Best Restaurants in Aksaray 2026

Aksaray is a province in Central Anatolia (İç Anadolu), Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Cappadocia region. It is best known for the Ihlara Valley, a 14-kilometre canyon lined with Byzantine rock-cut churches and frescoes, the towering Selime Monastery, and the Sultanhanı Caravanserai, the largest Seljuk han in Turkey. With the volcanic cone of Hasan Mountain on the horizon, the salt expanse of Lake Tuz to the north, and Göreme roughly an hour east, Aksaray serves as an uncrowded gateway to Cappadocia.

Aksaray's cooking is rooted in the pastoral tradition of Central Anatolia — lamb, bread, legumes, and the hearty preserves needed for high-plateau winters. The province's signature dish is the Aksaray tulum kebab, a slow-roasted mutton preparation traditionally cooked by shepherds around Hasan Mountain, presented whole at the table. Equally famous is the Hasan Mountain testi (pottery) kebab, in which lamb and vegetables are sealed into a clay pot, cooked for hours, and broken open with a knife before the diner. Village dishes — mantı (tiny ravioli in yoghurt), couscous dolma (couscous stuffed into vegetables), soğanlama (onion and lamb casserole), and göce çorbası (cracked-wheat soup) — appear on menus ranging from roadside lokantalar to riverside trout restaurants in Belisırma.