Where We Ate in and around Leonidio 1

I see that I have not been blogging for 2 weeks. Maybe I was too absorbed by Cyprus banking crisis, or maybe I did not find enough time. I have been doing fine.

The last 3 day weekend (including 25 March celebration on Monday), we went to Leonidio in Arcadia. I am planning to upload about the sites in Gate to Greece, but, as usual, I write about the food we ate in the blog.

We started for Leonidio in the Saturday morning (23 March). After a brief stop at the archaeological site of Argos, we stopped at Paralio Astros. Actually we first went to Astros itself, but as it did not have anything attractive, we went down to the coastal Astros.

We did not want to sit down to a real meal, so we had a club sandwich in a resto-cafeteria called Galaxias or something like that. That was a bad idea, probably.

The club sandwich was pretty average, though cheap (5 Euro).




Yoghurt that GH ordered was served with a packaged honey from Metamorphosis (suburb of Athens), mixture of Greek and Bulgarian honey.

Don't bother.

We stayed at a village called Sabatiki, but for dinner we went to Leonidio which is about 7 KM away.

It turned out that there were only 2 tavernas open in the town centre (there was also a few just outside the down - still in walking distance - toward Plaka). One was called Eugeston and the other was this Mitropolis, on Mitropoleos Street. I guess there are more choices after the Easter.

When we enter the taverna at 8 o'clock there was absolutely nobody (as in this photo), but at 9 o'clock it was so full that there was difficulty finding a table.



As it was Lenten period, they had also octopus and squids, but the normal main courses are meat, stewed and grilled.

Excellent was this pitalouda, which is a grilled pie with green leaves (horta) and cheese filling. I ate a similar pie in Lakonia, but this one was much better. Amazing.



Slightly sick GH did not have much appetite throughout the trip, so we ordered only 1 main dish. This was Rooster cooked in Tomato (kokoras kokkinistos) served with spaghetti (we could have chosen also rice or potatoes, instead of spaghetti).



I chose this dish because the waiter told us that the rooster was their own. It was indeed full of flavor.

We had also boiled green (horta), fried potatoes and a bottle of beer. The total bill was just above 20 Euro and they gave us a receipt without being requested. We left very happy.

Do not miss it out.

Mitropolis - Μητρόπολης
Leonidio, Arcadia
Λεωνίδιο, Αρκαδία
Tel 27570 29115

Next morning.

Our "Rooms" did not have breakfast, but had a kitchenette. So we bought a box of biscuits for breakfast a day before from a local supermarket just outside Leonidio. These were from Laconia and I saw them sold also in Athens. The same producer makes also pasta.



GH does not eat much breakfast, but as a good Greek, he eats 2nd breakfast at around 11 o'clock. We stoped at Eugeuston in Leonidio. Eugeston (Eugefston?) is the other taverna open then in Leonidio and, different from Mitropolis, it is open from the morning as a kafenio. GH bought a tyropita with mizithra cheese.



The owner was very friendly and told us some things about Leonidio.

Then we took a road for the mountains.

To be continued...