Walking into Ephesus always makes us smile. The restaurant occupies a house; but instead of trying to create that phoney-baloney “hey, it’s like you just dropped by for dinner with friends” vibe, the owners just shoehorned a normal-looking restaurant into the space, complete with booth seating and the sort of ornate, heavy-looking tables and chairs you’d expect to find in the rarely used dining rooms of the nouveau riche. That’s not to say that Ephesus is pretentious—some of those chairs are made out of old barrels, and there are all sorts of ferns and other pedestrian greenery hanging about.

The food is Turkish and Mediterranean, with excellent mezze: rich, silky hummus, for instance; sweet, tangy ezme (a sauce made of tomatoes, pomegranate juice, walnuts, and raw onion); or bubbly, nicely charred sheaves of pita the size of pillowcases. Kebabs are usually the way to go—delicious adana kebab, a Turkish meatloaf of sorts, with ground lamb, onion, garlic, and parsley, is grilled and skewered on a sword, which, sadly, you can’t take home with you. But Ephesus is loads of fun anyway.