Taverna Dionysos @ Finikounda

We have been to Messinia, Peloponnese for 5 days.

We were ones of those lucky "30%" of Greeks who could go for a summer vacation trip and more lucky "7%" of the Greeks who could afford to pay for accommodation.

Of course these statistics are bullshit. It does not explain at all how our neighbourhood in Piraeus is so empty and almost all the people around us go to (or have been to) somewhere for vacation, either because they have money to pay or they have a country house(s) to go.

Anyway, about the historical sites, beaches and cultural monument, I am going to write in the Gate to Greece website. Here I write only some random info.

During our trip we stopped at Finikounda (In Greek, it is spelled Φοινικούντα, and nt is pronounced "d") in the evening for dinner, because we had received a tip that Finikounda has pretty busy night life.

And it was true.

Finikounda itself is a small village. I imagine at least some of the people in Finikounda in the evening should have come from the hotels in the neighbouring areas like Koroni and Methoni, like ourselves.

We did not know how Finikounda was like and drove into the central Finikounda (we did not intend to, but it wasn't prohibited either). Having got scared after running amongst the pedestrians, we parked at a paid parking (2 Euro for as many hours you like), but we could have parked just outside the centre, for wherever you park, the centre is probably not very far.

As so many of the small village centres, there is only one main street in Finikounda which runs along the coast like. In the central part of the main street there are souvlaki places and cafeterias and tavernas are toward the both ends of the street.

The most famous one is Eleni's in the photo below. This restaurant should command a nice view in the afternoon and there were really many people. The menu looked interesting..

But we were put off by the live Greek music being played. We were not in the mood to listen to Monastiraki-like Greek folk music so we settled in a nearby taverna-psistaria called Dionysos which had some tables along the seafront.

Dionysos has grilled meat dishes, stewed food (magirefta) as well as small selection of seafood/fish.

As starters, we ordered tzatziki and horta (Vlita) which were both very nice.

I got rolled chicken staffed with vegetables and cheese.

It was somewhat salty, but the chicken tasted pretty good.

Greek Husband got an mussakas in earthenware.

He liked it very much, while I thought that it was overcooked. (You might ask what I mean by "overcooked", to which I answer that, as the Greeks use veal/ young beef - real beef is very rare here - to make meat sauce, it does not stand to be stewed many hours).

The portion size of moussakas was enormous and it would have fed both of us.

At the end they offered us 4 small pieces of watermelon.

Together with a half kilo of white wine (we liked it) and a bottle of fizzy water, the total bill came to 27.30 Euro.

The bill breakdown is as follows:

White wine (500 ml. ca.) 3 Euro
Fizzy Water 2.50 Euro
Tzatziki 3 Euro
Horta 3.80 Euro
Chicken 6.50 Euro
Moussakas 7.50 Euro
Bread 1 Euro

We would be happy to return, when we happen to be in Finikounda. Besides some of the people around us were evidently returning patrons, which means that this place probably is not a bad choice in Finikounda.

After the dinner I stopped at a ice cream palour.

I don't have the name because he did not give me the receipt.

I found it too sweet, but evidently I have strange taste as far as ice cream concerns. One scoop cost 1.50 Euro.

And here are some pages about Messinia in Gate to Greece.