Hüsrev Lokantası

About Hüsrev Lokantası

Hüsrev Lokantası in Balgat is the Ankara branch of a Black Sea restaurant family from Çayeli in Rize province, whose story goes back to 1928. According to the Türkiye Turizm Ansiklopedisi, Hacı Abdullah Hüsrev opened a grocery in Çayeli that year; his son Hacı Fahri Hüsrev turned it into a breakfast shop called Temiz Süt Evi in 1958 and in 1961 opened a meatball restaurant, Temiz Köfte Salonu, under the Çayeli town hall, adding dried beans to the menu. The restaurant became known across Türkiye and later moved to a much larger site on the Çayeli coast road. The first branch outside Çayeli was opened in Ankara by Fahri Hüsrev's son Abdullah Hüsrev, followed by one in İstanbul. The kitchen is built around the dishes that made the name: köfte and kuru fasulye (stewed dried beans, made in the Çayeli style with İspir beans), alongside a menu that the encyclopedia puts at at least twenty dishes and desserts. The encyclopedia also notes that many national and international guests have been hosted over the years, and the restaurant itself describes the Ankara branch as a regular stop for well-known names and politicians. It presents itself on social media under the slogan "Bir Asrın Hikayesi" (the story of a century). The Ankara branch's Instagram profile gives opening hours of 10:30 to 21:45 every day. It is a lokanta, so expect a quick, unfussy lunch or early dinner rather than a long evening.