Mahmut Usta Esnaf Lokantası

About Mahmut Usta Esnaf Lokantası

Mahmut Usta is a family-run esnaf lokantası, a traditional tradesmen canteen, in the Kemeraltı bazaar, known to regulars by its other name, Az Yemekçi. Culinary Backstreets, which profiled it in 2026, tells the story of Mahmut Öztaşdelen, who started washing dishes with his uncle in Turgutlu at the age of 12, arrived in Kemeraltı at 17 or 18 and spent two decades learning the trade before taking charge of his own kitchen in 2014. Visit İzmir adds that he worked for 15 years alongside Mehmet Usta of Bizim Lokanta before opening this place. Today the family runs it together: his wife Cahide works the till and their sons Arda and Eren handle preparation and the dining room. The stoves are lit at 05:30 and the fish soup is ready by about 08:30. The menu includes fish soup, lamb kokoreç with potatoes, ciğer sarma, liver wrapped in caul fat, tripe with chickpeas, trotter soup and seasonal vegetable dishes in olive oil, and Visit İzmir mentions a fried pepper dish found nowhere else nearby. Soups follow a weekly rhythm: plain soup on Monday, fish soup on Tuesday and Friday, tripe soup on Wednesday, trotter soup on Thursday and head-and-trotter soup on Saturday.