If I told you to visit a coastal Turkish city with incredible food that is also home to ancient ruins, you’d probably be on the first plane to Antalya. After all, it’s one of the top 10 most visited cities in the whole world, surely that’s where I’m telling you to go. There can’t be two cities in Turkey that match that description, right?

Wrong.

Izmir, Turkey’s third largest city, has all those things, but doesn’t get the same rep as Antalya. It might be missing the world-class beaches, but it was also my favorite place to eat during the 3 weeks I spent in Turkey. Since there are relatively few tourists in this city, it is a great place to find spots that cater to the locals, which are always the best places to go. Come with me to learn where to eat in Izmir and find places that locals actually go to.

Breakfast: Zeynel Ergin Gevrek Fırını

Expect to see a line around the corner for this popular bakery. Don’t let that deter you. The line moves quick and the food is worth the wait. This place is best known for local specialties called Boyoz and Gevrek.

What are Boyoz?

Boyoz is a pastry that originates from the Sephardic Jewish community. Today, Izmir is pretty much the only place where these delicacies are sold commercially in their original form. The pastry is made from a mixture of flour, sunflower oil, and tahini. It can be served plain, or stuffed with meat, cheese, spinach, or other savory fillings. I tried both a spinach and meat boyoz here and both were great. The pastry is wonderfully crispy and delicate and the fillings are simple but delicious.

What is Gevrek?

Gevrek is the local version of simit that is slightly different than what exists in other parts of the country. Grevrek are typically thinner and crunchier than a simit. This is because the gevrek is briefly boiled in hot molasses before being baked in the wood fired oven. These are also a specialty of this bakery and worth trying.

How do you Order?

To order boyoz, enter the main bakery building and get in line. The pastries are in a case and you can point to which ones you want. This is also where you can order tea, which is traditionally consumed alongside the pastries.

To order the gevrek, go to the window across the street where they are baking it fresh and ask for one. It’s kind of a strange system where you pay separately for the different things despite them being from the same bakery.

Lunch: Ayşa

For lunch, hit up this popular Balkan buffet restaurant. There are tons of options and you can load up your plate with whatever looks good to you. Once you’re done, your plate is weighed and you get charged accordingly. I have no real idea what the prices are, but it’s not expensive.

Visiting this restaurant is a bit overwhelming but well worth it. When I visited there was a large crowd and it was a bit daunting to figure out exactly how it worked. There is a line outside, but you don’t wait in this line before you get your food. That is the line to pay, which you do after you eat. Instead, head right inside and grab a plate. When your plate is weighed, they write the price of your meal on some paper and hand it to you. Once you finish eating, take the paper and get in the line outside to pay your bill.

I wish I could tell you exactly what to get when you come here but the truth is I have no real idea what all I ate. I just know it was good. That’s part of the fun though. It’s a great opportunity to try lots of different foods that you’ve likely never tried. This is the perfect lunch spot to try a bunch of local foods.

Dinner: Ates Okacbaşi

Tucked away on a narrow side street in the Alsançak neighborhood is the best kebab dish I had in the whole country. No joke, it is that good. This style of restaurant, Okacbaşi, features an indoor grill in the center of the restaurant. From some seats in the restaurant you can actually watch them grill the kebabs.

The service at this restaurant is outstanding. The wait staff went above and beyond to welcome us in. They even took us to the fridge where they have all the different kebabs so we could look at them. This was super helpful because they did not have an English language menu!

The staff also brought around trays of mezze that we were able to look at so that we knew what each one was. I appreciated that since there are a lot of options and we didn’t really know what any of them were. It was much easier to just point at a couple that looked tasty. I will say, however, that for two people one mezze is plenty. We assumed the portion we ordered would be the same size as the sample on the tray, but it was about triple the size! Somehow my wife and I managed to eat it all, but it was a lot of food.

What Should You Order?

The dish you have to try here is the yogurt marinated beef kebab with red onions. I have no clue what it’s called on the menu but it’s pretty easy to pick out in the fridge. It’s hard to describe just how good this is. The meat itself is incredibly tender and flavorful. It melts in your mouth with the perfect combination of char from the grill and garlic and spice from the marinade. Combined with the tangy sweetness of the red onion and the soft bread underneath, which soaks up all the butter and juices, creates an immaculate bite of food. I would come back to Izmir just to eat this dish.

Astes Okacbasi is a bit more upscale and pricier than the other places on this list, but it is worth the extra money. While the other places on this list seem to be frequented by locals on a regular basis, I suspect this is more geared towards special occasions. It’s easy to see why given the high quality of the food. This place makes for the perfect dinner date in Izmir.

Dessert: Çelebi Unlu Mamuller

Of course, any thorough day of eating would be incomplete without a local dessert. The flagship dessert food in Izmir is the Izmir bombası, literally “Izmir bomb”. This dish is a stuffed cookie with a thin and slightly crispy cookie layer filled with a creamy flavored filling. Chocolate is the most traditional filling but there are a wide variety of flavors available.

To reach Çelebi Unlu Mamuller, you have to walk down a pedestrian street that runs through the Alsançak neighborhood. On the way, you pass several stands selling these delicacies. Notably, though, none of those places seem to have lines. Çelebi Unlu Mamuller, on the other hand, always has a line out the door. If the locals are willing to wait outside in the winter, you know it must be worth it.

Indeed, these treats easily surpassed my modest expectations. I tried both chocolate and pistachio flavored “bombs” and they were equally outstanding. The cookie exterior is light and slightly crispy and the filling is gooey and delicious. They are sweet without overdoing it and the flavor of the filling shines through.

This dessert is unique and a real local specialty. They don’t look like much on the outside but they pack a tasty and sweet punch. No foodie could skip out on this on their Izmir visit, and Çelebi Unlu Mamuller is clearly the spot that locals go to for their fix.

That concludes the perfect day of eating your way through Izmir. The relative lack of tourism here makes it easier to find genuine local restaurants that aren’t just trying to make a quick buck. This city might not have the unparalleled history of Istanbul or world-renowned beaches of Antalya, but it sure does have great food.