Ferdi Baba Alaçatı

Ferdi Akkurt opened his first restaurant in central Çeşme in 1981 and has been landing his own fish from the Aegean every morning since. The original Çeşme location still runs. The Alaçatı Port location — opened 2015 and now the main room — is on the marina with a full terrace facing the yachts, and is the address most Istanbul regulars default to.

The format is classic-Aegean with zero concession to modernism. Start with the meze trolley: stuffed vine leaves, smoked aubergine, wild herbs in yogurt, salted bonito, taramasalata, and a dozen more plates the waiter rolls to the table and you select from directly. Main course is whole grilled fish by weight (levrek at TRY 950 / €26 per kilo; barbun the house special at TRY 1,400 / €38), grilled simply over charcoal with olive oil, rock salt, and lemon. The shrimp güveç (clay-pot casserole with tomato, peppers, feta) is the only non-grilled main worth ordering and is the best version on the peninsula.

Drinks are sensible: Yakut red and Sarafin white house wines by the carafe at TRY 320 (€8.50), 10 small-grower Aegean whites from Urla and Buradan for the serious drinkers, and raki by the small carafe the classic way with water and ice. The fish is not subtle; the wine does not need to be either.

The dining room holds 140 across the marina terrace and the glassed-in winter hall. In summer, the terrace with its view of the Alaçatı yachts is the Çeşme dinner shot — golden hour, white shirts, the fish arriving whole. Service is fast, Turkish-first, and relaxed. This is Çeşme in one meal.

A first-date restaurant that makes the choice itself: the meze trolley gives you twenty easy conversation starters; the whole-fish-at-the-table is a shared ritual that forces engagement; the marina view is enough atmosphere that neither of you has to carry the room. Book the terrace edge, order the meze for both, and split a 1.2kg levrek.