December 2025
At this enlighteningly epicurean place, every detail is “just so” and – hats off to chef Aret Sahakyan – especially in the culinary department, where all is deliciously local. It starts at breakfast on a bougainvillea-adorned terrace. But after feasting on the flakiest spinach-and-cheese pies, what’s to do? Well, days can be spent lounging on the hotel’s destination beach. And then there is lunch, which could cure even the most buffet-phobic. Choose from all kinds of fabulous green bean and chickpea salads, as well as lentils and black rice, and chicken and meats whose divine flavour comes from the charcoal and woodsmoke over which they’re cooked. Special mention for its courgette fries, fluffy flatbreads, stuffed vine leaves, kofte and more-ish Turkish pizza called lahmacun. For eating as high theatre, make for the Ayla Emiroğlu restaurant, named after founder Sahir Erozan’s legendary mother, who started Maçakizi as a guesthouse back in 1977. Here, Sahakyan serves beetroot millefeuille with caviar, lobster poached in a rose butter and the most deliciously aged smokey rib-eye, drizzled with dark chocolate sauce. Everything here is of serous quality- including the negronis, made with the hotel’s own rose liqueur, which are truly decadence incarnate.