Kuşadası's restaurant scene runs from harbour-side tourist set menus to authentic Aegean meyhanes a few streets back from the seafront. The places clustered on the marina with multilingual menus and people standing outside trying to coax you in are mostly fine, never great, and overpriced. Walk into the Kaleiçi or up the hill behind the harbour for better food at lower prices.
Kazım Usta on the marina is a long-established fish restaurant — pricey but generally good for grilled sea bass, sea bream, and mezze, and you can watch the fishing boats come in. Ferah, also on the seafront, is the classic seafood option with the same kind of menu and similar prices.
For meyhane-style mezze and rakı, head to one of the side streets in Kaleiçi: Avlu and Mezgit are both reliable. For a quick lunch, the lokantas along Kahramanlar Caddesi (the long pedestrianised shopping street) serve sulu yemek — ready meals on a steam table, eaten by locals during their break. Cheap, fast, and authentically Turkish home cooking.
For dessert, find a baklava shop with a wood-burning oven; almost all of them are good. Kuşadası produces excellent figs in late summer.