Dostlar Mantı ve Gözleme

About Dostlar Mantı ve Gözleme

Dostlar Mantı ve Gözleme is a home-style restaurant in Çiğdem Mahallesi, on the Balgat side of Çankaya, serving handmade mantı and gözleme. Its website describes it as serving genuine handmade Kayseri mantı, hand-rolled gözleme and home cooking in Çiğdem since 1996. According to the restaurant, it began in 1996 when founders Müşerref Sıdıka Sağlam and Beratiye Benli, who had been cooking for charity bazaars together, surprised their husbands Turgut Sağlam and Hüseyin Benli by renting a shop in Çiğdem. The four started out with a sack of flour bought on credit and three picnic tables and chairs from friends, and named the small restaurant Dostlar (friends) in thanks for that support. The website says all its products are 100 percent handmade and that it puts the support of women at the forefront. The menu centres on mantı with a filling of minced beef, onion, parsley and spices, served with butter and tomato paste sauce and strained yoghurt, with potato and white cheese versions too. Other dishes include meat and olive-oil vine leaf and cabbage sarma, a mixed dolma plate with Antep dolma, içli köfte with house-made ayran, gözleme made to order (at least 15 minutes), kömbe, kol böreği and su böreği, and desserts such as sarı burma and a yoghurt cake in syrup. Mantı, sarma, içli köfte and börek are also sold by the kilo, fresh, frozen or dried. Practical notes: the website gives opening hours of 08:30 to 20:30 every day, and takes orders and reservations by phone.