Cevahir Han — Restaurant in Eyyübiye

In Sanli Urfa, or just Urfa, there is a hotel restaurant that stands apart from the others. Cevahir is a charming old house turned into a boutique hotel. We did not stay in the hotel but we had lunch in the restaurant of the hotel. When you are numerous the fare is standard. That is to say obergine and mince meat balls kebab and kubbe (the American football shaped fried meat balls stuffed with spices and mince meat) and ayran, the famous yoghurt drink that is a must after the spicy kebabs to take the burn away. Our waiter, a most sympathetic character, did the mirra coffee ritual. I am not going to tell you what mirra is (go and find out for yourself) but I am going to give you a tip, DON'T put the cup down. Why? You are going to find out your selves. When we became friendly with our charming waiter (his name is Mustafa Tas, ask for him) he asked if we wanted anything else. As we are not at all timid we asked for something that we heard but not tasted up to then. The famous Urfa CIG KOFTE. A meat ball, raw, that the chef kneads his herbs and spices into a paste. You eat it with a piece of lettuce. If you are not familiar with cig kofte, ask the chef to make it lightly spicy. We did not and mustafa took our tears as a sign of emotion. But they were not, we burned our mouths and we had a shine in our eyes. The difference make traveling worthwhile. Try everything different and you will have something to...

In Sanli Urfa, or just Urfa, there is a hotel restaurant that stands apart from the others. Cevahir is a charming old house turned into a boutique hotel. We did not stay in the hotel but we had lunch in the restaurant of the hotel. When you are numerous the fare is standard. That is to say obergine and mince meat balls kebab and kubbe (the American football shaped fried meat balls stuffed with spices and mince meat) and ayran, the famous yoghurt drink that is a must after the spicy kebabs to take the burn away. Our waiter, a most sympathetic character, did the mirra coffee ritual. I am not going to tell you what mirra is (go and find out for yourself) but I am going to give you a tip, DON'T put the cup down. Why? You are going to find out your selves. When we became friendly with our charming waiter (his name is Mustafa Tas, ask for him) he asked if we wanted anything else. As we are not at all timid we asked for something that we heard but not tasted up to then. The famous Urfa CIG KOFTE. A meat ball, raw, that the chef kneads his herbs and spices into a paste. You eat it with a piece of lettuce. If you are not familiar with cig kofte, ask the chef to make it lightly spicy. We did not and mustafa took our tears as a sign of emotion. But they were not, we burned our mouths and we had a shine in our eyes. The difference make traveling worthwhile. Try everything different and you will have something to...

Pros: the building is beautiful. Restaurant is really cool. Service very good. Location good, walking distance from everything. Clean. Good value.||Cons: room is very small. Location is up the hill from the main sites in Urfa and walking places in the city center. It's an easy walk but after walking around we saw other nice hotels right in the prime locations. Cevahir was very good but I would probably check out one of the hotels down the hill next time. Cevahir is really in the local Urfa neighborhood, which is on the edge of some ghetto looking neghborhoods but it is the authentic place and the hotel says is very safe...may be more appealing to you, or may not. ||Tip: we did a half day tour with Aslan guest house tours..highly recommended!! They took us to Harran at sunrise and we were the only ones there at the university ruins. Was amazing. Ask Cevahir about Aslan or contact Aslan guest house directly. However be careful with directions if you walk from Cevahir to Aslan. Cevahir told us it was a few hundred meters away and easy to find but we got lost in the maze of tiny streets leading to Aslan around nighttime and didn't feel totally safe walking around the Aslan neighborhood...which is very different from the Cevahir...