PeraMackenzie — Restaurant in İskele Belediyesi

Our second visit was a tourist scam! We'll never ever come back and hope you do so too! (read whole story below) :-(

Summary: Price increase of +87% in less than 1 week (omelette went from 75 TL to 140 TL per person)! Food taste decreased! Service quality decreased! Scammy tactics by the waiter and or management to increase customer revenue (different drink on the bill than ordered - we ordered two carrot juices and on the bill it were +80 TL more expensive fruit mix juices. We only noticed this by using Google translate as the bill was written in Turkish)!

When we first arrived on Sunday, 30th October 2022, we ordered 2 omelettes for 75 TL (Turkish Lira) each and 1 carrot juice for 50 TL. Total was 200 TL (which is roughly 11 EUR). The waiter was friendly and served us well. He asked how we want to have the omelettes prepared and they'd taste really good, with fresh vegetables in it! We were happy back then.

Today, on Saturday, 5th November 2022, we ordered 2 omelettes and 2 carrot juices. But we waited over 15 minutes before we were served as guests and the first waiter simply ignored us, before we were giving the second waiter a hand sign that we want to order something. He then showed us the menu on a tablet device instead of printed menus like last time (we would soon find out why!). We were looking for the omelettes but didn't find any on the menu. So we asked the waiter if it would be still okay to order omelette after 1pm and he said yes, it's okay. Instead of asking how we want the omelette to be prepared, he simply vanished. He came back with the 2 carrot juices that came in plastic glasses instead of real glasses like last time. He then brought the omelettes and they tasted poorly, quite dry and without any vegetables in it. After we finished our meal and drinks we simply wanted to move on and asked for the bill.

All in all it should had cost us 250 TL (+50 TL from last time as we now had 2 carrot juices instead of one). Then the bill arrived and this was the moment we felt scammed: It showed 460 TL (!!), a hefty +84% price increase!! So I said to the waiter that we cannot accept this and want to talk to the manager. While waiting for the manager to arrive, we used the Google Translate app with Google Lense and then photograph the bill. As it was translated from Turkish to English we recognized that the price for two omelettes increased from 150 TL (75 TL for one) to 280 TL (140 TL for one) - 87% price increase! More than that it showed that the waiter wanted to scam us by writing a different drink on the bill than ordered - we ordered two carrot juices and on the bill it were +80 TL more expensive fruit mix juices. So instead of 100 TL for two carrot juices, he tried to trick us to pay 180 TL for two fruit mix juices, which of course we complained about.

The manager itself was calm, understanding and listening to our complains and seemed to care as he too was saying the price increase is severe. He was the one making sure we were then only paying what we really ordered and corrected the bill (which was 380 TL /21 EUR in the end). But the waiter who supposedly tried to scam us simply walked away without any apologies. Not mentioning the hefty price increase for the meals before ordering was also disappointing of him. Plus the long waiting time in the beginning. What a bad customer experience! We really hope customer complaints get treated more professionally in future, as we had quite a bad feeling when over 5 staff members looked at us as WE did something wrong. No apologies, no handshake or similar, just dismissive looks at us in the end like saying "you don't belong here". We guess "customer is king" has never been heard at Pera...

All in all we can say while staying in Yeni Iskele for a month, visiting all restaurants, we never got scammed that obviously and never paid so much for a small, okay tasting meal than here at Pera. We're sure that most people eating and drinking at Pera are overpaying in one way or another and better should look for...

Honestly I probably wouldn’t have left such a bad review if they had Rectified their mistake and take accountability for their wrong doings BUT instead they are the type to blame customers even tho the evidence stares them in the face. I had no problem in paying the minute they said they refuse to take my dish off the bill because they said I should have told them first regarding my Dish ‘Seafood Linguine’ (refer to photo & show me what part of seafood is that) I legit noticed after I dug in under I’d say two forks taste till I started to wonder where the rest of seafood was thinking it may be hidden underneath but nope I kid you not just that one cube of crab meat classed as seafood but the picture shows mussels squid etc there was NONE of that lol then they took long to rectify so I suggested to just leave it because not only there was no seafood but pasta was under cooked so I couldn’t be asked to receive same thing so suggested to take it off the bill the woman said a chef will NOT take of bill because I touched it before telling them :/ I said well how was I meant to know for sure if I didn’t dig in haha and I said you can see it’s still full not like I had eaten more than half then changed my mind the plate was still full lol..

Then let’s move on to the Lamb chops my partner who NEVER complains and still didn’t complain but to me he did he asked me for salt and pepper I said what for he said the meat is Flavourless I thought he was Joking so for sake of my honest review I said let me try it and I kid u not it’s UNACCEPTABLE the blandness like they didn’t even season it with salt and pepper as basics it’s like they just slapped the meat to cook with no Marinade that’s the most simple form of meat to not get wrong.

The best and safest dish on the menu that we got was the kids meal which was Chicken Tender Fingers came with chips which was nice and Sushi was ok they definitely didn’t understand when I asked for Crispy Tempura but was fine we got chefs special instead. Wasn’t anything special. The Pina Colada was also a Myth forget it just stick to basic drinks like Fanta/Coke/Water and you’ll be fine. Also it’s very hard when staff doesn’t speak or understand English 😅

We spent around £150 for lunch and it was the worse food ever considering it had good reviews which it’s a LIE and I’m a foodie, I travel around the world and eat many places!

The ONLY Good thing about that place is the Aesthetics/Interior/Exterior of the place. Friend said it’s a good beach club in term of entertainment so maybe that’s what reviews were based on where as I went to eat I guess when people are out of their head eating whatever doesn’t matter.

Beach wasn’t great and was all packed no spaces whatsoever so we walked and left like I wouldn’t have got in that water anyway hehe..

The FOOD was a Let down and staff wasn’t much help. We had AREFE as our waitress she was very lovely but I feel she could have done abit more to resolve the issue instead was fast to take payment she should have bought my plate to the Chef and shown them it was merely eaten and still full and proof of their crap Chefs but hey they believe in their work and crap food. Seen as I paid for the food I packed it up and gave to local animals to feed them :)

I would change kitchen chefs if I were that place!! My 7 year old can season meat much better!!

AVOID & Never Coming Back!! Spend your money elsewhere on proper food, local foods are usually better NOT aesthetically but Atleast Ediable decent...

Update September 2025: We visited again and had another great experience. Fantastic place with great sunbeds, good food, and a wide range of services. Still quite expensive when it comes to drinks, but they have reduced coffee prices since our last visit, which was a nice improvement. We were especially pleased with Tanvir, who often followed up on our orders and provided excellent service.

Unfortunately, apartment owners at Grand Sapphire still don’t have any benefits here, and the invitation for dialogue on this matter (promised after my previous review) was not followed up. Most of the replies here also seem to be AI-generated.

That being said, it’s still a wonderful place to spend the day in the sun, enjoy the atmosphere and the beach.

Review of Pera Beach Club – Summer 2025 (Apartment Owner Perspective)

We recently spent three weeks at Grand Sapphire as apartment owners and visited Pera Beach Club several times during our stay. Overall, it’s a beautifully maintained beach club with modern facilities, great ambiance, and good food. The staff are friendly, and the addition this year of complimentary SUP boards with an instructor was a very nice touch – a great way to stay active and enjoy the sea.

That said, there are a few areas that could use improvement, especially from the perspective of long-term apartment owners who invested in this resort early on.

Pricing: The drink prices have unfortunately skyrocketed. In April, a Sprite was 95 TL – by June it had more than doubled to 200 TL. A café latte is now 450 TL, easily the highest I’ve encountered anywhere, and cocktails at 550 TL make you think twice. A general rule is: take the local prices and multiply by 4 to understand the real cost. On a more positive note, the food remains «reasonably» priced and is of good quality.

Crowding: Compared to previous years, it feels like significantly more sunbeds have been added. They are now placed extremely close together, to the point where it feels crowded and lacking in privacy.

Access and benefits for apartment owners: When we bought our apartment at Grand Sapphire we were told there would be free access and some benefits at Pera for owners. Sadly, this no longer seems to be the case. Now, everything seems to be geared toward hotel guests. Even the beach area is now divided into separate areas for hotel guests, general visitors, and VIPs. Apartment owners are offered no particular benefits despite I guess having helped fund and make the beach club and resort possible.

This summer, we used Pera far less than before – mainly due to the newly introduced entrance fees for owners and the generally high prices.

We truly hope that going forward, the management will reconsider their approach to apartment owners. We are not just visitors – we are long-term stakeholders who can contribute to the sustainability and success of both Grand Sapphire and...