Traverten Pide — Restaurant in Pamukkale

First off, eat here. The chicken pide I got here was the best pide I ate in all of Turkey.

Now the story. It was late at night, around 10:00 PM and we had just walked down from the travertine pools. It was during Ramadan so most restaurants had been open late, however tonight was different. We weren't sure, but something in the air was different this night. I decided to see walk by Travertine Pide on my way back to the hotel just to see if they were open. I saw the owners wife in front and asked if they were open, she asked her husband and he waved me in. They had clearly not been open, but he saw we were hungry and decided to feed me. I noticed there was quite the gathering going on at the mosque behind us. I Googled muslim calendar and realized it was "Night of Power" the holiest night in Islam. I looked up so embarrassed to see the owner preparing my pide with extra care and attention placing the toppings and carefully folding the dough. As he finished preparing the fire for the oven, yes he had to re make the fire for me, the final call to prayer for the night started. He slid my pide in, came over and gave me a tap on the shoulder and a warm smile, told me he had to go pray and that his daughter would finish cooking the pide and bring it out. And with that he bid me a good night. I am still blown away by how kind the owner was and also how amazingly delicious that pide tasted. I had the chicken pide and it was fantastic and packed with delicious veggies. It was also cooked to perfection.

Long story short, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND...

If your visiting Pamukkale and are sick and tired of the touristic traps, high prices and mediocre / poor service and (food) quality seeping into Turkey since this year..., make sure to visit this little family business! They are genuinely friendly and honest, their food is freshly made, and exquisite. I can honestly say that they served the best pride and lahmacun I had in the last 10 years visiting Turkey! Don't let the 'poor' interior and looks of the place fool you, as this is one of the best pide restaurants I've visited. ( Even way better then some 'fancy' restaurants we've visited recently.)

Despite not selling any beer, the owner suggested to buy it by yourself in the nearest shop (50m distance). (Extra service credits for that, knowing he missed out on selling an additional drink.)

Food and taste: definitely 5 stars! Service and friendliness: also 5 stars! Small family business, that's doing it still right in this economic harsh times! Prices (in comparison with others): 5 stars. Interior: 3 stars (but who cares if you know that everything is clean and freshly made, while being able to look into the kitchen if you're sitting on the balcony.)

After dinner, I decided to order additional lahmacun for the long drive ahead as takeaway (as a reminder for the reader that it really was SO good :) )

I wish this small business lots of succes! Keep up the good service and food, and things will get hopefully easier soon again.

Regards...

We were recommended by a local to try their pide. The restaurant was accessible. Upon checking, the restaurant uses halal meat and ingredients.

The menu has a variety of flavours for pide, we chose the minced meat with yellow cheese. We saw that it was baked in the hot furnace! The pide was crispy and thin, with just the right amount of toppings. It was so delicious we almost wanted to order another one! One of the best pide I've ever tasted!

We also ordered chips, freshly cut potato fries, so good!

The kunafe wasn't too sweet, the cheese inside was quite stretchy.

All the food were served piping hot and super delicious!

We were served by a friendly lady and Khalid.

Couldn't compliment them enough for the food!

One of the memorable...