Where to Eat After Green Canyon: Back in Side, Hungry

After a Green Canyon boat day, head back to Side's old town for dinner at Hawaii Restaurant & Bar (512. Sk., since 2000). Order grilled sea bass or the mixed sea plate after a day on the water — or switch to the charcoal grill — then stay for karaoke. Open daily until 02:00.

The Green Canyon Effect

Anyone who has done the Green Canyon boat trip knows what happens on the drive back down to the coast. The huge emerald reservoir sits high in the Taurus mountains above Manavgat — cool air, cold water, hours of sunshine bouncing off the surface — and the combination does something to your appetite. Whatever you ate at lunch is a distant memory by the time you reach Side in the late afternoon, and you step off the coach genuinely, properly hungry. If you haven't been yet, the trip is worth building a whole day around — greencanyonboattours.com covers it. This page is about what comes next: the evening that does that kind of day justice.

First, Golden Hour in the Old Town

Don't rush straight to the table. Most Green Canyon tours drop you back with time to shower off the lake and change, and Side's old town is at its best in that first soft hour of evening light. The ancient columns glow, the harbour goes gold, and the daytime crowds thin out. Walk it slowly. Hawaii sits on 512. Sokak in the heart of the old town, so the stroll and the dinner belong to the same evening — no taxi logistics in between. If you're still weighing up where the night should land, our guide to where to eat in Side lays out the whole picture; the short version follows.

Dinner Option One: Seafood, Obviously

There's a certain logic to ending a water day with fish. Hawaii's seafood list runs from grilled sea bass and black bream to grilled prawns, calamari and a mixed sea plate built for two — the kind of order that turns a hungry couple quiet for twenty minutes. Everything comes off a real wood fire and charcoal grill, which matters more with fish than with almost anything else in a kitchen. If seafood is half the reason you picked Side in the first place, our best seafood in Side guide goes dish by dish. Check the live menu for tonight's full list and prices.

Dinner Option Two: The Charcoal Answer

Not everyone wants fish after a lake. Fair. The other post-canyon classic is the grill: a 450g T-bone, a mixed grill, or the Testi kebab — the Turkish clay-pot dish that arrives sealed and is cracked open at your table. After a day of fresh mountain air, red meat over real charcoal is a hard argument to lose. We wrote about why the wood fire and charcoal grill is the backbone of this kitchen, if you want the longer version.

Stay for the Karaoke

Here's the part most tour-day evenings miss: you don't have to go home after dessert. Hawaii runs a karaoke stage, and there's something about a day outdoors that lowers everyone's threshold for grabbing the microphone. Time it right and you'll catch Happy Hour first — every evening from 19:00 to 20:00 — before the singing starts. Kids are part of the plan too: there's a proper kids menu and four alcohol-free kids' cocktails (Hawaii Cocktail, Redkiss, Spider Man and Barbie), so the family table stays as long as the grown-ups do. More on how those evenings unfold in our karaoke night in Side post.

The Practical Bits

Hawaii Restaurant & Bar has been feeding Side since 2000 and is open every day from 10:00 to 02:00 — late enough that even a delayed tour return leaves plenty of evening. Staying outside the old town? There's free hotel pickup from selected hotels (round trip) and an affordable two-way transfer for everyone else, so the post-canyon dinner works from Kumköy, Çolaklı or Sorgun just as easily as from the centre. On busy summer nights — especially after big tour days — it's worth booking a table in advance, or send a WhatsApp to +90 533 930 12 83 and we'll sort it while you're still on the boat.

Canyon in the morning, golden hour in the ruins, dinner off the charcoal, and a song you'll deny singing by breakfast. That's the full Side day — and the second half is the part you'll remember longest.