Kalamare Restaurant — Restaurant in Bodrum

A hidden gem found along one of the smaller back alleys of Bodrum Town. We were only in Bodrum for a week, but we chose to revisit Kalamare for a second evening meal after a great first experience.

Kalamare (as you'd expect from the name) specialises in squid and octopus main dishes, cooked in various ways (fried, grilled, stuffed); and also offers sea bass/sea bream for those wanting to eat fish. A wide variety of mezze are offered for starters or alongside the seafood.

Across our two visits we selected 6 mezze dishes, all of which were delicious, including aubergine/local cheese/yoghurt/chili/seagrass options. We also tried the deep-fried cheese and meat pastry, which was delicious, although calorific! We had one of the best fried squid (calamari) ring dishes I've tried, very fresh and tasty squid in a perfectly crispy coating. The grilled octopus is a must-try -- I have never quite tasted octopus like this, very delicious preparation method and grilling technique. On our second visit we tried the 'doner-style' ground octopus meat, a yummy variant on the local kebab dish, as well as a unique stuffed squid (calamari) dish. We tried a semolina pudding for dessert on one day -- perfect balance of moistness and sweetness.

The staff are charming and attentive in what feels to be a small locally-owned business. We felt that the restaurant was mostly frequented by locals -- so this is a must-try if you want to get away from some of the touristy traps along the main seafront.

The drinks menu includes local wines, raki, and soft drinks. Wine and raki were very reasonably priced (25 TL). Overall, for three courses, plenty of bread and raki/wine throughout the meal, the bill for two comes to ~340 TL -- very good value for money given the quality of the food and the service, as well as the...

Visited on Aug 21,2023 and the experience was fantastic from start to finish. The ambience was superb, laid back, friendly, easy going and helpful. The three ladies serving were passionate and enthusiastic about the restaurant and food but not pushy. The food was fantastic- we had potatoes, minced seafood salad, minced meat pastries for starters- all were fabulous. For mains we had stuffed calamari, grilled calamari and drilled octopus- all were superb, tasty, tender and beautifully cooked. I would have to agree that serves are quite small. We finished off with a Yeni Raki!! All in all, a wonderful experience with reasonable prices. If I’m ever in Bodrum, I’ll definitely visit. They deserve to be successful. Maybe they should think about having an English version of their website and an email address? A...

Ordered a salad which came with a tablespoon of cheese which turned out to have a ridiculously high payment for the tablespoon of normal cheese that we weren't informed of. 28TL for a normal salad and an extra 15TL for a tablespoon of normal cheese. Wasn't informed that the cheese would cause extra. Food was good but way overly priced. Felt ripped off.

One of the employers took my picture without asking first too. Felt uncomfortable about it, they didn't apologize for it but another waiter came and asked if it was okay after they already took my picture and said they...