Safranhan

Sitting just beneath Ankara Castle and with an incredible panorama of Ankara, this Turkish-style brasserie couples excellent food with first-rate service. An open kitchen gives way to an elegantly furnished dining room with floor-to-ceiling windows, and the views continue on the restaurant’s large outdoor patio, where guests sit before white tablecloths and underneath oversized umbrellas. The menu offers a blend of Turkish and contemporary cuisine, with local specialty Ankara tava, slowly cooked lamb over a bed of bed of seasoned rice, alongside starters like shrimp casserole with porcini mushrooms.

Çengelhan and Safranhan had different functions in the classical and late periods of the Ottoman Empire and the early Turkish Republic Era. These historic buildings have been restored and turned into museums to house the preservation of cultural heritage today. The museum is a private non-profit museum dedicated to the collection, research, conservation, and exhibit of industrial and engineering-related objects and documents from all periods and countries from past to present, and to the transfer of industrial heritage from generations to generations.

Safranhan is the smaller of two historic Ottoman caravanserais at the Rahmi M Koç Museum in Ankara. It was built in 1511 by Hacı Ibrahim bin Hacı Mehmed of Kayseri. It’s a 2-story building with an open courtyard in the center with a total of 42 barrel-vaulted rooms.