensive for the dish and serving size;
- Grilled grouper 117TL (for 735g) - the staff recommended the best fish locally was the grouper and so it was an easy choice to make. It had been split in half and grilled separately to form two large portions. It was well charred, good seasoning and textured helped along by the lemon to balance out the char. Oddly it was served with one wedge of potato, peppery greens, and raw Spanish onion and a raw radish slice. A bit odd of an accompaniment.
It was the most expensive meal we had along the Turquoise Coast and I'd be keen to go back to try more mezze and the hot appetisers in particular.