Vanilla Lounge, Antalya: Trendy Fusion Cuisine and the Best Risotto in Turkey

A few years ago, it was probably easier for the English national football team to win the FIFA Football World Cup than for ordinary tourists to find a restaurant in Antalya that served western food which are up to international standards. I have always wondered why, for a country with more than 31 million foreign tourists every year, it has been virtually impossible to find restaurants which conjure up some kind of decent international cuisines in major tourist cities such as Antalya or Istanbul. In fact Antalya is probably the only major holiday city in the world without any palatable French, Italian, Thai, Indian or Japanese restaurants, even if you are willing to spend a fortune for your dinner.

And it seems this lack of variety in terms of foreign cuisines is endemic to 99% of towns and cities in Turkey. Even in Ankara, the capital of Turkey and home to a large number of foreign diplomats, one struggles to find a good restaurant with authentic Asian or European food. But why is there such a dearth of foreign restaurants in Turkey? Does it have anything to do with the general Turkish populace's apathy or outright reluctance to try out anything which is non-Turkish?

Fortunately, in the last 2-3 years, there has been an increasing number of Turkish restaurateurs who are willing to jump into uncharted territories by investing huge sums of money to open up chic restaurants that serve international cuisines at prime locations in some of Turkey's top tourist destinations. One of them is the Vanilla Lounge in the old town of Antalya, situated in a beautifully restored old Ottoman mansion, right across the street from the main building of the elegant boutique hotel Alp Pasa. 

White Garden Pansion, Antalya: Oasis of Hospitality in the Heart of the Kaleici

Usually I do not recommend hotels or accommodations in Turkey, as it is not uncommon in Turkey's tourism sectors that ownerships or managements of hotels change hands fairly frequently - in some extreme cases,  almost on a annual basis - which means what I find nice and wonderful this year might turn out to be awful and impolite the next. In addition, more often than not young single females travelling around Turkey receive 'preferential treatments' when it comes to room upgrading, special on-the-spot price, room discounts, as well as extra service such as free breakfast/dinner/drinks/tea/snacks etc., which makes it even more difficult to judge if the service of the hotel personnel is genuinely friendly or has other ulterior motives.

But after two visits to this well-run family hotel by the name of 'White Garden Pansion' in the old town of Antalya, I can safely vouch for its standards of accomodation and service. The best thing about this place is, the owner and the people who work there are not pushy at all. They are sincerely interested in running and promoting their own hotel, and not interested in selling you as many tours or other sight-seeing programmes as possible. This makes it a very relaxing experience to stay at this place, as one of the nightmares of staying in hotels in Turkey's top tourist spots is the fear of having to say almost on a daily basis 'sorry, we don't want to book any excursions' to the owners. As a regular visitor to Turkey in the previous ten years, all I want now when I am in Turkey is to relax in a nice atmosphere, and visit some less well-known sights and archaeological digs on my own if I feel like it. After all, once I had been to some of the most remote and unheard of corners of Turkey all by myself over the last decade, it is very difficult for me to return to the modus of joining a day excursion with 20 other tourists.