The spices and homemade wine make this one of the best eats in Goreme.
The Dibek resaraunt is conveniently located right in the center of Goreme, which of course is where you find the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Cappadocia. After a tiring slog up, down, around and through rock chapels galore, an evening at Dibek will put you well on the road to recovery.
The family that owns the restaurant has lived there for five generations. Mehmet, the son and manager, speaks a bunch of languages, and really helps the evening along with his jovial banter. The house is over 500 years old, and tables are distributed among the rock rooms, with colorful cushions.
The family makes their own wine, and we cannot seem to pass it up. We order at least two carafes each time we go. I had asked Mehmet who does the cooking, because the restaurant boasts “home cooking”, and he said his mom did. And boy, does she do it right.
Everything on the menu is beyond comparison. Traditional dishes such as Kurufasulye (Beans with lamb), cacik (yogurt sauce), or sac kebab (lamb stew) are all fantastic. If you can remember, though, their signature dish is testi kebab (a stew cooked for three hours in a clay flask, which is broken open at the table), and you must order it the day before. Call Mehmet at 0384-271-2209.
Afiyet Olson! Good Eating!