Karavidas @ Porto Rafti

One Sunday in March, we went to Porto Rafti, because it was very fine and we would have felt wasted, if we had not gone anywhere.

It was the first time for us to be in Porto Rafti, so we went to explore different parts without knowing what exactly to expect. We saw some nice seaside walks, but did not find anything exciting.

We just walked around and then settled for a lunch. As the day was fine, many of the restaurants were really full. And just outside Porto Rafti we found this seafood taverna which had some empty tables. I checked reviews on web and we decided to go in.

In comparison to seafood tavernas in Piraiki where we live, the price seemed to be high. So we settled on one of these economical mfixed menus, which probably was a bad decision. The prices below are for 2 people, so they are good deals. We ordered Menu No. 4.

The restaurant is by the sea, but behind a road. It does have a view to the sea. Many tables were occupied by large-ish groups and most seemed to be families and relatives. From the way they and the staff behaved, I guessed that they were regulars.

Then food. The seasonal salad turned out to be boiled green. I do not complain, because I love horta.

Fried aubergines. The skin was quite tough and not pleasant.

Kavrosalata (crab salad) was a mixture of low quality surimi (of course I did not expect any crab meat, but they could have used better quality surimi), cucumber and mayonnaise. If they they serve this for economical menus, I should not be complaining, but I suspect they sell the same thing for full price.

Then there was long waiting time and finally GH stopped a waiter and asked what happened to our main dishes. The waiter went to kitchen to check and it turned out that they forgot about it. In consequence, we waited about 45 minutes for these garidomakaronada (prawn spaghetti). We were not seated in a hidden corner and the waiters were kept on passing next to us; it is unacceptable that they did not notice until told.

The spaghetti was in a big portion (one dish each), but was over-boiled and the prawns were tasteless. I did not care even to finish the dish.

The bill came to 31.50 Euro in the end because of bread, water and bottle of beer. Rather disappointing meat to say the least.

Karavidas - Καραβίδας
The receipt says it is on Agia Marina Street, but the actual location is on Avrakiou Road just leaving Port Rafti behind.
Tel. (+30) 2299073809

And a hilarious shot of a swan attacking children on the beach near the restaurant.

13 Euro Menu @ Giannakos, Agioi Apostoloi

[This I wrote about a month ago and am publishing it only now; sorry].

Two weekends ago, when it was still hot, we went to Agioi Apostoloi (Kalamos) for swim. The fact was that only GH swam, but it is not an issue here.

It was the 3rd or 4th time to be in Agioi Apostoloi. And on arrival, we went to Dolce Gelato for a waffle and ice cream. I like ice cream in this shop and 1 scoop costs only 1.30 Euro. Not to miss, when we are there.

Then GH went for a swim.

While he was swimming, I looked for a nice place to eat using Foursquare. In Athens, there are several softwares that I can use to look for restaurants, but out of Athens, I found Foursquare most useful.

The best looked to be Giannakos, so, when GH finished swimming, that was where I took him.

And I saw this.

13 Euro per person for a set menu of either meat or fish/seafood. The one for 18 Euro is with garidomakaronada (spaghetti with king prawns).

This is the view from the restaurant: sea and Evvia island. It is situated conveniently in front of large parking.

And this is the view of the terrace. It is also very pleasant.

The prices were rather expensive. Fried potatoes in olive oil were 8 Euro which we found over-the-top (there were normal fried potatoes for normal price, too).

As we were not sure what to expect, we decided to order the set menu of meat.

Bread was served with olive paste enhanced with rosemary.

Starters were tomato & cucumber salad, tyrokafteri (there was a few choices here), and fried potatoes.

They were all pretty fine.

For the main dishes, we ordered a pork chop and ...

biftekia (burgers of veal mince), all served with more fried potatoes.

The pork chop was very think and there were only 2 biftekia, but both tasted fine. I suppose if I had ordered these from the normal menu, the portion had not been so small. At least I hope.

Even though the portion of meat was small, after having eaten bread, salad, and fried potato, not that we had much space in the stomach and it was all right.

The menu should have included a dessert, but the waiter tried to ignore it, so I had to remind him. He admitted that it was and gave us yoghurt with spoon sweets.

This was nice, too.

The menu included also a drink (either half kilo of wine or a bottle of beer). The total bill was 26 Euro, of course.

It was good value of money, but you should fight a bit to get it all. But now that we saw the quality was good, we'd rather go back to order from normal menu.

Giannakos
Seaside road, in front of the public parking
Agioi Apostoloi (Kalamos)
Tel. 22950 81249

Γιαννακός
Παραλιακή οδός, έναντι πάρκιγκ Αγ. Αποστόλων, Κάλαμος
Τηλ. 22950 81249

Himona-Kalokeri @ Nea Makri

Last Sunday was an Election Sunday. After the Greek Husband finished his citizen's duty (which I do not have), we went to the beach of Schinias. It is currently GH's favourite in Attiki.

I am not a lover of sea and went there just to keep him a company. It wasn't not as hot as in central Athens/Piraeus and it was pleasant to be under the beach parasol.

After the beach, we went to a restaurant called Himona-Kalokeri (Χειμώνα-Καλοκαίρι, meaning Winter-Summer) on the edge of Nea Makri on our way home.

It has a large and beautiful garden and, of course, everyone was seated al fresco.

It is a relatively expensive restaurant, maybe 20% more expensive than at average tavernes.

The bread, dips, a bottle of mineral water are compulsory order, if you don't refuse explicitly.

Brown bread was nicely fluffy.

To accompany the bread, we were given mixture of high-quality olive oil and very dense balsamic vinegar (very nice) and sour yogurt dip (I wasn't keen).

As starter, we ordered vegetarian dolmadakia, that were OK.

And feta, peppers, and tomato slices in oven. Nice (but difficult to go wrong, as far as they use right ingredients, isn't it?).

And a salad. I think it was called "Himona-Kalokeri" salad. Except for lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, there are also sliced raw mushrooms and avocado.

I am not sure if you can tell you from the photo, but the quantity is huge. Even so, to justify 9.50 Euro price-tag, I believe they should do something with dressing, while it came totally undressed (although there were salt, pepper, and olive oil on the table).

We ordered only one main dish. Pork fillet in thyme, mavrodafni and honey sauce. The waitress warned us that the dish was sweet, but we dared.

And it turned out to be very sweet. There is nothing wrong with the sweetness in the sauce, but I believe that they overdid the honey. Besides, the alcohol in the sauce wasn't quite evaporated yet. We did not regret our attempt, but I don't need to try it again.

We were quite full at this point, but we ordered one dessert, as I had read that it serves superb desserts.

But, before the dessert, we were given two glasses of sweet moscato wine.

The majority of the sweets were with chocolate, but we do not like the chocolate much. That left us with this pavlova.

It was good for a Western-style dessert in Greek restaurant (the standard is not very high, if you do not go to really good restaurant).

The total bill came to 52 Euro, which we thought was fair, because of the nice environment and beautifully presented dishes and table set.

I don't think I would go again, because I did not like at all the service there (it was Greek street taverna standard). But if you happen to be near and want something different from the ordinary, why not? You might like it more than I do.

Xeimona - Kalokairi
Leoforos Poseidonos 93, Nea Makri-Zouberi, 19005, Attiki
Tel. 22940-99704

NB: Be careful with the Navi, because there is Leoforos Posidonos also in Marathon and in Rafina. My Google map application wanted take me to Rafina.

Mourouzis Grill @ Kalyvia

In Athens we are in the middle of 48 hour strike of the public transport.



Tomorrow there won't be even taxi.

There is no one collect garbage, because, alledgedly, the dumping site is under occupation. At some points, the roads are completely closed by the garbage and there is no space to walk.

Archaeological sites and museums are closed for 2 days, because the guards are on strike. Next week the tax officers are on strike, when the state is desperately in need of tax collection.

Bloody situation to live in really.





***********

Here is what we did on a Sunday about a month ago.

On our way back from the sea we stopped at Kalyvia, famous meat grilling place in Attiki. Vari is better know to the foreigners, but it is now in serious decline. It does not make much sense to go there, except for a week before the Lent. Kalyvia, instead, seems to be buzzling.

We stopped at a restaurant called Mourouzis. It occupies 3 or 4 buildings and there should be more than 1,000 seats.



The street was full of meat grilling smell.



It is not a place to look for sophisticated dishes, so we ordered some classic: fried potatoes, salad (greek salad without feta), tzatziki, and grilled bread (which was an obligatory order). As you see, the portion was enormous. Tzatziki would have been 4 portions in a touristy taverna in Plaka.



And meat!



We usually share 1 portion between us, but on that day Hubby insisted he was very hungry and wanted 2 dishes.

This is grilled veal T bone.



I never order veal steak, as it does not have meaty tastiness like matured beef. Hubby sometimes orders it and always gets disappointed. He never learns.

The meat was soft and nice, but still it was... veal.



We both liked better pork belly slices ("pancetta" in Greek).

We could not finish it and took half the meat away. Looking around us, most of the people do the same. Order huge amount of meat and take away what remains.

After the meal, we were offered some fruits.



Many people were eating yogurt (in an enormous portion again) served with bright colour spoon sweets.

The bill was a bit above 40 Euro. Not cheap, but the food was enough at least for 3 people, so if you come in a big group, the cost performance should be very good.

That is what we would like to do next time.
http://mourouzis.gr/

O Loulas @ Marathonas

When we went to Marathon, we thought we should eat pork chops, as someone told us that Marathon was famous for brizoles (pork chops).

I am not sure if it is true, but we found one grill restaurant and stopped there.



It is inside the town of Marathon. Decor was basic & rustic. There was a big fire place.



The menu was, as in many rural grill restaurants, not long and it did not take us much time to decide what to order.

Grilled bread with olive oil and oregano was obligatory order.



Tzatziki & cabbage and carrot salad. Judging from the texture of cucumber, tzatziki was not fresh.



This is a dish called "Tsoukalaki", aubergine, tomato & cheese in oven. OK, although 6 Euro for this seemed a bit excessive.



Fried potatoes were frozen variety.



And we shared 1 pork chop which was nice (in the photo it looks small, but it is actually of normal size; the lemon was huge).



At the end of the meal, they offered us yogurt with syruppy fruit (It was something unusual but I don't remember its name). This yogurt was excellent; dense and almost cheesy.



We had also house red wine which we liked much.

The food was good, if not exceptionally good and the price is fine for what they offer. We might come back if chanced to be in Marathon.


O Loulas
Dimokratias 1, Marathonas
22940 66108

Bread 0.50 x 2
Tzatziki 3
Cabbage Salad 3.50
Tsoukalaki (auberine) 6
Potatoes 2.50
Pork Chop 8
1/4 wine 1.50
Big Bottle of Water 1.50