Balıkçı Yılmaz

There are plenty of fish restaurants in Rumeli Kavağı, but Balıkçı Yılmaz was a name we'd been hearing a lot lately.

We had a faultless meal at Yılmaz. The turbot was wonderfully cooked, the bluefish exquisite, and the prawns and lakerda judged perfectly.

But the surprise of the night was the grilled gurnard that arrived at the table as a gift from the kitchen. It was so magnificent that we found ourselves thinking we'd wasted years steaming gurnard instead.

The owner, Yılmaz, runs the place himself — one moment he's serving at a table, the next he's in the kitchen. And it shows: everything we ate was wonderful.

With turbot on the bill we paid a hefty sum, but it was no surprise, and the meal at Yılmaz was worth the money.