Cızbız: A 40 Year-old Meatball Restaurant In Izmir

It’s the same thing that charms the children who make a face at every meal; that captivates the fanatics with its savory smell coming from the vendors before the game begins; and the thing that makes you believe your mom’s fingers are magical when you see it on the dinner table paying a visit to your parent’s house after a long time: meatballs.

                           

It is an important issue for the Turkish. That’s why there are almost 300 meatball varieties in Turkey.

 

Although kebab varieties, each associated with a city name, are more popular nowadays; if somebody would list meatballs, grilled meatball (tr. cızbız köfte) would probably be one of the most prominent kinds in that list. And in İzmir, one of the prominent restaurants that make the best meatballs is the well-known “Cızbız” restaurant owned by Hüseyin Serter.

 

Having started its journey in Kemeraltı serving Salihli odun köftesi (eng. meatballs over wood fire), Cızbız has been on the culinary scene since 1974. Although his owner, Hüseyin -who had an education in the faculty of law- confesses that he didn’t know anything about meat when he took his first step in the butcher, he started his restaurant at a young age and has been very popular with his meatballs over time.

 

In 80’s when one of my friends introduced me to the restaurant, it was serving so many customers in lunchtime that the meat used in dishes amounted to 75 kilograms in three hours. After a few years, it accepted the offer to move to the Dönerciler Street. But as it was an exhausting job to manage the new two-story restaurant and the old one at the same time, Hüseyin decided to move to the district he was raised, in other words Alsancak.

 

Since the new location was smaller than before, the courses like inegöl, kasap meatball, beyti were removed from the menu. Now, the Cızbız menu features only three main courses: grilled meatballs, liver and chicken.

 

The other delicacies that you might want to give a try while your meatballs are being grilled are roasted eggplants (patlıcan gözleme), mashed eggplants with yoghurt and garlic (sarımsaklı yoğurtlu patlıcan ezme) and a delicious and different interpretation of piyaz made with carefully and specially selected beans.

 

Grilled meatballs are 100% made with veal. The restaurant has been buying the meat from the same butcher shop for years, Bizim Et Kasap. Located in Alsancak, the renowned shop is run by the university-graduate brothers Ferhat and Serhat who continue the same carrier path with their father.

 

Made with beef ribs, the meatballs have about 15% - %18 fat percentage. When the fat percentage is a bit higher than that, veal entrecote is added to the mixture. If I were the cook, I would pull the meat percentage a bit higher. But since the dishes are reasonably priced, the menu has an efficient price/quality relationship.

 

Another popular dish of Cızbız is grilled liver made with specially selected livers. Because of the long standing friendship between the butcher and the restaurant owner, Hüseyin Usta is the first customer who has the right to select the livers from the 10-12 calves slaughtered in that week. The livers are carefully chosen and cleaned to be grilled and then served in a basic way.

 

In addition to grilled chicken flavored with some tomato paste and yoghurt; Cızbız also serves grilled spring lamb meatballs during the months of March and February, the spring-lamb season.

 

As he has been continuing his job at managing this small, clean and cozy restaurant for 40 years with the help of its long-standing team, Hüseyin Usta doesn’t seem to be a greedy owner running after a financial success, rather he respects his job doing his best. The delectable flavors of the dishes prove this.

 

I recommend you to visit Cızbız, if you happen to get hungry when you’re around Alsancak district.

 

Bon appétit and enjoy the taste of life…

 

Cızbız Köfte

1400 Sokak, No: 1/A

Alsancak, Konak

İZMİR           

+90 232 464 79 64