There’s no better way to start your day than lingering over a delicious Turkish Breakfast in an unhurried garden setting. No matter which town you visit on the Bodrum Peninsula you’ll never be more that a stone’s throw away from a traditional village house that serves their own variation of a Turkish Breakfast, so you’re spoilt for choice.

But I was in Gökçebel the other day so decided to try Dirmil Köy Kahvaltısı for the first time, and I wasn’t disappointed. Upper Gökçebel doesn’t have many restaurants – well actually there’s only two, and both of them are breakfast places. Havva Anna is more well known, and it has expanded dramatically over the years. Some detractors say that it has become a victim of it’s own success. The food isn’t as good as it used to be, and it’s overpriced …. so there’s room on the breakfast-scene for Dirmil Köy Kahvaltısı.

The owners don’t appear to have much English, but there was a couple of school-age girls helping out with service and they’ve obviously been learning English at school. But it’s not too difficult to order Turkish breakfast for one, all you need to define is how you want your egg cooked and what you want to drink.

Bir Türk Köyü Kahvaltı lütfen (one Turkish Village Breakfast Please)

How do you want your eggs cooked:

• fried egg > kızarmış yumurta
• boiled egg > haşlanmış yumurta
• Omlette > omlet

The fried egg I ordered obviously hadn’t traveled much further than the chicken coop in the back yard. It’s rich yolk was bright orange and had a buttery taste – perfect for dipping your bread into.

There was no mass-produced 1TL basic Turkish bread at this breakfast. My bread basket came stocked with two types of homebaked bread. One flat village bread – that is the closest I’ve come to tasting an English Muffin in Turkey, and a dense bread with a slight cake-texture.

The breakfast came with some staple side dishes that make it into every version of Turkish breakfast I’ve tried:

• Rocket, Parsley and Green Peppers
• Sliced Tomatoes and Cucumbers
• Black and Green Olives
• Selection of 4 Cheeses

And the requisite selection of homemade jams and preserves. I tried them all and there were two stand-out spreads that were so addictive that I returned to the dish again and again to roll the flavors around my tongue: a Bodrum Mandarin jam that was thick with rind, and a garish red persimmon jam that had a chili kick to it.

What made this breakfast special was the extra dishes with traditional Turkish fare (all vegetarian):

• hand rolled domla (dripping with oil and melt in your mouth)
• stuffed courgette flowers
• spinach and cheese gozleme
• 2 different types of borek – one water borek with cheese, and a fried borek with cheese and vegetables

The icing on the cake was a side order of Menemen, which is made from eggs, sautéed onions, tomatoes, and peppers.

All washed down by a bottomless supply of Turkish Tea.

This restaurant opens at 10am daily, and their weekend service is the most popular. I sat down on a Sunday, just as the lunchtime call to prayer echoed around this hillside. When I asked what time they closed, they just shrugged – so I guess it’s when the last customer leaves. Most of my fellow guests arrived in big groups, and there was a real community feel to this restaurant. From what I could observe, it seemed like everyone else in the restaurant was Turkish except for me, so I got a real sense of getting off the tourist track and enjoying a slice of traditional Turkish hospitality.

This village breakfast is obviously a well oiled machine in the kitchen. The location and menu screams “village”, but I was impressed to see how the two young girls cleared a nearby table. When the 10 guests left, one tray was stacked with tea glasses and glasses, one with dirty plates and dishes, and one with the left over food (bound for those chickens that laid those orange eggs for me?) – very organized and efficient.

It was a really hot day, but there’s a variety of shade to eat under. The main part of the restaurant is covered by a cane roof, but the area I was sitting under was shaded by a grape vine and fig trees. Once my dishes were cleared away, I was left to languish in the shade to work my way through my pot of tea. Just as well, I’d eaten so much I couldn’t move.

Cost of breakfast: 30TL

Location & Getting There

Getting There by Car

Travel along the Inonu Cd. and turn up Ogretman Yusuf Cd. (which is next to the Deniz Bank). Just before you reach Ceviz Sokak you’ll see a sign for the Dirmil Köy Kahvaltısı that points down a little lane. This lane forks, and there’s another sign pointing to the restaurant. You’ll go past a house, and the there’s another house as this road dead-ends, and this is Dirmil Köy Kahvaltısı. You wouldn’t know, because there’s no sign at this point telling you that you’ve arrived at the restaurant, but when you enter the courtyard, you’ll see the tables and chairs. There’s quite a bit of parking here, but it seems quite a few folks just parked along the lane.

Getting There by Dolmuş

There are two Gökçebel Dolmuş from Yalikavak that will bring you within strolling distance of the restaurant. The 10 past the hour bus from Yalikavak turns up the Ogretman Yusuf Cd. at the Deniz Bank, and you can request to get off at the entrance to the lane. The 20 to the hour bus from Yalikavak continues along Inonu Cd., so get off at Deniz bank and walk up Ogretman Yusuf Cd. for an easy stroll to the lane.

Current fare is 2.50TL