yengec seafood fish restaurant in Fethiye Turkey

A Guest Commentary by Hilmi Toros (*)

Yengec Restaurant in Fethiye Turkey,

Apart from its sunshine, warmth and occasional earth tremours, there is another thing that our Land Flight offers in abundance: its eateries.

May they be Lokanta, Cafe, Restaurant, Bistro, Bufe, Kebab, pide and pizza joints or whatever, there seems to be one almost in every corner from Calis to Karagozler, from Uzumlu to the Hisaronu-Oludeniz-Kayakoy triangle. Looks like eatery-population ratio may be the highest anywhere…

Seems the ideology is that the more eateries you have, the more people will spring up (from where?) and that some actually may eat more than once just because there are more eateries.

The fact that there are plentiful of eateris is justified. Fethiye residents, Turks and foreigners, often eat out. It is cost-effective (a three-course Turkish meal for under 10 Turkish lira is possible in some eateries, mostly as Special of the Day for lunch)

And many of eateries in the Fethiye area get passing grades, although some are make-shift ones.

Unfortunately and annoyingly, there is an increasing Customer Hunting. Eateries in some places, paricularly the Coast Promanade and the Fish Market, almost accost you: Please eat here. Want drink? Where you from? Food is good and cheap. My Karen and I stay away from them mainly because we are so rudely sollicited.

Others eateries don’t have the fit: cooks more adept at kofte are portrayed as “experts” in Italian pasta, Indian curry or Chinese Sweet and Sours. Perhaps, one day, a cook from Adana cook may be preparing us sushis!

But good and excellent ones are also around.

One in this category (with no offense to others) is Yengec (Crab) at Yes Marina, 2nd Karagozler.

Its view and serenity are unbeatable, an ideal place to relax for breakfast, lunch or dinner. A cool drink watching the Karagozler Bay and boats moored at the Yes Marina is rewarding, especialy for a sailor like myself.

If it’s good, it also has the potential to excel, particularly under the (new) management duo of Mustafa Vural and Selehattin Aydemir, the same team that has made Mod Cafe at the Ece Saray Marina a premiere eatery in Fethiye.

Fish is the name of the game at Yengec, but the menu is rich and varied. Meat and chicken varieties are also offered. Prices are reasonable for an eatery of this calibre. Wine list is good, too.

Mine is not an exhaustive restaurant review, but a mere commentary, albeit a subjective one, because of my previous attachment both to the Yes Marina and Yengec and Mustafa-Selehattin management team, as well as to Zafer, the chef from Mod Lounge now at Yengec. It only emerges from my view is that I became friends because they were good.

The place of Yengec is magnificent, the right management team is in place and the ultimate judge will be its customers.

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(*)Hilmi Toros, a Fethiye visitor since the 1980′s and a resident since 2006, conservatively estimates he has eaten in over 1,000 eateries during his travels around the world as a reporter for the US news agency The Associated Press and a media executive for the United Nations. Currently, he is the proprietor of maisondesovalye.com