Veli Usta: Historic Seafood Restaurant In Hisarönü

When we take a look at Turkish cuisine, it is ridiculous to see seafood does not have much of a place in this picture, considering the country is surrounded by three seas.

In order to make more profit, most restaurants do not try to serve their foods in a fresh, clean and honest way, let alone cooking them as best as they can.

Many seafood restaurants in an important coastal city like Izmir frustrate me too with their non-satisfactory ingredient quality and cooking techniques that don’t differ from the conventional standards in any way. That being the case, the Turkish citizens who prefer to spend their holidays in one of those Greek islands where the same seafood is turned into a culinary miracle are absolutely right in their complaints about this situation.

Çeşme and Urla have their own up-to-scratch seafood restaurants though. However when you get to the city center, things change a bit and the amount of places that I can recommend winds down to a minimum level. My top choices for classical seafood dishes such as hamsi (anchovy), mullet and calamari are Hisar Balıkçısı right behind the old castle and Veli Usta Seafood Restaurant (org. Veli Usta Balık Pişiricisi) in Hisarönü, Kemeraltı.

Veli Sinanoğlu, the owner of the restaurant, came from Fethiye to Izmir and worked as a dishwasher in the local kitchens for 15 years and took over Dostlar Seafood Restaurant in Hisarönü in 1970 to make his way to the restaurant now he owns.

Although Veli Usta has now started to become a restaurant chain with new franchises opening up in Kordon and Inciraltı, its original place in Hisarönü is still my favorite with its sustained quality and unpretentious atmosphere.

The menu is all the way fresh because the restaurant buys the ingredients on a daily basis without exceeding the amount that is supposed to be consumed that day. My favorite dishes from the menu are: crispy fried hamsi, which you can consume with their heads too!, fried mullet which is both crispy and juicy at the same time, fried calamari whose texture is crispy as if it is deep-fried the Japanese way in contrast to the ones served in many European restaurants which taste like plastic, salad with shrimps and finally fish soup.

While soles are sourced from Özbek, mullets and shad-fish are from Karaburun. The only problem with the dishes that I can note is that they overcook shad-fish a bit. Although it is cooked according to Turkish palates; if they cook it less, the juicy texture can transform the whole thing into a feast.

Finally, although halva and figs at the end of the meal might not satisfy the dessert lovers, popular Hisarönür Şambalicisi will be waiting for you a few steps away!

Bon appétit and enjoy the taste of life!