Seçkin Lokantası is a traditional Turkish lokanta. And a good lokanta is one of life’s great eating pleasures!
Fortunately for us, Fethiye has a good few lokantas to choose from.
Places where you can go and fill yourself up on any combination of comforting, homemade Turkish dishes. And at prices that don’t make your eyes water when you ask for the bill.
One of the places is Seçkin Lokantası, directly opposite the otogar in Fethiye.
Seçkin Lokantası, Fethiye
Lokantas are the places where workers go to grab a quick lunch. Where shoppers stop for a break. Where travellers get a good meal before embarking on mammoth intercity bus journeys.
And, where drivers go to take a rest and refuel (in a foodie way) before they continue on the road…
And, often, joy of joys, many of these places are open 24 hours. So you’re guaranteed a good hot meal, whatever the time of day.
On a main road in Fethiye, backing onto the sanayi and facing the town’s otogar is a row of institutions; 24-hour lokantas that have been there for as long as we can remember.
Part Of Fethiye’s Furniture
Over the years, we’ve wandered into all of them at random hours of the day.
We’ve stopped off for lunch. We’ve had the pre-intercity bus journey meals.
And, yes, we’ve entered those premises at 4am and 5am to eat (or drink, as the Turks say) a bowl of traditional Turkish soup after a night out on the pop.
It’s what you do. And it’s what others do, too. These lokantas are rarely empty.
Of the lokantas in this area, Seçkin Restaurant has become more of a regular for us. Creatures of habit, we guess.
These large 24-hour lokantas that exist to serve Turkey’s working public have all manner of food available and rarely a menu.
View The Food, Not The Menu
You’ll see all the food types listed outside. And then you’ll also see the bain marie packed with trays of tempting Turkish dishes.
Oh, these bain maries. This is where we always get over-excited.
Any good Turkish lokanta will have staple dishes in the bain marie; waiting to be served up and devoured by hungry customers.
The sanayi, mentioned above, is a town’s industrial area.
Seçkin Lokantası and the other lokantas feed mechanics, welders, joiners.
And all the people like us, too.
We come here if we go to Erasta Shopping Centre. Erasta has eating places, of course, but lokanta food is too good to pass up!
Seçkin Lokantası – Foodie Favourites
Staples of the bain marie are pilav (either rice or a bulgur pilavı version – or both), roasted vegetables to be topped – if you want – with natural yoghurt, braised spinach, seasonal vegetables such as okra in tomatoes and olive oil, chickpea and bean dishes such as kuru fasulye.
Meaty dishes that feature regularly will be tasty treats such as Izmir Köfte, tas kebab, musakka, chicken and liver dishes.
And it’s very rare you don’t see the stuffed aubergine dish, karnıyarık.
And then there are the daily dishes – different every time you go. Such a treat to wander into a lokanta having no idea what traditional dishes are going to be looking back at you.
What To Choose?
Many small lokantas in Fethiye will have just a few delicious choices. But Seçkin Lokantası, along with its neighbours, is huge, with a bain marie to match.
Where to start?
The waiter at Seçkin Lokantası stands by the side of you, pointing out each dish and describing what’s in each.
Sometimes we recognise the dish. Others are new territory.
We choose one main meat dish each. And then we have to go the pilav route.
Oh and some yoghurt-topped braised spinach. Oh and some roasted vegetables, too.
You can see from our photos of our last three visits – we’re appreciators of lokanta food. And we order way too much.
All meals at Seçkin Lokantası are also served with bread, a side salad. And, often, a side plate of whole fresh or dried chillies and lemon wedges.
The chillies are never for the faint-hearted. But we can’t resist munching on a couple.
Extras On The Lokanta Menu
And, if choosing foods from the bain marie is not your thing, Seçkin Lokantası is more than a lokanta.
They also have a bread oven so you can choose from a variety of pide.
They have döner kebabı and Iskender, or you can get grilled foods like şiş kebab, too. And of course, a choice of soups is also available.
Each time we go to Seçkin Lokantası in Fethiye, I tell myself I’ll have soup and pide, soup and pide, soup and pide.
And then we walk inside. And there’s the bain marie.
Apart from early hours soup after a night out, not once have I succeeded in avoiding the display in the bain marie.
When you visit Fethiye, or anywhere else in Turkey for that matter, all of those traditional Turkish soups, stews and vegetable dishes you see on recipe websites, those are the dishes you’re going to see in a lokanta and in Fethiye.
Seçkin Lokantası certainly has no shortage of choice for you to sample.
The lokanta isn’t there to have swanky surroundings. It isn’t there to do pretty presentation.
The lokanta, Seçkin Lokantası included, is there to fill you up with delicious wholesome food at good prices.
And, if you’re anything like us, once you’ve eaten there, you’ll be itching to go back again and again to sample more offerings.
In the very unlikely event you’re not full after you’ve finished? Well, you can always amble back to the bain marie and point out some more dishes…
Seçkin Lokantası Fethiye – Useful Info
- Seçkin is a common name in Turkey and you will find a few restaurants and lokantas with that name. This particular Seçkin Lokantası is on Ölüdeniz Caddesi in Taşyaka (see map below).
- Ölüdeniz Caddesi is the road that also has Erasta AVM and Fethiye otogar on it.
- Seçkin Lokantası is open 24 hours, daily, serving hot food. As well as lokanta foods from the bain marie, there are soups, pide, kebabs and grills available, too.
- Lokantas generally serve pre-prepared traditional Turkish dishes to workers so are very reasonably priced. Although food prices have increased significantly, countrywide, Seçkin Lokantası is still a great place to eat if you’re in Turkey on a budget.
- Seçkin Lokantasi is just one of many places to eat and drink in Fethiye.