Our Story

Two Turks.
One shared obsession.

Cansu Elter and Evren Tortum share a love for food, hospitality, and one very specific comfort food: mantı.

In a city filled with incredible food from around the world, they saw an opportunity to introduce Cape Town to one of Turkey's most loved dishes, not as a novelty, but as a deeply personal act of sharing.

Not a traditional Turkish restaurant trying to serve everything. Not another generic dumpling spot. Just mantı. Made properly, served generously, and brought into a modern Cape Town setting.

Cansu Elter & Evren Tortum
The people behind MANTI.

A Cultural Tradition

Food as
cultural identity.

Mantı is more than a dish. It is a ritual, one passed down through generations of Turkish families, made by hand, shared around the table, and remembered long after the meal is over.

In Turkey, the mark of a good mantı is in the size: tradition holds that forty dumplings should fit in a single spoon. Each tiny parcel is a testament to patience, craft, and the quiet pride of a cuisine that has never needed to announce itself.

We bring that tradition to Cape Town, not to preserve it under glass, but to share it. To let it breathe new air, find new tables, and make new memories.