Friday, May 20, 2005

My Favorite Restaurants

You read newpaper commercial evaluations of commercial restaurants every Sunday. Today I will tell you about uncommercial restaurants, in other words "company or public institution canteens" in the local market as well as those in the global world where I visited during my last 30 years of professional life. Those places are normally not commercial since they are basically formed to serve the company employees for their lunch.

Some of them (universities) charge a symbolic figure.

Here are my favourite local uncommercial restaurants, in Istanbul,
Yeditepe University, Kayisdagi Campus Academician restaurant, excellent sea view, excellent sea food.
Hakimevi- Tarabya, formed to serve the official legal (Judge) people who are staying in the guesthouse, wonderful view, Sunday brunch is popular in wintertime, Registration necessary.
Bosphorus University Academicians restaurant, wonderful view as well as environment, excellent food.
T. IsBankasi Towers main employee restaurant, once Camis General Manager invited me to have our lunch. You have light (diet) and normal menu to choose.
ENKA Istanbul head office special restaurant, once invited for lunch. We had extraordinary sea fish and white wine.
Küçükyali Istanbul Municipality restaurant, no alcohol, but delicious grilled meatballs (Izgara köfte)

In Ankara
Hakimevi (Judge's House)- the best in its class, Sunday brunch is popular in wintertime.
METU Academicians restaurant, two banquets for selection one for fixed menu, one of best environment, excellent food. There are two more in the campus, one in social building and one in the congress centre but they are not comparable with the major centre.
Gama Industry company in Ankara, company canteen in the basement, 3-course excellent food, no-nonsense list. Fish on Fridays. Decision-makers come to the canteen at 1300 hours. If you are newcomer, better have your lunch between 1230-1300 hours.
Guris Construction company Golbasi head office canteen. 4 course excellent food.
Pasiner company canteen, main course from nearby commercial restaurant, green salad and fresh fruit by the canteen employees from the daily open markets, dessert from nearby desert shop. Kebab on Saturdays.
Turkish Sugar Corporation Etimesgut campus guesthouse, best "Begendi" kebab ever tasted.
Ankara Baskent Ögretmen Evi, Teachers guest house in Ankara,
GES Elektrik, Hasanoglan warehouse, excellent Antep kitchen.
ODTU Alumni Visnelik, good atmosphere but do not expect extraordinary food, membership necessary.

Somewhere in Turkey,
Koc Holding Entek CCPP power plant company canteen, open salad buffet, desert, excellent food, barbecue on Fridays, lots of meatballs, salad and watermelon.
Sabanci Kentsa Izmit, main employee restaurant in recreation area, excellent food, next to swimming pool,
Soktas Textile plant in Söke, excellent food,
Batman Tüpras Refinery guest house, excellent traditional food,
Hopa thermal power plant canteen, excellent traditional blackSea food,
Orhaneli Thermal Power plant, excellent mezze in dinner,
Soma Thermal power plant, excellent fish food,
Yenikoy Thermal power plant, excellent traditional food,
Akçakoca ÖgretmenEvi, teachers guest house, excellent open buffet brunch,
International,
Brown & Root Engineering, company canteen, Wimbledon London, excellent lunch,
Fiat-Avio Torino, Italy, small amount wine tolerated, excellent Italian food, spaghetti certainly,
GE Nuovo Pignone, Florence, small size wine bottles available, excellent seafood,
Siemens Erlangen, one-glass beer tolerated, excellent red meat dishes, their executive restaurant is extraordinary. You get excellent service, plus cognac,
Babcock & Wilcox, Cambridge, Canada, good fish food.
Patrick Lumumba International University in Moscow Russia, extraordinary red meat.
Diar-El-Zor, Syria sugar plant, wonderful kebab,
Diar-el-Zor Boukoutra machine shop in Syria, Extraordinary special East Indian food, since the subcontractor and his employees are from Bangladesh. Wonderful Indian spices,
ELIN head office in Vienna Austria, reasonable amount white wine tolerated, wonderful red meat food.
ABB Finpong Sweden, in Christmas time they serve hot punch at entrance,
ENKA Tenghiz Kazakhstan site, employee canteen, excellent traditional Turkish food, extraordinary service,
Aramco, Dharan, Saudi Arabia, the longest open buffet I have ever seen,
Be sure that excellent restaurants are not necessarily commercial. There are also excellent restaurants, and not commercial; the employees of those institutions make them special.

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