Tasting Notes
Koçak has been making baklava in Gaziantep since 1993. This large branch in Mücahitler adds a breakfast restaurant and a kebab menu to the baklava counter, so you can make a full meal of it or just stop for baklava and tea.
Breakfast and katmer
The breakfast spread is priced per person and made for at least two. It covers Antep cheese, Ezine and fresh kaşar, olives, honey, kaymak, tahini and grape molasses, eggs, su böreği, sigara böreği, menemen and unlimited tea. Katmer — paper-thin dough with clotted cream, pistachio, clarified butter and sugar — is made for four, or as a smaller version for two.
Baklava and kebabs
The varieties differ: dolama has the most pistachio, şöbiyet is folded into a triangle around cream, kuru baklava has no cream and travels better, and bülbül yuvası holds the pistachios in a hollow at the centre. Mixed plates of three, four or five kinds are the easiest way to compare them, and everything is also sold by the kilo. For lunch or dinner there are Gaziantep kebabs, including küşleme, Ali Nazik, simit kebabı and keme kebabı with desert truffle.
“Come for breakfast with at least one other person, add a katmer to share, and order a mixed plate of five baklavas to compare before buying any by the kilo.”
LR Kitchen — field note