A restaurant's story isn't written only in the kitchen. It continues today when a guest scans the QR code at the table, or when someone flips through the pages at maregastro.com/dijitalmenu. As Mare Gastro, we wanted to share how we experienced this transformation, and who built it with us.
How We Realized We Needed a Digital Transformation
As Mare Gastro, our menu was never static; we have a kitchen philosophy shaped by the season and the freshest product of the day. That meant a serious problem for a printed menu: when the fish of the day changed, or a dish went out of season, we'd either have to reprint it or have our waiters explain it verbally at the table — neither elegant nor practical.
At the same time, our guest profile was changing. Being right on the shore of Lake Sapanca means we host guests not just from Istanbul but from abroad too; the number of guests asking in Russian, Arabic and English grows every season. Offering them a single-language paper menu didn't match the careful atmosphere we'd built in the Didi Otel garden. The reservation process carried the same problem: phone traffic, messages scattered across WhatsApp, handwritten notes to track who was coming to which table at what time.
In short, we realized we needed to carry the same care we put into the kitchen into the guest's experience before they even sat down, into the reservation process, and into the restaurant's behind-the-scenes management. UniqBee showed us how to do it.
How Our Paths Crossed with UniqBee
Meeting UniqBee actually grew out of a very simple need: we were looking for a team that would move our menu to digital, but who truly understood our business. In our first meeting, instead of offering us a ready-made template, they asked a different question: "What makes Mare Gastro, Mare Gastro?"
That question mattered to us, because the concept built in the Didi Otel garden isn't just a menu — it's an atmosphere designed by Kadir Çiçek right by the lake, and a kitchen philosophy signed by Doğan Anapa. The UniqBee team listened to these details not like a technical brief, but like a story they genuinely wanted to understand.
After a few meetings, we had a clear roadmap: first, a live menu the guest would see at the table, then a digital experience where you could flip through the menu like a real magazine. The UniqBee agency built these two pieces as one connected system.
A Live Menu Synced via QR Code: The First Step
The first step was the menu behind the QR code on the table. When a guest scans the QR code with their phone, the menu that appears is an exact match of what's currently valid in the kitchen; when our chef changes the fish of the day, or a dish goes out of season, that change is instantly reflected at the table.
For us, this wasn't just a convenience — it was a matter of trust: the guest knows the dish they see on the menu is truly ready in the kitchen right now, and we no longer have to say "sorry, that dish is out." Our website's menu page lets everyone see the same, current menu.
On the design side, UniqBee stayed true to Mare Gastro's identity: the same typography, the same calm and elegant tone, the same sense of stillness right by the lake, preserved on the digital screen. We believed a restaurant menu should feel like a warm invitation, not a cold app; UniqBee captured this exactly.
maregastro.com/dijitalmenu: Turning the Menu into a Magazine
One of our favorite parts is the digital magazine menu experience at maregastro.com/dijitalmenu. Here, the menu isn't a familiar list — it turns page by page like a real magazine, with a small animation moving you to the next dish each time you turn a page.
This idea actually matched our fine dining approach exactly: a dinner isn't something to rush through, it's a story discovered page by page. While bringing this feeling to digital, UniqBee didn't overlook the technical side either — the full menu, covering over 170 items, flows without a hitch even on a slow phone.
Our guests using this experience while waiting at the table, or exploring it at home before their reservation, builds anticipation even before visiting Mare Gastro — which was exactly the effect we wanted.
English, Russian, Arabic: A Multilingual Sapanca Experience
Being on the shore of Lake Sapanca means we host foreign guests as well as local ones. So with UniqBee's support, we brought our site to life in English, Russian and Arabic alongside Turkish.
This wasn't just about translating the menu; from the reservation form to the contact information, the entire site was built so guests could navigate comfortably in their own language. Even technical details like right-to-left reading direction for Arabic weren't overlooked.
You can see this experience for yourself by browsing our site's versions in different languages.
Why We're So Happy Working with UniqBee
Honestly, running a restaurant is demanding enough on its own; if we'd tried to manage the digital side ourselves too, our menu probably wouldn't have stayed current, or we'd have compromised the guest experience. UniqBee didn't just build us a website — they took this burden off our shoulders.
What impressed us most was that they acted not like a technical vendor, but like a partner who genuinely cared about our business. When we requested a change, they'd first ask why, and sometimes suggest a solution we hadn't even thought of. Working with the UniqBee's team, we never once heard the sentence "that's not our job."
Conclusion: What We Learned from the Digital Transformation
Where we stand today, every piece — from the QR menu a guest sees at the table, to the page-turning experience at maregastro.com/dijitalmenu — is connected and current. We don't think we could have built this coherence on our own.
Our advice to other restaurants or hotel businesses considering a similar transformation is simple: work with a team that genuinely tries to understand your business. For us, that team was UniqBee; thanks to the system they built, we can now spend more time focused on the evening we offer our guests, rather than on the digital side.
If you'd like to see this experience for yourself, you can reserve your table from our reservation page and discover both the flavor and the details that are part of this digital story, right by the lake.
