Hardly any time for ciao still...work and personal life issues prevail :p But I found time to post a...
Hardly any time for ciao still...work and personal life issues prevail :p But I found time to post a new review and will now read a little of what I missed! OMG.. I was gone for a while and everybody turned orange! :o -need to change that horrid pic!-
Located on the Atatürk blvd. in Alanya, south Turkey, Tulip Garden is a neat café restaurant serving meals from 9:00 till 2:00. Now probably you wonder what's a Tulip Garden doing in Turkey, well, that's because the owner is a Dutch Turk, very nice guy who speaks fluent Dutch and English and who's come to Alanya some 7 years ago to start up his own business.
Being smart, he focused on the Dutch tourists and their needs, which are: 1. Dutch food: frikandel, krokant (both kind of minced meat which is rather spicy, dressed and fried), basmati rice, bami, nasi (ok, all these are indian dishes the Dutch eat often, but don't ask me what those are, I had it explained a number of times but always forgot), filled toasts and of course beers. 2. TV screen: The Dutch ppl love to watch sports, particularly football, so owning two big TVs
and another two large projection screens I'm more than sure Tulip Garden was packed with Oranjes from terrace to kitchen when Euro championship was on. 3. Dutch: Dutch ppl love if they can talk Dutch to you, especially where everyone babbles English, German or Turkish, so apart from Hassan - the owner, all the members of staff speak at least conversational level of Dutch.
I'm sure if I were Dutch I would find all the above listed even neater than I did already, which means I liked it a lot! Now about the restaurant a bit more detailly.
The restaurant Location is great, right on the main street of Alanya, you have a lovely view of the beach (beachhouse nr. 13, if you wanna find it easily) and you're always in the whirl of life, but I wouldn't say it was noisy or unpleasantly busy. You immediately realize you've stepped onto Dutch ground as there are Dutch football jerseys hanging around as well as wooden clogs, an orange decoration here and there and well, tulips garden? That must be Holland!
The restaurant doesn't have a real indoor part apart from a few armchairs located near the kid's corner, but hey, who'd wanna sit inside while it's lovely warm weather and you can be out on the terrace? They have two computers with the internet for customers for free, a huge pile of Dutch, English, German and Turkish magazines and some playing facility for kids, too. The terrace has two parts, the smaller under a roof could hold about 40 people, the outmost terrace which only occassionally gets roofed (e.g. if the seeds of ficus trees above your head keep bombing you or sun is too strong), has space for about 60 people, plus a few seats at the bar. They have either straw chairs that are very comfy to sit on or leather sofas which are nice at night but during the day it's too warm.
Every night starting at 21:00 there's a happy hour time when all cocktails go buy one (10YTL, roughly 5 euro), get one free and on selected days there are many other special offers including big discounts.
Food and Drinks You'll be offered an English, Dutch, German and Turkish version of the menu, so of course I went for the English, but I liked it I could check what's the food called in Turkish, too. Apart from the Dutch specials they offer typical Turkish dishes like kebap (chicken or lamb versions), Turkish goulash or fish, selection of steaks. All meat main meals are served with fries, rice and fresh chopped vegetables, with a range of sauces or dressings. Soups - tomato soup or soup of the day Light bites - toasts, sandwiches Kid's menu - variation on hamburger with fries (yeh, talk about healthy) Desserts - apple pie, brownie, pancake with fruit, icecreams...
They serve all usual kinds of alcoholic and soft drinks, Dutch chocomelk, Turkish and international beers, Turkish tea and coffee as well as all usual kinds of coffee-based hot drinks.
If you count 1 euro = 2 YTL, I found that very good value and it's about the same expense level as eating out in Prague that I'm used to.
My opinion Me and my girlfriend have spent 8 days in Alanya and as far as I can remember, we ate at the Tulip Garden at least 5 times, sometimes we just stopped for a drink. I remember walking down the main street for the first time when I saw Tulip Garden with their orange decorations, Dutch banners etc., I thought "Hm, looks nice but I wanna eat at a Turkish place when I'm n Turkey!" and I didn't think we'd consider going to eat there. But as this restaurant was pretty close to our hotel, one evening we wanted to go eat out and in the damp hot weather we were lazy to go far, so we decided on Tulip Garden and didn't regret it. We enjoyed the place thoroughly as the staff are really nice guys, they come talk to you every now and then, they always make sure you have a fresh drink, that you like your meal and often bring a bowl of fresh fruit that goes on the house. Always clean, neat chairs and tables as well as the whole place including the bathrooms. Food was yummy, always hot on the plate, neatly arranged and there was loads of it, they have the best fries I've ever had! You feel as a valued customer because you always get slices of white and wholemeal bread with tzatziki sauce on the table while waiting for your meal, a cookie with your hot drink, they don't charge for sauces, not to mention the gratis fruit! No way they would try to add to the bill or rip you off as we experienced elsewhere, you can see that this place does have a standard of quality which they enjoy sicking to and they don't need cheap tricks. It's particularly the attitude of the Turkish people that makes you feel welcome (I'll be covering this more detailly in my Alanya review, which is coming soon) and you really can not worry but just be happy!
If you're heading to Alanya for holiday, I recommend you to give Tulip Garden a try!
Their website has been partly under construction, but in any case, here's the link: http://www.brasseriealanya.com/
Thanks for reading!
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