A short walk south of Cumhuriyet Caddesi, in the centre of modern Van, sits the street known to locals as Kahvaltıcılar Sokağı — Breakfast Street. A block of perhaps a dozen kahvaltı salonları, all open from 6am to early afternoon, do nothing but breakfast.
The format is standardised. You sit down, the table fills up with twenty to thirty small dishes: herbed otlu peynir, kaymak (thick clotted cream), local honey on the comb, kavurma (spiced lamb), olives, eggs cooked many ways, fresh tomato and cucumber, several breads, butter, jam, and, of course, glass after glass of black tea. The price per person is fixed and modest. Sütçü Kenan is the most famous of the salonları, but they are all good.