A farm-to-table restaurant in Kilyos

Printing a fixed menu would be far easier to run. But in a kitchen fed by its own garden, a fixed menu means buying the produce in — that is, abandoning the idea itself.

So we work by the week. Whatever came out of the garden on Tuesday is what that week's plates are built around. In weeks heavy with tomatoes the salads come forward; by autumn it is root vegetables and the oven.

There is a consequence for the guest: you may not find the same plate twice. In exchange, what you do find travelled a few hundred metres to reach you.

Casa Kilyos sits in Kumköy, close to the Kilyos shore. From the European side of Istanbul it is around 45 minutes via Sarıyer — far enough that leaving the city actually registers, close enough to work as a day out.

The practical side matters too: there is free parking on site and the garden is closed to traffic. For families with children, those two details are what most separate it from a restaurant in town.

The garden sits in the shade of the trees and is closed to traffic. It's the part most people ask for through summer — parasols up, tables spread across the grass. In spring and autumn it comes back into its own once the morning chill lifts.

The indoor room takes over in winter and on windy days. On the Black Sea coast the wind decides more than the temperature does, which is why telling us which you'd prefer when booking genuinely helps.

For larger groups the two can be used together. A long-table set-up just needs a few days' notice.

Because the menu changes weekly we don't keep a fixed price list here; the phone gives you the accurate answer. When you book we'll talk you through that week's plates and what's in the breakfast spread.

We don't put a limit on how long you keep the table. At breakfast most guests stay around two hours; over lunch it tends to run longer still.

For groups above eight, agreeing the menu in advance makes life easier for the kitchen and for you. We'll put a few options forward and decide together.

The restaurant doesn't work in isolation. It opens with breakfast, takes in players coming off the padel and pickleball courts through the day, and by evening it is the table for anyone staying in the bungalows.

Several of those can be combined in a day. Book a table alongside a court, or plan the garden separately for a private event.

A good share of the businesses along Kilyos plan around the summer season, and the area quietens noticeably after October. For us that isn't a reason to close — the farm works all year and the kitchen keeps receiving from it through the winter.

In the colder months the table moves indoors. Pickles, preserves and dried herbs take the centre of the menu; everything the summer produced in abundance shows up again in its kept form.

So a guest arriving in December doesn't meet the same table as one arriving in July. That isn't a shortfall — it's what the idea produces.