Kalbur Balık

Excellent fish-meze-raki place situated at a most unlikely, unpresuming spot. The owner is somewhat (in)famous for being a grumpy old fellow and you are warned beforehand not to rub him on the wrong side and that he gets particularly mad if you get carried away and order more than you can eat and leave food on your plate -well, I say fair enough because, the food is just too good to be wasted. Nothing is overdone. Everything we tried was delicate and top notch. I haven't had such a well done 'topik' for a long time. The fish dish for kids would win hearts of moms around the world:) Bite-size fish, fried so it is succulent inside and crisp outside. My boy devoured it with such relish I was beside myself with joy. We had grilled baby artichokes on a skewer, eggplant stuffed with cheese and fish pastrami, fish manti/ravioli and we enjoyed every single morsel. The service was great. The so-called grumpy old man himself waited on his customers with care and attentiveness was very child-friendly and made sure people were happy. This is a must-go place. It is a small restaurant, make reservations before you go. I follow @geziciobur on instagram, a food blogger and her suggestions never fail to please. This one was particularly bull's eye. Photos are courtesy of geziciobur as well.

Possibly the best dining experience in the whole country - so unique and special by any standard, always a joy to go back. A quintessential Ankara experience that should not be missed!

We have heard a lot about this place in Or-an (Ankara) and since we live close by we gave it a try. A few warnings, if you are expecting a luxury place like in many of the other Balik restaurants in Ankara with top notch service this is not it. And if you want to pay with a credit card, once again this not it (it just accepts cash). This is a neighborhood 40 seat restaurant located in the ground floor of a building, with an owner who is a character, no menu available, and very nice but plain decoration. But gee, the food is very, very, very good. You choose the mezze in the counter (so even if you do not speak turkish as us you can still manage). We had anchovy like marinated fish, what i would refer as ground shrimp kebab, tomato and arugula salad, and grilled squid and shrimp. For main course we had fried red mullet fillets, and sole skewers. Everything was excellent and if i have to select a low i would just say that the marinated fish was perhaps a bit “too marinated’. But the shrimp kebab was outstanding; the squid was grilled to perfection, and the tomato of the salad was so damn tasteful that we were on the verge of ordering just a tomato plate. The sole skewers were extremely delicate and yet full of flavor. And this is the first time that i have been served fried fillet of red mullet (this is a small fish so filleting is not usual) but what a treat (and not having bones makes a difference! With 3 beers and a bottle of water 40 US$ equivalent.

If i could give this restaurant more stars I would! The food is spot on and absolutely delicious. Everyone has try this restaurant! The prices are also very reasonable for the quality of the food. The service is impeccable as well.