Mardin has excellent food and a growing restaurant scene that has begun to attract attention from Istanbul food writers. The local cuisine draws on Arab, Kurdish, and Armenian traditions and is quite different from standard Turkish cooking.
The restaurants along Cumhuriyet Caddesi in the old city mostly combine local dishes with rooftop terraces and the extraordinary view across the plain — choose a table with a view and you can eat very well. Local specialities to look for: içli köfte (bulgur shells stuffed with spiced meat, called oruk in the local dialect), kibe (a fried variant), menengiç kahvesi (a coffee-like drink made from wild pistachios), and the local kadayıf sweets. The bazaar in the lower old city has several street food vendors doing good versions of these dishes at lower prices than the terrace restaurants.
For a sit-down meal with the best combination of food and setting, several of the restored stone mansions along the main street now operate as restaurants with interior dining in winter and terrace dining in summer.