Casa Lavanda Boutique Hotel & Restaurant

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

A Family Dream, Three Decades in the Making

The story of Casa Lavanda begins in 1991, when Ahmet and Feryal Şen purchased a plot of land in Ulupelit village, Şile — about 45 minutes from Istanbul — with a view to building something entirely different from city life. "We wanted a life where we are engaged with the land, grow our own fruits and vegetables, where our children can spend time freely in nature," Feryal recalls. Construction started in 1993: a limestone house with wooden roofs and shutters, every piece of furniture designed by Feryal herself, trees planted with the children. What began as a private home of four rooms has grown into a 16-room boutique hotel and award-winning restaurant set across 21 acres of rare-species gardens and forest.

Feryal's background — undergraduate and graduate studies in painting at the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts, followed by 26 years in industrial ceramic design — shapes every detail of the space, from custom lighting to bespoke furniture. Her husband Ahmet brought decades of experience in tourism and textiles to bring the vision to life at scale.

Chef Emre Şen and the Kitchen's Roots

The restaurant's direction belongs to their son, Emre Şen, whose path to the kitchen was anything but direct. After graduating from an Italian high school and beginning an architecture degree at Politecnico di Milano, Emre followed a different instinct and returned to Istanbul to train at the Culinary Arts Academy. He then spent a year working under Michelin-starred Chef Maurilio Garola at La Ciau de Tornavento in Alba, Piemonte — a region synonymous with truffles and the slow food movement, and a formative influence on the Italian sensibility that runs through Casa Lavanda's menus. He also trained alongside Chef Mehmet Gürs at Mikla.

That Italian grounding is felt in how the kitchen operates. Over 80% of the produce used comes from Casa Lavanda's own 2,000-square-metre biodynamic farm, which generates its own compost largely from kitchen waste and uses no chemical pesticides. What the farm doesn't supply is sourced with equal care: wild mushrooms from Ulupelit, seafood selected by Mr. Yavuz from Derya Balık, award-winning olive oils from Edremit, corn flour milled in a traditional water mill in Kalealtı, artisan cheeses matured in the restaurant's own kitchens, and duck and quail eggs from Şile Operacı Farm. The Italian fine dining philosophy here is genuinely farm-to-table — not as a marketing phrase, but as the daily operating logic of the kitchen.

The restaurant's wine list earned a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence in 2018, a recognition that reflects the seriousness with which the cellar is curated alongside Chef Emre's seasonal menus.

The Setting and the Bar

Dining at Casa Lavanda extends beyond the restaurant itself. At Lavanta Lounge Bar, signature cocktails are made with fresh, seasonal produce from the farm — the same "farm to table" principle carried into the drinks menu. The bar overlooks the garden with a fireplace at its centre, and the forest beyond, making it a natural place to settle before or after dinner.

The culinary garden supplies the kitchen with thyme, lemon thyme, melissa, bee balm, rosemary, sage, tarragon, sweet basil, chive and more — herbs that appear on plates as both garnish and flavour, changing with each season.

Brother Ekin Şen joined the operation full-time in 2020 after studying Business Administration at Koç University and working at Ernst & Young, taking on management, finance and operations. The family now leads a team of 70. "We share what we have, our happiness with our guests, family and friends," says Ahmet. "Our work is a source of great pleasure for us."