Iris Hotel Canakkale Turkey

For several days in Turkey, I’ve had all kinds of experiences in hotels, some good others not so good. The Iris Hotel is located near Canakkale beach far from the crowds. When we arrived at the place, it was about 2 hours  before sunset.

We were brought to their eating place and had buffet dinner!  Ask for a room with a balcony as it is lovely to sit outside.

They have a outdoor swimming pool which is very nice way to relax after a whole day tour in the Ancient City of Troy.

The hotel has a full of pines, fruits-pomegranate trees and shaded lightly with olive trees. I adorned the garden.

It was unbelievable, especially since it was a warm, clear night with only a light breeze perfect weather for sitting at a table near the seaside to enjoy dinner with beautiful sunset views from the restaurant. As for the buffet, there is a nice variety of items. Most of the food was vegetables but in the many stews, pilavs and salads with tons of olive oil. Maybe most of Turkish don't eat too much meat. Apparently the buffet food we felt the same just like every other hotel buffet dinner and breakfast as well.

And now, the first course of the evening: A mixture of tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini and chopped green chilli salad and sliced Turkish fresh feta cheese on top. Perfectly balanced with onions and parsley tossed in fresh lemon juice and olive oil.

The buffet also has a soup item. Today’s soup is a red lentil soup also known as kırmizi mercimek çorbasi which is seasoned with dried mint and oregano.

Despite my initial desires to fill up more on vegetables, then moved on the row of vegetarian delights. Where I grabbed a small scoop of acuka, baby okra, marinated mushrooms, artichokes, steamed baby spinach, aubergines mainly stewed in a pepper and tomato sauce. For a bit of added substance I accompanied my stuffed surprises with a barbunya pilaki-borlotti beans. Apparently beans are one of the things that Turkey is famous for.

I was always pretty full after the mezze but I did have main courses. They mainly consisted of light chicken stews with tomato and red bell peppers, lamb stew, deep fried fish fillets with rice. There were 2 chefs stood by the buffet in a main course section and serving hot dishes from heating trays.

There’s a dessert table, which included a decent selection of sweets and prepared melons, fresh apricots and much more.

I was not motivated to eat a lot of desserts. It was too sugary then I pick one, as you can see, is a classic rice pudding au gratin (firin sütlaç) which wasn’t too bad. It was creamy with rice texture and a light sweetness. Over all was a decent meal, despite being a buffet, the quality of the food does not suffer there's something for everyone.

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Iris Hotel
Mola Caddesi No:48, Canakkale 17070, Turkey