Eating in Mani in February (Areopoli and Limeni)

The third day in Mani started with the breakfast at Areos Polis Hotel. It is a buffet and we served ourselves whatever and as much as we wanted. The most welcome was the coffee; both GH and I want a mug of coffee in the morning, but hotels usually do not server that much. Here we could pour as much as we wanted.

In the buffet, there was a bit of everything. Bread, fruits, scrambled eggs, fried bread, cakes, butter, home-made jam, honey, ham, cheese, cereals. The only thing which usually is but was lacking here was Greek yogurt (but neither GH nor I eat yogurt in the morning and we did not care).

I served myself with a fried bread, honey, a bit of egg, a piece of cheese and a piece of syrupy fruit cake. Excellent breakfast.


In the morning we drove to Itylo to see a monastery and then stopped at Limeni for lunch. Before arriving Limeni, we stopped at Neo Itylo which is situated by the sea. There we found open two tavernas (Ο Μάυρος Πειρατής- Black Pirate and Καραβοπέτρα - Karavopetra). We expected to find more in Limeni, but to our disappointment only one fish tavern, Takis (Ο Τάκης), was open. This is a problem of travelling Greece in the winter; whenever you go (except for the autumn & winter destinations like ski resorts or mountains, of course), we find many shops and restaurants closed.

Takis seems to be a quite famous fish restaurant in the region and is reputed to be expensive. So we ordered cautiously.

Taramosalata and broccoli.

Taramosalata was excellent and went so well with fresh bread. This was the only good bread we ate during our visit in Mani. In other places the bread was always stale and even grilling did not totally restore the goodness. I am not sure if it was because of the season (= few visitors) or the people there do not care much about freshly baked bread.

The broccoli was fine and I would like to mention that the stems were cleaned (i.e. the outer skin was peeled).

And fried fresh calamari ("fresh", meaning not-frozen). We ordered 300g., but I think it was less, because the charge was less (it should have been about 10 Euro for 300g., but actually was 8 Euro). I guess they just brought us one portion.

When GH saw this portion (small, according to him), he got restless and ordered also fried potatoes.

I have no idea why he think he must feel stuffed at restaurants. If we do not get stuffed, we can go for an ice cream or a cake afterwards. Or, we can eat dinner (you will know what I mean).

GH's worry turned out to be unnecessary, because one portion of garidomakaronada (spaghetti with prawns) was huge.

It was one of the best garidomakaronades that I have ever eaten. The spaghetti was freshly boiled al dente (it took quite a while for the dish to arrive and we understood why when we ate it). Prawns were large and fresh. It cost 17 Euro and absolutely worth it.

At the end, we were offered spoon-sweets of sour cherries.

The total bill came to 42 Euro, which I think was fair for what we ate. The environment was also nice. The service staff was not quite attentive (for example, when I asked salt for broccoli they brought us two peppers and afterward it was very difficult to attract their attention), but not tragically so. In summer, with more diners, it might get worse.

Takis - Ο Τάκης
Limeni, Lakonia
Λιμένι Λακωνίας
Tel. 27330 51327

GH was absolutely stuffed and he was almost feeling ill until the next morning (NOT poisoned by the food, he just ate too much). We had to skip dinner ... again.

But not wanting to stay at the hotel all the evening, we went out for a drink. In Areopoli there are 4 or 5 bars and they get quite busy in weekend evenings, even in February. We entered one of them and had a coke (2.50 Euro) and half-sweet wine (3.50 Euro).

It was a nice evening.

Eating in Mani in February (Cape Tenaro and Areopoli)

The second day in Mani started with the breakfast at the hotel. We stayed at a pension called O Gerolimenas aka O Pyrgos Theodorakaki. The building is a very nicely refurbished "pyrgos", traditional to Mani region. As it was off season, we stayed in a double room with breakfast only for 50 Euro and even got a room with sea view. Very happy with our choice.

Now about the breakfast. The owner of the Pyrgos has also the adjacent building which contains a taverna called Akrogiali. The breakfast was served there. As the waiter asked us what we wanted to eat, I guess we could order whatever we wanted (i.e., eggs, ham, etc.), but GB and I ordered only bread, butter and jam/honey, because that is what we normally eat.

The bread and coffee were not so good, but freshly squeezed orange juice and fried bread were superb. We ate a lot.

The big breakfast surely helped us to walk all the way to the light house of Cape Tenaro (or Cape Matapan). It is the southern most point of Greek mainland and the second southern most point of European continent after Gibraltar. It took us almost 45 minute to walk from the parking to the light house and the same to come back. We did stop several time to take pictures, but did not walk slowly.

It was a rather cold day and we needed to eat something after the walk. At the cape, there is one taverna (whose name I suppose is Akro Tenaro, but it was not written anywhere) and we settled there.

As it was February, they had only grilled meat and no fish/seafood. So we ordered tyrokafteri, horta, feta and local sausage. GH maintained we should have ordered more, but I convinced him not to so that we could eat also dinner (I am not sure if you noticed that we skipped the dinner because we did not feel hungry after the late lunch).

I did not like this feta and bread so much but all the else were fine. Especially good was the meaty sausage.

One of the best Greek sausages I have ever eaten. Very lean and full of smokey cured meat flavour. The local sausages of Mani usually contain orange peel and also this one.

I think the bill was about 25 Euro, but not very sure.

We arrived at Areopoli in the later afternoon. In comparison to the villages in Mani, Areopoli looked almost urban with many bars and some cafeterias. As we were thirsty for decent coffee, we entered this nicely decorated Cafe Areopoli.

We wanted Greek syrupy cakes like portokalopita or karydopita, but they were off (I suppose they have them in better seasons, as they were on the menu). We got a chocolate cake instead.

The cafeteria was very warm and cozy with fully functioning wifi internet connection. We were pleased.

And there came the evening. To be honest we were not hungry, but not so full that could not eat at all. We asked the hotelier if there is any mezedopoleio and he suggested this one called To Mavromichaleiko, which offers 10% discount for those staying at his hotel.

The strange decoration was due to the carnival season. We were the first customers to arrived, but then 3 or 4 couples came in. We ordered 3 dishes only.

Melitzanosalata was mayonnaisy variety and we did not like it. The bread came in abundance, but was stale; little grilling would have helped it much.

A house special, Orange salad with boiled potatoes, chtypiti (sort of tyrokafteri), and spring onion. Never had such a combination and it was revealing.

Our main dish was pork morsels cooked in wine and orange juice with raisins, served on top of piled fried potatoes. Again, a pretty strong dish.

All came in huge portion. Later I told the hotelier that those could not be called "mezedes" and he agreed.

The bill including wine was 26 Euro, but we got 10% discount and paid 23 Euro + tip. I remember that we struggled to get the receipt, though.

To Mavromichaleiko- Το Μαυρομιχαλαΐικο
Matapan Street (central street), Areopoli
Οδός Ματαπαν, Αρεόπολη
Tel. 27330 51585

Eating in Mani in February (Gythio)

Some food related photo from our last trip to Mani peninsula. The other photos, I hope, can be uploaded to mesogeia.net when GH repairs the server. He promised that it should be ready this weekend, but I have been hearing it for half a year now.

Our first day to Mani, we stopped at Gythio for a walk. It was not the fist time as we had visited the town 4 years ago. But on that occasion, we did not eat anything here except for a breakfast at a coffee shop. So we did not know where to eat. It wasn't even in our plan, but GH said he was hungry and needed to eat.

The first place I thought of was this taverna called Trata, which was recommended to us four years ago by a hotelman but we did not have chance to visit. And we did not have chance this time either, as it was undergoing a refurbishment.

Another obvious place to eat should be a fish taverna called Saga, but it was so all over guidebooks that I avoided (it does not mean anything, though).

It was an afternoon of a weekday and it was not even a tourism season, so most of the tavernas were totally empty. The only place which looked relatively busy was this 90moires (90 degrees). The name obviously comes from the fact it occupies a corner and has 90 degree view.

It was a warm day, but not as warm as to be seated outside. Well, there were people seated outside, but I don't like it when the food gets cold quickly eating al fresco.

Being in front of the sea, the obvious choice is seafood, but it also had meat. As we had eaten seafood several days before, we chose meat this time. But first come the starters, tzatziki (3.50 Euro) and horta (4.50 Euro). Both pretty good. There was grilled bread as well, although not in this photo.

GH ordered kokoras krasatos with fried potatoes. It cost whipping 9 Euro. GH said that it was very good, though.

I had Syglino, which is smoked pork, a specialty of Mani.

I have never seen Syglino served in this way. To me Syglino is usually served as meze (in small portion), if not cooked with something else (egg, beans etc). Here Syglino was served in big chunks as if they were ham steaks or Chinese roast pork. They were slightly warm as well (probably it was tossed in oven for a short while together with the garnish). Excellent dish and it cost only 7 Euro.

At the end we were offered small pieces of semolina halvas (on the house). With almond and orange zest inside and honey and cinnamon on top, it was very good.

Together with a bottle of beer and a bottle of mineral water, the bill came to 30 Euro. But we ordered only 4 dishes of relatively low price. Normally you'd better expect to pay 20 Euro p.p. (if you are in group of 3 or more, it can be lower than 20, though).

The food and service were pretty good, so I'd love to come back to try other stuff (and eat again Syglino).

Eneninta Mires - 90 ΜΟΙΡΕΣ
Tzanni Tzanetaki, Gythio, Lakonia
Τζανετάκη Τζαννή, Γύθειο
Tel. 27330 25425

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This is an image of the Maniot fried bread that I wrote about in the previous post. Just seeing the photo, I did not quite make out what it was.

Even if your hotel do not serve it as breakfast, you can find it in some cafeterias or pie shops that sell as snack.

And this is an unrelated photo from Giannoulakis in Aspropyrgos (Elefsina). Giannoulakis is a large bakery on the road from Piraeus to Olympia Odos highway. Whenever we travel to Peloponnese we stop here for a snack and coffee. I had an excellent mushroom pie this time.

It has a large selection of fresh pies. If you like such stuff, I recommend you try it.

Maniot Fried Bread

As I wrote yesterday, this is my third visit to Mani. But I did not notice how popular this fried bread in Mani.

It is not something you can find only in Mani. I believe it is eaten all over Greece, although named differently from place to place. 

In Mani it is simply called 'pita'. Or to distinguish from other pites (pies), it is also called τραβηχτή πίτα, or Maniatiki pita for non-Maniots. 

When it is well cooked, it is incredibly light and fluffy. It is nice in itself, but is usually eaten with cheese or honey. The ones in photo are served with yellow cheese. 

Often eaten either as breakfast or snack.

It is a joy to learn these small things while I travel.

Traveling Mani

We are traveling Mani. Very little traffic due to low tourist season.

This is my third time in Mani. For the last two times, the food was disappointing but not this time. 

Mani is beautiful in winter. I won't come here for beaches, but ideal for trekking and relaxing.