How do you ask for less heat?
Short answer
When ordering, saying “acısız olsun” (without heat) or “az acılı” (mildly hot) is enough; most kebabs and wraps are made to the heat you ask for. Where heat is added at the end, isot and pepper flakes sit on the table so you set it yourself.
In Turkish cooking heat goes inside the dish along the southeastern line; Adana kebab is made hot and Urfa kebab mild, and the two sit side by side on the same grill. So asking for “no heat” is not taken as strange — the double order already exists.
In çiğ köfte, lahmacun and ezme the heat is in the ingredient itself; there, “mildly hot” has to be said before the order. In soups and stewpot dishes, by contrast, heat is added at the table.
To put heat out, yoghurt works and water does not: ayran, cacık or a spoonful of yoghurt disperses the oil that carries the capsaicin. Water only spreads it around the mouth.
Related records
These are also easy to miss
Updated: 2026-10-06 · The guide offers technical and cultural information, not health advice.