Laura Bodrum

Laura works the Yahşi seafront on Sümbül Sokak as a chef-led dual-format room, beach club ten in the morning through six in the evening, then fine-dining restaurant seven-thirty to midnight. Chef Melisa Yördem trained under the French chef Paul Moisson before opening Laura; the kitchen reads Turkish-modern rather than Aegean-classical, drawing on the regional cooking of Turkey across Black Sea, eastern, Anatolian and Aegean registers, with local producer sourcing through the Ortakent slow-food network the better Bodrum kitchens work from. The midyeli pilav and the chili passion cocktail are the room's signatures across the day-evening hand-off. The room reads as the Yahşi answer to Lucca Beach's Cennet Koyu format, chef-led seafront daytime room with a serious evening restaurant, at a fraction of the destination-beach-club price ceiling and a fifth of the booking pressure.