It’s high time we wrote about Motto!
It’s strange, really. All the time we’ve been doing this blog, we’ve written about places where we like to eat and drink around Fethiye and surroundings.
Some of these places are regulars. Others are places we might drop into once or twice a year.
But there are some places that we go to quite often, yet they are still to see the light on the pages of this blog of ours.
Motto is one of those places.
Motto Dining, Çalış Beach
It might be that there was a bit of a sojourn in our Motto-frequenting career.
A few years ago, we spent many winter Sunday afternoons enjoying the sunset music there.
We’d go to watch Fethiyespor and then jump on the dolmuş straight to the beach to listen to the Motto live music.
We can think of worse ways to spend a Sunday!
And then the summer season started. Friends arrived. Off and around the sights of Fethiye and different bars and eateries.
Before you know it, whatever routine you fall into over winter, it’s gone out of the window by the time the height of summer arrives.
And then the closure of one of our favourite bars along Çalış Beach (we miss you, Bahane) meant we needed to have a rethink about our regular pit stop places.
Calisto is still a favourite. And a slightly longer leg stretch occasionally takes us to Lukka.
We kind of naturally fell back into our Motto routine – for those days when a stroll along the full stretch of beach is not on the agenda.
Motto is the first bar at the main entrance to the beach. So, a beachfront fix without the extra walk.
Perfect for days when we’ve already done lots of morning exercise and the legs could do with a bit of a rest.
Food Time
Because of the regular live music and the look of Motto, we think of it more as a bar that serves decent food rather than as a restaurant.
Even on social media, they’re called ‘Motto Fun Dining.’ That’s not to say there isn’t restaurant quality food on the menu. There is!
You can get steaks and seafood dishes. Cheese platters to go with your glass of wine, beer plates to go with your beers.
Pizzas, pasta dishes, salads burgers.
And the lunches we’ve had there, recently.
The sizzling chicken fajitas are accompanied with lavaş bread (your tacos) and the chicken served on a bed of seared peppers and aubergines.
I’m not exaggerating when I say Barry had been happily eating his chicken burger for some time before I could even entertain my fajitas.
Seriously sizzling! And very tasty.
Of course, I didn’t forget to take a photo of his chicken burger before he launched into it.
Chicken breast in crispy breadcrumbs with salad – and who doesn’t love a couple of onion rings? The crinkle cut potatoes are real deep-fried potatoes, too! Lovely.
I was coveting the chicken burger. So the second time we had a late lunch there, that’s what I ordered.
Barry, meanwhile opted for the köfte dürüm (meatballs in a wrap). This time, both the burger and the dürüm were served with a side of chips. Real chips!
Aside from the good quality köfte in the filling, what made this dürüm extra good was the lavaş bread.
So often when your order a wrap, the bread is left soft and cold. This wrap had been placed on the griddle and was hot, crisp and charred in places.
It depends how you like your dürüm, we guess. But, for us, this hot crispness makes all the difference.
There’s not much else we can tell you about Motto, really.
It’s a restaurant-bar-live music venue with its own atmosphere. It just does its own thing, and it does this confidently.
We like going there.
Motto Dining – Useful Info
- Motto Dining is the first bar on the right as you go through the main entrance to Çalış Beach (see map below).
- The bar/restaurant is open all year. There’s a full bar, varied food menu and live music. Look out for occasional DJ sets, too.
- You can keep up to date with what’s going at Motto via their Motto Fun Dining Instagram account.