Cemilusta

Top choice in Trabzon


Enthusiastic locals don't believe you've really been to Trabzon till you've eaten Akçaabat köfte (local meat patties) on Cemilusta's jam-packed meydan terrace. The cafe also offers excellent lamb chops, lahana sarma (stuffed cabbage rolls), kuymak (cheese-heavy 'polenta') and fresh fish. Picture menus are helpful.

The building is an artfully modernised three-storey stone mansion with a modernist take on wagon-wheel chandeliers.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Trabzon attractions

1. İskender Paşa Camii

0.07 MILES

Commissioned in 1529 by the governor (Pasha) of Trabzon, this fine stone mosque has twin tiled domes and an imposing gateway.

2. Trabzon Şehir Müzesi

0.18 MILES

This professionally presented ethnographic museum tells the main points of the city's history three times over, once in film, once in artefacts and once…

3. Trabzon Museum

0.25 MILES

The Kostaki Mansion was constructed in 1917 for a Greek banker and briefly hosted Atatürk in 1924. The Ottoman Black Sea-style building, with its fine neo…

4. Konak Camii

0.33 MILES

This small 1883 mosque is fronted by a pair of spindly columns, supporting arches that partly mask a fine calligraphic inscription above the door.

5. Alaca Han

0.4 MILES

This single-domed han (caravanserai), built in the 18th century, is fronted by a cute little 1807 mosque. It gives its name to Çarşı's best-preserved…

6. Taş Han

0.41 MILES

Typical of the Ottoman caravanserais of its time (1533), Taş Han was built in two storeys around an open courtyard. Today most of the spaces inside are…

7. Bedesten

0.44 MILES

One of the most distinctive buildings of the bazaar area, the Bedestan is a 16th-century covered market hall – though, from its heavy octagonal uppers,…

8. Çarşı Camii

0.44 MILES

Recently restored with intricate ceiling paintings and back-lit panels in the spired minbar (pulpit), Çarşı Camii was till recently the largest mosque in…