Real Bacon and Pork Sausage in Side: Where to Find Them

Yes, you can get real bacon and pork sausage in Side at Hawaii Restaurant & Bar in Side old town. Our bacon and sausages are real pork, not turkey bacon. They are cooked in a separate pan on a separate hob and never mixed with other food. Find them in the English Breakfast, bacon butty and more.

Real bacon in Side: what we serve

One of the questions British and European visitors ask us most is simple: is it real bacon? At Hawaii it is. The bacon and the sausages we serve are real pork. They are not turkey bacon, beef bacon or chicken sausage dressed up to look like the breakfast you get at home.

Pork appears only in dishes that name bacon or sausage. These are the ones to look for:

For the full breakfast line-up, see our guide to the English breakfast in Side, and for everything bacon on one page, read bacon in Side. Current dishes and prices are always on the live menu.

A note on other cured meats: the ham, pepperoni and salami used on some pizzas are a separate question. We do not state their source here, so please ask your server if it matters to you.

Why real pork is hard to find in Türkiye

If you have been to a few hotel breakfasts and noticed the "bacon" was turkey or beef, there is a good reason. Türkiye is a majority-Muslim country, and Islamic dietary law does not permit pork. For most people living here, pork is simply not part of the food culture, so there are few pig farms, very little pork in ordinary supermarkets and hardly any on traditional menus.

In resort areas, hotels and restaurants that want to offer a British-style breakfast often use turkey bacon, beef bacon or chicken sausages instead. That is a sensible, respectful choice for a mixed audience, and many guests are perfectly happy with it. But if you have been craving the real thing, it helps to know where to find it, and to understand that it is the exception here rather than the norm.

We see serving real pork as a choice we make carefully, with respect both for guests who want it and for guests who would never eat it.

Separate pan, separate hob

Because many of our guests eat halal, we keep pork apart. Bacon and sausages are cooked in a separate pan on a separate hob and are never mixed with other food. That is a cross-contamination precaution we take seriously. It means a guest ordering bacon gets the real thing, and a guest who does not eat pork can order from the rest of the menu knowing pork stays on its own station.

Halal guests: what you need to know

All beef, lamb and chicken at Hawaii is halal-slaughtered. If you eat halal, you can choose from the large majority of the menu, which contains no pork at all. The dishes listed above can also be ordered without the pork, or you can pick something else entirely. Two honest points: we are also a bar and serve alcohol, and we do not claim a halal certification. Our full guide to halal food in Side explains everything in more detail.

Bacon for breakfast, lunch or late

We open daily at 10:00, so a late breakfast with real bacon is easy to fit around a lie-in or a morning at the beach. Because we stay open until 02:00, a bacon butty or bacon pizza is also there for lunch or a late bite. If you are deciding between a full English and a Turkish spread, our comparison of the Turkish vs English breakfast sets out what each one offers.

• For a proper start: the English Breakfast, with real bacon and sausage.
• For something quick: a bacon butty.
• For a hungry afternoon: bacon, egg and chips.
• For the kids: sausage with chips from the children's menu.
• For dinner with friends: the Bacon pizza from the stone oven.

Ordering tips for a mixed table

Plenty of families and groups have one person who wants a full English with real bacon and another who does not eat pork at all. That works fine at Hawaii. Order as you normally would and tell your server if anyone at the table needs their plate kept free of pork, so the team can keep that order on the non-pork side of the kitchen. If you would like a dish that normally includes bacon or sausage without it, just say so when you order. And if you are unsure what is in any dish, ask: the team would much rather answer a question than have you guess.

Finding us

Hawaii Restaurant & Bar has been in Side old town since 2000. Free return hotel pickup is available from selected hotels, with a paid two-way transfer from farther areas. Walk in, or reserve a table and message us on WhatsApp at +90 533 930 12 83 if you would like to check anything before you come.