Emektar Kebap

The large wood-fired oven and open grill do most of the talking at this sprawling, lively kebab restaurant in a residential stretch of Bornova. Locals fill the room, which is warm and comfortable in the way that only a place with no one to impress can be. The menu runs from tripe soup to lahmacun to spit-roasted lamb with yoghurt and aubergine, the kind of traditional Turkish cooking that doesn't need a city-centre address to draw a crowd.