Porta Blu — Restaurant in Eyyübiye

Absolutely worst dining experience we ever had in Şanlı Urfa. Everything started well, we ordered drinks and appetizers. From their dinner menu ordered 7 Urfa Kebab and 1 Kuşbasi dinner. Manager came and said it might take a little longer because ground beef was little frozen, we said that is fine, we ordered drinks and appetizers. After 1.5 hr of wait, no meal was coming. We asked the waiter as well as the manager about the status of our order several times; they said it is getting prepared. After 2 hrs we saw food being delivered to the restaurant and shortly after our food was served; food was not hot as it should be if it was served from the grill. I asked the waiter if the food was brought in from outside, he said yes, and apologized. Half of the order was not even Urfa Kebab, instead some kind of over salted long köfte. Later server brought clean plates and told us kitchen is preparing complementary something, we told him not to bring a big portion. Later he came and said there wasn’t anything coming, they put the plates on the table for clean look. Right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. Waiter brought the credit card machine, my card did not go through. I tried another card, same result; restaurant’s machine is not open to the international cards processing. Waiter had the nerve to tell me my card is not open to international use; earlier that day I did shopping all over the town and used my card with no problem. We paid the bill in cash and left. Restaurant did not charge us for the food, that is a plus for this disastrous evening. If restaurant told us it would not be possible to prepare the listed item on the menu we ordered, we would simply order something else. This is definitely mismanagement. Other problem is many smokers in this restaurant and it is a closed area. By the time we got out of there, our clothing smelled like smoke. Very...

A gem in Sanliurfa. Staff is attentive, the place although small has high ceilings, so the smoking is not ever a problem( we don’t smoke BTW but were not bothered which is rare). The meze is good, the meat delicious especially the “kusbasi” i.e shish kebab. We stopped in for a glass of beer after hike (served in cold and frosted glasses, a hard find in Urfa) and stayed for rakı and meze. Music is nostalgic Turkish (70’s 80’s) streamed, which we found delightful. Not loud just enough to enjoy. We came back twice more and enjoyed it just as much. Oh and the prices...

We had a lovely evening at Porta Blu during our visit to Sanliurfa! Great food, cold beers after a long hot day and a great atmosphere with live music. Fantastic service from Okkes (I think his name was) and good food (of which we ordered way too much!). They brought out the Mezze board where you could see and pick which items you wanted to try which was great! All fresh and delicious! Nice, comfortable place to sit all night with a nice vibe. We were lucky to get a table without a reservation as we were quite early but would...