Turkish cuisine is predicated on enjoying a variety of mezzes before one arrives at the main course. In fact, there are plenty of “meyhan” which serve mezzes and raki as the main attraction. I enjoyed the most inventive and best variety of mezzes at Giritli, a charming restaurant in the Sultanahmet area, close to the Topkapi Palace and only about 10 mins walk from the Four Seasons Sultanahmet (my hotel for my first two nights in Istanbul).
While Giritli is fairly well-known on the tourist circuit, it seems to be frequented by as many hip locals as tourists. It is run by a female chef and said to serve Cretan cuisine (I suppose when they say Crete, they mean the area known as Crete in ancient times). Cretan cuisine seems to be characterized by fresh seafood, cooked simply. The star of the meal at Giritli is the mezzes – 21 small plates were brought out comprising a colourful and diverse variety of cooked and smoked vegetarian and seafood appetizers ranging from eggplant, tomatoes and onions, taramasalata, fish roe, white anchovies and smoked fish, some of them mixed with various unusual herbs that I’ve never tasted before the names of which I don’t know. My favorites were the eggplant appetizers and the ones with smoked fish (which were invariably pungent, fishy and intense – and best chased down by cold raki). This is not your mother’s mezzes as one would say. Not the ubiquitous hummus, babganoush and taramasalata. Not even eggplant with cheese or kofte (meatballs). But little complex mouthfuls of familiar ingredients combined in an unfamiliar way.
Another star of Giritli is the “amuse bouche” they serve before bringing the mezzes – this is their seafood orzo. Small bites of squid and perhaps even fish, mixed with orzo that has been cooked in what must have been an intense seafood consommé. It is served at room temperature and perhaps would have been even more satisfying had it been warmer.
Sadly, the main courses that followed paled in comparison to the orzo amuse bouche and mezzes. First, there is a grilled octopus tentacle and a piece of grilled squid. Fresh enough and not overly bathed in olive oil as they tend to be. While the grilled squid was enjoyable, the texture of the octopus is really not my cup of tea; one expects it to be slightly hard with a nice crunch to it but it is in fact quite soft and almost powdery. After the grilled seafood, once has a choice of grilled or fried fish. We had the grilled seabass and the fried red snapper. The seabass was fine and grilled to perfection but the fish was not quite as fresh as the one we had at the simple seaside café in Seleucia Perira. The fried red snapper is deep fried and eaten whole, head, tail and all. While I don’t normally like fried fish (hamsi excluded!), this turned out to be more enjoyable than the seabass, perhaps because we had such superlative fresh seabass earlier on the trip. And it was real sea bass of course, not the “Chilean seabass” which is not in fact seabass. Still, fried red snapper is a few notches down from fried hamsi with its more tender and almost sweet flesh.
Giritli only offers a prix fixe at TL105 per person: five courses including dessert and unlimited refills of mezze and raki. It’s quite ideal for a long meandering meal with a group of friends over lots of raki and mezzes. One doesn’t have to compromise over the food - the mezzes are delicious, diverse and interesting and best accompanied by the raki which is unlimited! Best of all worlds.
