Ajia is a super-stylish boutique hotel, located in one of the many Ottoman yalis that line the Asian side of the Bosphorus. It is all contemporary minimalism, with a heavy reliance on clean white lines, giving a simple elegant feel.
We were there for a wedding, but needed a little sustenance to get us through to the evening's festivities, so took the opportunity for a little lunchtime quest.
The menu was extensive, a little unstructured, but we settled upon a tuna steak, some buffalo mozzarella, and skewered prawns and scallops.
We demolished the excellent bread basket in record time. It was a very fresh and tasty selection, with flavour-packed dips to add bursts of brightness.
The main courses were eye-catching. My skewer featured a jumbo prawn, encircling two sweet scallops. It rested on a bed of smoked aubergine, with some tomatoes dotted about the place, with a little side dish of rocket risotto.
I'm reliably informed by Mina that the risotto was a typical example of how its generally prepared in Turkey. It was good, but not very risotto-like.
The rest of the dish was first class, with the light smokiness of the patlican working beautifully with the seafood.
Within the context of the hotel's main focus of the day being satisfying the nuptial requirements of our darling Acelya, the lunch was extremely good. There is no better setting in the world than the Bosphorus, but I have to say that I preferred Sumahan's interpretation of that particular classic.
Overall, Ajia is slick and chic, a place to be seen, with quality food to match the style. They even made a good fist of serving al fresco dinner for 270 folk, later that day. But that story is more the territory of Wedding Quest...(now there's an idea;-))
Scores
Blythe scores Ajia:
4/5 for food
5/5 for presentation
4/5 for service
4/5 for setting
giving an overall 17/20
Ajia
Ahmet Rasim Pasa Yalisi Cubuklı Cad. No 27
34812 Kanlica / Istanbul / Turkey
http://www.ajiahotel.com
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