Plate With A View: White Dolphin, Oludeniz
THE PLATE
The White Dolphin (Beyaz Yunus) started out in the early 1980s as a simple fish restaurant owned by a fisherman. While it now boasts politicians and Turkish celebrities among its regulars, it has stayed true to its roots. There is no menu. Instead, you are shown a vast display of the day's catch, fishmonger-style, and asked to choose whatever you like the look of. As well as straightforward fish - snapper and grouper the night I was there - there are usually seafood kebabs, langoustine, lobster, whitebait and squid offered in all manner of ways. In addition there is a great range of salads and dips.
I went for sea bream stuffed with goat's cheese and spinach and grilled in olive oil and lemon with a zingy tomato salad. Rick Stein couldn't have cooked it better.
THE VIEW
Set high up on a hill above Oludeniz's spectacular beach, the trick is to time your visit so you can have a drink before sunset and then eat when the moonlight - and the odd wooden yacht - is lapping over the waves below. Watching the sun dip over the mountains that shield Oludeniz's beach is wildly romantic. This is one of the most celebrated views in Turkey, a spectacular spoon-shaped stretch of pebbly sand that loops around a cluster of pines and cradles one of the most dazzling bays of water along the aptly-named Turquoise Coast. Unless you've booked a jump with one of Oludeniz's many paragliding outfits, the White Dolphin is the ultimate vantage point for all this.
THE BILL
Three courses, without wine, TL60 (£26).
The White Dolphin, 1 Kidrak Yolu Uzeri, Oludeniz, Turkey (00 90 252 617 0068; www.beyazyunus.com).
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