BOZCAADA DELICIOUS GUIDE

Appetizers, olive oil dishes and fish are the top local choices in Bozcaada.  Although, the most delicious appetizers we have eaten up to now are in Alaçatı, this does not mean that the appetizers in Bozcaada are ordinary or bad. You can find variety of choices and they are tastefull.

Restaurants are located on two sides of the island. The Greek side and the restaurants in the harbor. Obviously, we experienced both sides and our preference is small cozy taverns in the Greek neighborhood due to the  enjoyable ambience and flavors.

Vitaminada

The one who want to try the famous island toast, should definitely be here. Vitaminada is located right next to the Çınaraltı cafe. The best toast with Ezine cheese, tomato and thyme is made here for us in the island. You can order your tea from Çınaraltı cafe and rest under the beautiful plane tree.

Cinaralti Cafe

Visit here and enjoy the true sage under the old sycamore tree! 

Veli Dede Coffee

One of the alleyways in the Greek neighborhood. Coffee and latte is quite nice. You can take your cookies from Veli Dede and have coffee here. The only downside is the price, the coffees are from 12-14 TL. We found the price high, but for the pleasant atmosphere and coffee, we always stop here.

Veli Dede

One of the island’s famous bakery. Mastic cookies are quite nice and do not have excess gum in its taste. Also bitter almond lovers should visit here.

We would like to share one more information you will love about Veli Dede. You should definitely try the verjuice made from grapes that are not too sweet. We are sure you will love it!

Hemşin Pastanesi

Butter cookies are our favorite. You can get other cookies from Veli Dede, we think this distinction is important. The inside of the place is pretty cute and there is a small garden. Turkish coffee was nice, you should give it a chance.

Cicek Patisserie

The island’s most famous patisserie. For us it’s average, but you can go and experience, maybe you feel different. You can try, variety of sweets, drink tea or coffee, the environment is quite nice. In the meantime, don’t eat ice cream on the island! (Now, you can eat ice-cream in the Bozcaada, see just below Nitsa’s Dondurma!) Or don’t eat ice cream from Çicek Patisseries. We didn’t like it at all! Vitaminada were also offering ice cream it looked nice, but we couldn’t try it, if you tried it and if you liked it, please write to us.

Nitsa’s Ice-Cream

You may remember that we complained that there were no good ice cream shops in Bozcaada. This year we are changing our mind because we met Nitsas Ice Cream on our last trip. First of all, we would like you to know that we definitely recommend this ice cream maker.

Nitsas Dondurma caught our attention while walking around the island. When you take Çınaraltı cafe behind you, it is on the left cross. We decided to try Nitsas ice cream at a time when our appetite for ice cream swelled. First of all, they claim that they make ice creams naturally, which we think so too.

Ice creams without artificial colors gave us the impression of being natural. In fact, we were thinking of buying 1 ball of ice cream from here and then buying 1 ball from the other ice cream shop Türkay, which we wondered about. While grappling with these thoughts, the gentleman in Nitsas said that if you wait, I can make a hot fresh cornet. When he said we would only wait 3 minutes, we immediately accepted.

Wonderful Ice-Cream!

Accompanied by the wonderfully warm cornet, one of us bought coconut and lavender ice cream, and the other chocolate and melon ice cream. In one word we would like to say that it was delicious! We felt every aroma and didn’t get an artificial taste, we think it was really successful. By the way, 1 ball is 5 TL, let’s also give this information. Afterwards, we bought ice cream from Türkay Cafe and even tried lavender ice cream there. Türkay also said that he produced ice creams naturally, the color of the lavender ice cream here was lilac and unfortunately we could not get the lavender flavor when we looked at it.

Long story in a short, we have found our ice cream shop on the island and this makes us very happy. You should definitely try Nitsas ice cream, we think you will love it too. If you like it, please share it with us in the comments.

When we wanted permission to take a photo of the place to write on our blog, the owner of Nitsas ice cream, Hülya, posed sincerely, she was very cute :).

Madam’s Coffee

Madam’s Coffee is a small shop on the street where the church and the famous clock tower of Bozcaada are located. While on the island, a friend of ours ordered Turkish coffee with mountain strawberries. When we asked and inquired about where we can find this product on the island, we were directed to Madame’s Coffee.

Small chairs are thrown outside the shop and you sip your coffee with the beautiful Bozcaada street. We ordered Turkish coffee with mountain strawberry (15 TL).

A small cookie comes with the coffee. We liked the cookie very much, we even bought our cookies from here on our way back from the island. It tasted like a Kavala cookie and was very fresh. They don’t have mastic cookies, but we recommend you try the cookies here.

Madame Eleni (Breakfast)

When you type Bozcaada breakfast places into your search engine on the internet, Madam Eleni is one of the places with high scores that you can come across. Because of the good comments made about this place, we decided to have breakfast in Madem Eleni the first day we went to Bozcaada. Let’s say from the beginning, we do not think like the comments written on the internet, it was an ordinary breakfast for us, so we think the price of 60 TL per person is high. Our holiday was starting on the 8th of September and when we went, they said that they could not give the most popular herb fried egg product for breakfast because the season was over. A small warning shoul be made about this issue while making the reservation. The rest of the breakfast consisted of cheese, olives, fried eggs, jams, which were also very limited. Even though the portions were small, they brought extra eggs when we wanted them. In general, there was not a very satisfying breakfast for us. We recommend that you try other alternatives.

Bo Boz

It was a sandwich shop we had been wondering about for a long time. For the sunset event, which is a classic Bozcaada ritual, we said, let’s get a cold sandwich this time. Because hot food gets cold on the way and it can not be very enjoyable. There are many options for sandwiches, you can choose them or you can create your own sandwich. The price level is normal compared to Bozcaada, which is between 27-35 TL. We made an old cheddar sandwich between a tuna and an acuka and an american salad. They also have their own sunset concept products, if you wish, you can also buy them. At the next sunset event, we will take our sandwiches from here again. We recommend you to try :).

Mirada Patisserie

We wanted to try it because there are homemade desserts, bur it didn’t meet our expectations. The oreo cheesecake was not tasty, small slices were served and it was expensive.

Hikotakis

Definitely one of the places we can recommend. First, we want to talk about the good service. There were many negative comments about taverns in Bozcaada link; When you make the reservation but come 10 min late, the table is given to someone else, uninterested employees and so on. You should forget all these comments for Hikotakis . Truly the employees were very good. Portions are large and appetizers are tasty. We ate zucchini blossom, fava, squash meze, shrimp in casserole, salad, grilled sea bass and famous local desserts. We think the prices are appropriate for portions. The music is great. Their dessert with sesame seed is special and different. 

Simyon

One of the popular places of the island. We think the only place you can watch the league matches and we chose a match day. We left quite satisfied. The appetizers were absolutely delicious too. We liked Hikotakisi, but Simyon’s appetizers were definitely better. Simyon’s higher price is a handicap but definitely worth it. I had the zucchiniblossom, fava, zucchini puree, a gourmet appetizer that was sweet sour-hearted, I cannot remember the name of it and I got the grilled seabream. The portions were not as great as Hikotakis but they were all delicious. Service is fine, music is average. 

Batti Balik Fish Restaurant

We heard a lot about here, decided to go and make a reservation but could not go. There were some negative comments on the Internet. In fact, we see Ata Demirer (comedien) eating here, but we thought maybe he has a special treatment due to his job. We will try here next time. 

Nevreste

We liked Nevreste when we first went, but when we went to Simyon and Hikotakis, we found them more successful. We define Nevreste as a place to be preferred in the absence of others. We had some problems in reservation process. Prices are average, service is a bit slow, ambiance is nice. 

Kuzina Restaurant

Located in the port-side. The service was very slow and the appetizers were not delicious. We just liked the fish, they were really nice. But everything was pretty mediocre. We can’t say the price is cheap.

Ela Pizza Bistro

Every time we leave satisfied. Who can not do without pizza, can make a lunch break here.

Eski Kahve (Old Coffee)

Unfortunately closed :(. Now there is a Veli Dede!

Kafa Bozcaada

One of the places we love. The decor is great. There are pictures of many adorable artists like; Kemal Sunal, Nazım Hikmet, and Barış Manço. A place where you can eat and drink. 

Madam Nica ve Maya Bozcaada

We heard many thing about Madame Niça, which is in the Greek neighborhood of the island , but we could not try it. Because, this is one of the places with a fixed menu and non-alcoholic price was around 170-190 TL. While we were drinking our coffe in Kahverengi, loud music was coming.  There is also Maya Bozcaada which has similar concept with Madam Niça. It was fixed menu and of course we could not go there. We will try these places in our next Bozcaada trip.

Then, we finally had the opportunity to experience Maya Bozcaada. We invite you to our Maya Bozcaada a wonderful taste experience article, click!

Enyoj your meal!