Ankara is Turkey's capital and its most underestimated food city. While Istanbul draws the food tourists and Gaziantep draws the gastronomes, Ankara quietly does Central Anatolian cooking the way it's supposed to be done — lamb-forward, hearty, seasonal, and largely unmoved by trends. The cağ kebabı here is arguably the best in Turkey. The tava dishes are worth the trip alone.
The neighborhoods and areas worth knowing for food in the capital.
The historic quarter near the citadel — traditional lokantas, kebab restaurants, and pide houses that open at noon and close when the food runs out. Very local, zero tourist infrastructure.
The modern city centre — international restaurants, cafes, and the kind of meyhanes that civil servants and university professors fill every evening. More polished than Ulus, still genuinely Ankara.
Ankara's diplomatic quarter and upscale residential district — the city's best fine dining, international restaurants, and wine bars with good Turkish wine selections.
A historic town 90 minutes from Ankara, famous throughout Turkey for its carrots, dried apricots, and local sweets. Absolutely worth the trip if you have a day.
The capital's food culture, largely ignored and entirely worth knowing.
Horizontal rotisserie lamb, shaved thin, from Erzurum — now one of the most popular kebabs in the capital and often better here than in its home region.
The neighbourhood below the citadel where traditional lokantas and pide houses operate on their own terms — no Instagram, no English menu, excellent food.
90 minutes from the capital, a historic Ottoman town famous throughout Turkey for its long yellow carrots, dried apricots, and lokum.
The context for eating well in Turkey's capital.
Cağ kebabı is a horizontal rotisserie lamb kebab originally from Erzurum in Eastern Turkey. Unlike doner (which rotates vertically), cağ is horizontal and shaved differently — the result is a more textured, less uniform slice with a better crust. Ankara's restaurants have refined the dish over decades and now arguably serve it better than its birthplace.
Ankara tava is a Central Anatolian oven dish of lamb, tomato, and peppers cooked low and slow in a clay vessel. It appears on menus in the old city and traditional restaurants but rarely makes it to Istanbul menus or Turkish cookbooks aimed at international audiences. It is genuinely excellent and genuinely local.
The capital follows a similar meal schedule to Istanbul — proper lunch from 1–3pm, dinner from 7pm onward. The meyhanes and restaurants in Kızılay and GOP fill after 8pm. Lokantas in Ulus open at noon and close when the food runs out (often by 2pm). Plan accordingly.
Lokanta lunch: ₺80–180. Cağ kebabı meal: ₺150–280. Meyhane dinner: ₺300–500 per person. GOP fine dining: ₺400–700. Ankara is slightly cheaper than Istanbul and substantially cheaper than comparable European capitals for the same quality of food.
The full guide to eating in Turkey's capital — cağ kebabı, Ulus lokantas, meyhane culture, and the Beypazarı day trip.
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