What We Ate in Gytheio and Around 3

Here is the part 3 of "What We Ate in Gytheio and Around", following the part 1 and the part 2.

To complete the picture, we could not omit visiting Saga, which is probably the most famous fish restaurant in Gytheio.

The menu is fairly simple. Evidently fish soup is their specialty, but we did not tried it.

To start, we ordered melitzanosalata and tomato & cucmber salad (also known as horiatiki horis feta). The bread came grilled, accompanied by small olives. All fine, but nothing spectacular.

For the main course, we had grilled squid with boiled vegetable as side (12 Euro), and shrimp spaghetti (garidomakaronada, 15 Euro). Both quite tasty, but portion size was small. Spaghetti came freshly boiled (surely al dente) and tomato sauce had a clean taste; I felt as if I were in Italy.

That said, there was really no comparison with the splendid garidomakaronada that I ate at Takis taverna in Limeni near Areopoli 1.5 year ago.

At the end of the meal, our waiter offered either fruits or dessert (semolina halvas). Saga was the only one taverna that offered us free dessert in Gytheio this summer.

We had also half a kilo of white wine and the total cost came to 40 Euro. The most expensive meal of this trip, but I won't complain as the food was satisfactory and the service was impeccable. The professionality of the waiters were exemplar.

I am not sure if I want to go back there, because it is not one of the best seafood restaurants I can think of. However, the kitchen seems to be reliable as well as the service. So if you are looking for a meal that won't disappoint you, I would say this is the place to be.

Saga
Tzanni Tzannetaki
Tel. 27330 21358
http://sagapension.gr/

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We tried also 2 places outside Gytheio. One of them was called Kali Kardia, which is situated along the road from Gytheio for Areopoli. It looks like a small roadside taverna, but actually is a "exohiko kentro" (large restaurant that local people uses for special occasions, for example, to hold a marriage party). It is featured in Tripadvisor, so you might be interested to visit.

The menu is mostly meat, grilled as well as stewed.

We started with tyrokafteri (cheese and chili dip) and boiled green.

GH ordered veal in tomato sauce (moshari kokkinisto) served with fried potatoes and I ordered grilled sausages served with fries and mayonnaise. Look at the quantity.

All the dishes were tasty and portion was very generous. At the same time, I have to mention that the quality of the sausage was inferior to the one that we ate at 90 mires in Gytheio; they contained some hard bits and lard. The veal, on the other hand, was quite lean and there was really nothing to be left.

One thing of note is that this place features beers from Greek micro-breweries. We had a bottle of Royal Ionian Pilsner, which was pleasant.

The bill came to reasonable 26 Euro I would not travel to eat here on purpose, but if I am in the area, I would definitely come back.

Kali Kardia - Η Καλή Καρδιά
Hosiario (Gytheio)
Χωσιάριο (Γύθειο)
Tel. 27330 93250
Facebook

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The best restaurant award of this trip goes to En Plo in Kotronas. I did not like particularly the beach of Kotronas, but would go back only to eat at this place.

From outside, it looks like a humble beach bar/taverna. It also offers sun beds and parasols at the beach. The menu includes club sandwiches and frappe. There is no element that makes you suspect this is a gourmet restaurant.

The first to come were bread, olive oil and small olives. You see that the napkin of under the bread is cloth, instead of paper?

This is salad with Graviera from Crete and Sigrino from Mani. Incredible flavor. The quality of sigrino was top notch. The price tag of 8.50 Euro was justified.

We got also "Orphaned" Moussaka (right below in the photo). Our waiter explained to us it was moussaka without meat and white sauce. We did not understand what it could be, but then it turned out to be more or less solid Briam. And fried potatoes. Again the flavor was very strong. I think it was down to the quality of the ingredients.

I did not like the beach of Kotronas so much, but I would travel there only to eat at this restaurant. Maybe I'd just stay at Kotronas to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner here.


Gefsis En Plo - ΓΕΥΣΕΙΣ ΕΝ ΠΛΩ
Kotronas Beach, 230 62 Kotronas
Κότρωνας 23062, ΛΑΚΩΝΙΑΣ
Tel. 27330 22900

The same owner has a hotel called Kotronas Bay, which is, however, not exactly at the same place.
http://www.kotronasbay.gr/

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And two additional photos.

Gytheio has a healthy amount of tourism, but not so much that every cafeteria offers breakfast combinations. We stayed at a hotel called "Pantheon" paying 49 Euro per night for a twin bedroom (the price was fine, as it was very close to the highest peek season). It had B&B option, but we did not take it. One morning we went out for breakfast. GH was not in a mood to walk around to search, so we ended up in an ouzeri/kafenio. They had tyropite (cheese pie) for breakfast.

One evening we went to a village called Petrona, about 10 KM from Gytheio, as it was holding a festival. Visitors could buy souvlakia, salad, cheese and fried bread. We gave up to buy fried bread (Maniot specialty) because of loooong queue, but got souvlakia. In taste wise, there is nothing noteworthy, but I was impressed how quickly and faultlessly the local boys serving the ordered items to the visitors.