Karathanasi @ Arachova

Trip to Galaxidi, the Day 2.

We had breakfast at the hotel and returned toward Galaxidi, first to see the church of the Metamorphosis on the hill (outside Galaxidi) and to the centre. Afterwards we moved to Delphi to visit the archaeological site & museum where there was quite a lot of Greek & international students on school trip.

As it was still winter, the site/museum closed at 3 o'clock. Then we proceed to Arachova for lunch. Arachova village is a very touristy place and not easy to find an attractive place to eat. We just ended up in here, as it looked less touristy: Karathanasi.

The lower floor does not say much, but the upper floor has a rustic and cosy feel.

And has a view to the main street and Parnassos mountains.

The starter was lettuce, rocket and Parmiggiano salad.

The leaves were fresh, but the portion was mediocre and there was more lettuce than rocket. Bit shabby.

Another starter, hortopita (green veggie pie) was very much home-cooking style.

It had a nice bitterness from spinach and fragrance of dill. Maybe not of restaurant quality, but OK.

Fresh fried potatoes.

Quite oily, but the type of potato was suitable for frying and tasted good.

As the main dish, we ordered Arachova style lamb leg. "Arachova style" came from the white stuff on top: small piece of formaella cheese. Otherwise it was lamb fricasse (meat stewed with green vegetables).

 

The meat was good, but we felt somehow caught in tourist trap.

We had also a bottle of coke and some grilled bread. We were offered free piece of semolina halvas (we turned it down with thanks). The bill came to 26 Euro.

All in all, Karathanasis was all right in this tourist town.

Karathanasis
Main Road, Arachova
(on the right side, when you walk toward Athens)

Bebelis Again @ Galaxeidi

After Antikyra, we arrived at Galaxidi at around 5 o'clock. We checked in at the Hotel "Porto Lourbas", located a few kilometres outside the town.

Because of the late lunch at Ta Delfinia, we did not feel hungry at all even at 10 in the evening. However, I insisted that we would regret if we do not eat at Galaxeidi and convinced Husband to go out for dinner.

After having walked around and around we eventually decided to return to the mezedopoleio Bebelis where we visited in late 2010 and had a very good impression.

When we arrived there at 11 o'clock, about a half of the tables were occupied.

Last time, we were offered the choice of 3 wines, but this time only two, either red or white. Hubby kept a quater litre of red wine, which he liked very much. Together with the bread, they offered also olives and olive paste.

And a little later, the man seemed to be one of the owners came and offered these very small olives. He said that these were home made salt pickled olives. Bitter, but at the same time kept interesting fruitiness.

As salad, we ordered a sort of Dakos (but it had a different name which I do not remember exactly).

I do not usually like Dakos, because it is dry, hard and too filling. However, this one was adequately soggy from the juice from chopped sweet tomatoes. We liked it very much.

And grilled aubergines.

Although the aubergine was grilled, it absorbed quite a lot of olive oil and tasted almost like fried aubergine. It was served with chopped tomatoes and crumbled feta cheese.

As the main dish, we ordered grilled squids. To tell the truth, I was not very sure of the choice, as these humble squids cost more than grilled king prawns (in Greece, usually prawns cost more than squids on menu).

When the dish arrived, however, we were very happy with our choice. The squids were juicy, sweet and not least a bit smelly.

At the end we were offered this "halvas sto fourno", as the last time.

At this point my stomach was about to explode (remember that I was not hungry even from the beginning), but Husband, likewise full, could not refrain from finishing it, as he liked it so much.

The final bill again was around 30 Euro and the receipt was given without a request.

We were very impressed how they cook the simple dishes in such an exquisite manner. It is not often I find such a good kitchen. To me this surely is a destination restaurant; I would go back to Galaxeidi to eat here.

Mezedopolio "O Bebelis"
Μεζεδοπωλείο Ο Μπεμπέλης
Galaxidi
Γαλαξίδι
Tel. 22650 41677

This is how it looked from outside (it was closed because it was shot in the morning).

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At this moment, I am in Japan and am not celebrating Greek Easter this year. However, I wish you Kalo Pascha and Kalh Anastash!

Ta Delfinia @ Antikyra

The weather is getting better and better. So we made the first overnight trip this year.

Our first stop was at Antikyra. It is a small seaside town south of Distomo. I guess it is busy in summer, but it was still quiet when we visited.

Antikyra town itself is developed around a small port. According to a local, there is also a beach across the port.

We had a lunch here. There are about 4 fish restaurants along the seaside walk and we walked into the one looked most busy which called Ta Delfinia (The Dolphins). This is the view from our table.

Typical psarotaverna, nothing fancy on the menu. Here is bread and white wine.

Starters were tyrokafteri (cheese and green chili dip) and horta (boiled green leaves). Both good.

We would have ordered fried calamari usually, but it was rather expensive. So we went for other staff. The 1st main dish was grilled sardines. I think it was 6 or 6.50 Euro.

The guts were not cleaned and for this reason the fish had some bitterness. Not bad, just average. I don't think the fish was particularly fresh (or particularly well preserved).

Salted cod with garlic sauce was excellent instead.

Batter was crunchy and not oily, while the fish meat was firm and flaky.

The garlic sauce had too much bread to my taste, but again it was all right.

We, or rather Greek Husband, ordered also a portion of fried potatoes.

I don't remember how much was the bill. Should have been around 30 Euros. At the end they gave us semolina halvas with almond grits on house. At this point, we were incredibly full and I did not manage to eat all.

Not a destination restaurant, but once we are in Antikyra, we eat here with pleasure.

Ta Delfinia
Poseidonos 96, Antikyra
Tel. 22670 41489

Τα Δελφίνια
Ποσειδώνος 96, Αντίκυρα

Pasta Viva @ Glyfada

One very fine Sunday, we went for a walk in Glyfada & decided to have a lunch.

Greek Husband wanted Italian, so I choose Pasta Viva about which I had read positive reviews on the web.

From the outlook, I was not inspired, but the price being pretty affordable, I thought we could give it a try anyway. GH is not as fussy as I am, so as far as he can get spaghetti, he is all right.

There wasn't many people when we arrived, but later it started to fill up. The décor is like that of fast food restaurants; nothing noteworthy.

This is a pasta place and, if you want anything else, there is very little choice. You should be reminded that this is a pasta place, and NOT an Italian restaurant.

When I asked water, the waiter asked me if I wanted tap or bottled. I think it is a good service.

The bread was nice country type bread (0.60 Euro x 2 pax). I am not sure if it was an obligatory order or not. Portion was very small, but as we were to eat a big portion of carbohydrate anyway, I don't think anyone wanted lots of bread.

We got a insalata alla caprese as starter (6.40 Euro). The green thing on the slices of mozzarella is pesto alla genovese.

Again, nothing noteworthy. Just passable (which is all right for this sort of place).

My pasta was Verdura ai ferri, which is tagliatelle mixed is grilled vegetables and some creamy sauce, with slices of parmiggiano reggiano cheese on top. This is one of the most expensive pastas on the menu costing 8.60 Euro.

I did not think that there was a harmony among the ingredients. In my opinion, it was like a dish prepared by a home cook, not a professional outcome. But I ate it all, as it was all right.

GH ordered Quattro Formaggi with Spaghetti. I did not mention that for most of the pasta dishes, you can select the type of pasta you prefer from Spaghetti, tagliatelle, farfalle, fusilli, rigatoni, penne and tortellini (brand is Barilla) and, if you like, you may ask to put it in the oven. It is a good idea.

There are some extra optional ingredients and GH wanted chicken with it.

I did not like the taste of cream used in the sauce, but GH was happy (I have to stress he is NOT FUSSY).

The portion is large and we got full at the end.

There was no room for dessert, but the small glass of strawberry sorbet on the house was a nice palate cleanser.

With a 0.5 l beer (3.90 Euro) the total bill came to 28.70 Euro, which is reasonable. I have to mention also that most of the pasta dishes are between 6 and 8 Euro, so you can spend even less money for a lunch for 2.

Considering that the quality of the food do not surpass what I can prepare at home, I do not think of coming back again on my own. But, this is not the point. If I have to choose a restaurant for a meal with friends who I don't know how much money they want to spend, I would pick up this restaurant easily. Or, if I were a young person who earns the new Greek minimum wage or something like that and wanted to have a lunch/dinner date, again this place looks ideal.

Pasta Viva
Maragkou 7
Plateia Glyfadas
Glyfada
Tel. 210 8945050

And another one in Daphni

L. Papanastasiou 2
Metro Daphnis
Tel. 210 9758533

http://www.pastaviva.gr/

Afterwards, we went to Haagen Dasz for a coffee.

In Zisimopoulou street, there are some cafeterias ABSOLUTELY packed and people are making a queue to get a table. I have no idea why.

Haagen Dasz is usually not one of them and we can get a good table easily.

And we get a complementary pieces of cake.