Turkish Tourist Menu Trap
Ephesus: beautiful ruins in a sea of tourists
The port town of Kusadasi, Turkey sees a lot of cruise-ship tourists who get off the boat to see Ephesus, the largest Roman ruins in the world. Consequently, some businesses here see tourists as easy money. We discovered predatory pricing in two restaurants in this coastal town: Holiday Inn and Carpediem. We got tricked by the first but avoided the second.
I'm not sure if Holiday Inn is actually a hotel, but the restaurant itself proudly displays a Zagat-like rating. The outdoor seating along the pedestrian avenue and aromas were inviting. After perusing the menu's selection of kebabs and other Turkish fare, the little coal barbeque on the neighboring table caught my our eye. It had kebabs, grilled veggies, and flatbread with a side plate of yogurt and small salad. The Belgium couple who had ordered it had good things to say. So did the waiter. We noticed the price was twice as much as most other dishes (30 vs ~15 Turkish lira), but the waiter kept saying "for two." We agreed and eagerly awaited our feast. Curiously, the picture of the meal did not correspond to the label next to it, and the price was hand-written in faded Sharpie marker.
I'm not sure if Holiday Inn is actually a hotel, but the restaurant itself proudly displays a Zagat-like rating. The outdoor seating along the pedestrian avenue and aromas were inviting. After perusing the menu's selection of kebabs and other Turkish fare, the little coal barbeque on the neighboring table caught my our eye. It had kebabs, grilled veggies, and flatbread with a side plate of yogurt and small salad. The Belgium couple who had ordered it had good things to say. So did the waiter. We noticed the price was twice as much as most other dishes (30 vs ~15 Turkish lira), but the waiter kept saying "for two." We agreed and eagerly awaited our feast. Curiously, the picture of the meal did not correspond to the label next to it, and the price was hand-written in faded Sharpie marker.
The menu. We ordered the dish in the top left, which is not "Adana Kebap" and costs twice as much as the arrowed number.
Kusadasi (source: GoTravel.com)
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Holiday Inn, the restaurant (source: TripAdvisor)
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The food was a good blend of meat, vegetables, and spice- standard Turkish cuisine. We were happy to have picked the meal...
Until we got the bill. It was 60 TL, twice what we expected to pay! Piecing together what happened (each person is charged 30 TL), we confront the waiter/manager. He angrily points at the menu and insists we ordered 2 dishes. Interesting because we didn't get twice the food that was pictured. We just got an extra plate of garnish. The establishment was being deliberately misleading from the menu to the way the waiter described the dish. The couple eating next to us were just as surprised when they got their bill.
I'll admit the food was good, but I hate being taken for a fool.
The next day, we are looking for some food and some WiFi to do some Internet tippy-tappin' when we find a place that has lots of pictures of local food with cheap prices. This place is called Carpediem and is a case-study in copyright infringement, judging by their TGIFriday's decor.
The waiter guides us to our table and cleans off the white paper placemats, which look like menus to us. He sets two fancy, yellow, laminated menus in front of us. We start perusing the menu and notice the prices are 2-3x higher than on the big, colorful banner outside. Wait a minute! We tell the waiter we want to order from the local menu, the white paper ones. Here are some pictures for comparison (sorry the first one is blurry):
Until we got the bill. It was 60 TL, twice what we expected to pay! Piecing together what happened (each person is charged 30 TL), we confront the waiter/manager. He angrily points at the menu and insists we ordered 2 dishes. Interesting because we didn't get twice the food that was pictured. We just got an extra plate of garnish. The establishment was being deliberately misleading from the menu to the way the waiter described the dish. The couple eating next to us were just as surprised when they got their bill.
I'll admit the food was good, but I hate being taken for a fool.
The next day, we are looking for some food and some WiFi to do some Internet tippy-tappin' when we find a place that has lots of pictures of local food with cheap prices. This place is called Carpediem and is a case-study in copyright infringement, judging by their TGIFriday's decor.
The waiter guides us to our table and cleans off the white paper placemats, which look like menus to us. He sets two fancy, yellow, laminated menus in front of us. We start perusing the menu and notice the prices are 2-3x higher than on the big, colorful banner outside. Wait a minute! We tell the waiter we want to order from the local menu, the white paper ones. Here are some pictures for comparison (sorry the first one is blurry):
Yellow tourist menu vs white locals menu.
Adana kebabs are 27.50 for tourists and 14 for locals.
Izgara Kofte is 29.50 for tourists and 11 for locals.
Water (su) is 1.50… wait, you don't look Turkish. Water is 2.75.
The food was good: tavuk doner, kebabs, ayran, and it was a good value IF you ordered from the locals' menu instead of the inflated, tourist menu.
Town isn't all that bad: lively (we saw drunk guys in a fist/knife/lamppost fight with the parking mafia guys). Our couch-surfing host was an energetic and extremely hospitable guy. The weather was splendid. All this will be covered in another post.
Town isn't all that bad: lively (we saw drunk guys in a fist/knife/lamppost fight with the parking mafia guys). Our couch-surfing host was an energetic and extremely hospitable guy. The weather was splendid. All this will be covered in another post.