Tasting Notes
Mikla opened in 2005 on the top floors of The Marmara Pera on Meşrutiyet Avenue, and it is closely associated with what chef Mehmet Gürs calls New Anatolian cuisine: Turkish ingredients and regional recipes cooked with a Scandinavian-influenced, pared-back approach. The dining room has large windows over the Golden Horn and the historic peninsula, with the terrace on the floor above. The restaurant is listed in the Michelin Guide; booking is required and it is closed on Sundays.
Tasting menus and a three-course prix fixe
The seven-course Mikla tasting menu moves from bread and butter and an olive-oil dish of baby artichokes to dried beef fillet marinated in red wine and rakı, charred squid with tarator, pan-fried fish with crayfish and morels, and Thracian lamb shank. It ends with burnt hazelnut halva over rice pudding. A seven-course vegan menu is offered alongside it, and tasting menus are served only when everyone at the table orders the same one.
The prix fixe and what changes
If you would rather choose, the three-course prix fixe offers several starters, mains and desserts: lionfish, whole-wheat mantı with smoked buffalo yoghurt, lamb heart with Malkara lentils, grilled fish with bottarga, a seafood stew, and dry-aged beef for two. The menu shown online is representative — dishes change with daily produce — and service is not included in the prices. A plate of Anatolian raw-milk cheeses with honey can be added for two.
“Book a table by the window for sunset, have a drink on the rooftop terrace first, and tell the team early whether the whole table will take the tasting menu.”
LR Kitchen — field note