CONTRIBUTED BY DIANA MIDDLETON

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My dear friend Julie had to add pages to her passport (yes, I know, poor thing) and my other dear friend, Inanc, highly recommended this restaurant near the embassy. And that’s how it all started! Kerebekki–that’s the name of this fabulous restaurant (which means “Butterfly” in Turkish)! If you’re looking for authentic Turkish food (or even if you’re not looking, it’s worth trying!) then you need to check out this place. Coming highly recommended by Inanc, who happens to be from Turkey, this place serves the best Turkish food I’ve ever eaten.

100_3540  Caban salata  Ezo gelin  Taze fasulye

The meals are reasonably priced around 1000 yen per set. With your food you receive free hot tea, a salad, a soup, some beans and then your main course. I tried desperately to write down what everything was with Inanc’s help, but you’ll have to forgive me if I misspelled or misidentified some of the food. I had a caban salata (Shepherd’s salad), ezo gelin (red lentil and bulgar) soup, taze fasulye (green bean type dish with tomato sauce) and for the main course I had the doner kebab with rice. A lot of the ladies I went with had the doner and humus pita sandwich.

100_3546   Doner and humus

After the meal, we purchased some homemade ice cream from the owner who churns it while you wait and provided a little entertaining show before handing it to you (I thought he almost dropped it but he was just messing around). The ice cream was so delicious and it was fun to see how the owner interacted with the customers.

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I don’t think you will be disappointed with this find. All of us thoroughly enjoyed the food and atmosphere! Thanks Julie for traveling so much and thanks Inanc for knowing about this place. You gals rock!

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click to enlarge menu


 

Kerebekki Turkish Restaurant

Hours: Closed Wednesdays. 11:30am – 3:00pm for lunch; 6:00pm – 11:00pm for dinner

Phone: 098-944-4747

Address: 558-2 Onaga, Nishihara

Google Maps Coordinates: 26.2389011, 127.7459748

Directions: To get there, head south on 330 until you reach 241 (it’s just past expressway entrance #2 and you could take the expressway to this exit, Nishihara #2 and just turn left on 330). Take the service road to be able to turn left on 241. You’ll see the American embassy on your right. Just keep following 241 until you reach 38. Turn left onto 38. Once on 38, you’ll see a huge sign “JEF” on the left and a bike shop on the right. The Turkish Restaurant is immediately past the bike shop on the right with a red sign.

Website: https://r.gnavi.co.jp/f260500/

6 COMMENTS

  1. Hello there!

    I seriously don’t remember, where i read about this other turkish place, but since
    I am a half turkish girl, I had to find
    the one, which is called “Istanbul”
    and we found it through a friend.

    Getting left out of Gate 1, the very first light a right, pass Sunny Net all the way
    down, to the last light and take a right then. Go a little further and you’ll see
    this very delicious turkish food place!
    Hmmmm….. ^^

  2. Dear Anonymous,

    Thank you for your response. You’re right, the name is not “Turkish Food” but it took a lot of research for me to find out the meaning of Kerebekki!

    The smaller writing on the left side of their sign says “Toruko Rokanta”. Toruko is “Turkey” in Japanese and Rokanta is actually supposed to be “Lokanta” which means “restaurant” in Turkish!

    The larger characters are written in katakana and roughly sounds out to be “Kerebekki” which is actually supposed to be the Turkish word “Kelebek” which translates to “Butterfly!” (you’ll notice the pictures of butterflies on the sign to corroborate this!)

    I hope this clarifies the meaning of everything!! Thank you to my good friend, Inanc, for translating the Turkish words and to Schilling for helping me translate the Japanese and for “anonymous” for bringing this to our attention! I’ve added the hours and website to the original post!

    With all that said, please stop by to visit “Butterfly” restaurant whenever you can! You’ll love the Turkish food here as it comes highly recommended!!

  3. Hi There.
    This restaurant name is NOT “Turkish food”
    It’s “Kerebekki”.

    Kerebekki
    558-2 Onaga、Nishiharacho、Nakagami-gun、Okinawa

    Lunch 11:30~15:00(L.O.14:30)
    Dinner 18:00~23:00(L.O.22:00)
    Close:Wed