Tripolis Pumakkale Turkey

A very nice hotel well located for Hierapolis and Pumakkale, offers a large buffet where you can enjoy breakfast and lunch as well as dine in the evenings on the restaurant or close to the swimming pool which was nice. However the weather had turned really cold with the heavy rain.

As for the overall ambience; This is very unlike of other hotel buffets is pretty casual, simple but laid back. Also had a good view over the cotton castle, petrified waterfalls and a series of terraced basins and next to ancient Roman Hierapolis.

 Everything was elaborately presented with intricate fruits carvings. It was stunning!

To complete our stay in this hotel, we head over to the restaurant for dinner. They provided a wide variety of food including delicious salad, cakes and desserts, bread, stew and roasted meat, etc. It is probably good if you are vegetarian.

I walked around the buffet table and was thrilled to see all of the selections. Once I noticed the tomato and fennel salad, mixed greens, chopped olives with beans and chilli as well goat cheese I was hooked!

Red lentil soup with rice and  thin bread is more crispy and tortilla like but thicker. It was really good.

I was eyeing the salad beetroot, acili ezme, baby lettuce with haydari dressing it is just plain tasty, but it is healthier.

For my main course, I tried the beef casserole with carrot, stew chicken boring but moist and tasty and rice was a nice addition.

The list of desserts goes beyond rice pudding, lady's navel, fruits tarts, dried figs stuffed with walnuts, cake rolls, revani, gullac-güllaç, un helvasi-flour halva, etc.

Out of all the desserts, who could have resisted the rich variety of sweeties. The leche flan was silky smooth and thick with walnut grain on top, plus dried figs stuffed with walnut is light not-too-sweet syrup.

Even though I have to get rid with too much calories, I decided to give it a try the rice pudding, almond cake, and tart and share with my daughter. The pudding was so smooth and sweet, but not over-sweetened at the same time. Overall the food is healthy is worth it if you're very hungry.

***
Tripolis Hotel
Kale Mahallesi Adnan Kahveci Bulvari No:90, 20800 Pamukkale-Denizli, Turkey
Tel No: 90-258-2723333

Horozluhan Restaurant Konya Turkey

Horozluhan is one of the best preserved caravansaries (inn). Built around 1246 in Anatolia used to be a caravanserai historic silk road routes a stop-over for tradesmen and travellers alike to rest.

This beautiful building is operated as a restaurant. It is outrageously exotic and authentic has a central courtyard that serves as a seating area covered with arches and domes that was supposedly the old stables for the merchants and caravans who would wish to stay.

There's a special ambience at this delightful restaurant it offers a excellent Turkish cuisine.

At first, we were served a generous amount of pita slices.

 Next, we had a lentil soup!

For our mains, we got a chicken kavurma/saç kavurma. This is specially cooked on a heated iron plate called a "Saç" in Turkish it's like paella. This is a chicken meat and mushroom dish which was cooked home-style and tasted quite good with the rice. We gobbled up everything!

The last of a mixed meat and cheese pide a Turkish pizza-like dish.

The cappuccino arrives shortly after the main course. No fancy patterns dusted in cocoa, and its delicious. Probably is the best coffee we ever had in Turkey!

For dessert, we had a semolina halva its overly sweet and not suitable for those diabetic people. All in all, everyone enjoyed the meal and absolutely love this place.

***
Horozluhan Restaurant
Konya Turkey
Website:
http://www.horozluhan.com/

Uranos Sarikaya Cave Restaurant Cappadocia Turkey

Uranos Sarikaya restaurant its in the heart of a cave in the mountain of Gerome area in Urgup. The atmosphere of the cave make you feel cool in the summer and perhaps even warm in the winter.

Dimly lit and outfitted with furnishings made simply tables, benches, railings, columns and doorways are carved in place from the stone of the mountain.

Some old farm equipment, Turkish carpet and such adorned the walls.

The travel agency took us to this cave restaurant for lunch. It is obviously a place that many tour guides take their clients. As you walk into the restaurant you smell the flavors of the foods from the kitchen. The staff led us past a the narrow passageway and to our table, which was located next to the center of the wall. Eating in the cave was fun, it was like we were explore back in the old days when christian hide and live in the caves.

This extraordinary restaurant also features an excellent Gerome Turkish specialties. For starters we had a corbasi soup with bread which was some meat, vegetables and bulgur its surprisingly light broth balances the flavor.

Turkish Mezze Platter

The appetizer was plentiful mixed mezze platter which includes haydari, freshly made cheese, and several other delectable was placed on the table.

Mezze is the meal of choice as everything looks tastes so good!

The staff showed us the content of the pot which was slow cooked beef stew or testi kebab is a Anatolia dish served in Gerome. Its essentially a large pot that is sealed in bread dough and put into an oven for an extended period of time.

To serve the dish, the clay pot is cracked open with a large knife and poured out and serve in individual plates with delicious rice as our main course. The meat is so tender and flavorful very similar taste between beef caldereta, mechado and afritada was quite interesting and difficult to explain, except to say that it was pretty good.

The next main course was a sliced of beef I loved this dish, it’s very beefy in flavor and the sauce is amazing. It tasted like Filipino beef asado it is also served with rice, we all opted for the same dessert  it was called rice pudding. The food was really delicious it's worth a visit would like to return some day.

***
Uranos Sarikaya Cave Restaurant
Akbel Mevkii 50500/AVANOS, Urgup Turkey
Website:
http://www.uranossarikaya.com/