Various Restaurants, Lourdas, Kefalonia, Greece Review

Good Points
Some good local restaurants with excellent fresh fish and local dishes.

Bad Points
A lot of restaurants use tinned veg, even though you are sat next to a lovely vegetable plot. Some of the authenticity has been lost to mass production.

General Comments
Having visited Kefalonia last year and returning this year, we did visit a lot of restaurants in the are of Lourdas where we were staying. Following is a breakdown of the restaurants we visited:-


Greek Islands: Serves excellent mezes to start - the only restaurant we found them at out of all that - (proper ones anyway). Food did seem to be OK, but tinned veg instead of fresh with everything which I found to be a little bit disappointing. Unfortunately I flew to Kefalonia with a dreadful cold so could not really taste anything, but my husband said that that was probably a blessing. Food not great, but eadible. Service was good, and the owner is very pleasant, and does give you a free brandy once you have finished your meal.


Spiros: Only visited this one morning for breakfast and cannot remember why we did not go back, as the breakfast was lovely, and the service was excellent. We shall be going back here this year and will try it for dinner.


La Mer: We seem to be the only people who did not like this restaurant - perhaps we caught it on a bad night. The calamari to start was lovely, but the main courses were bland and tastless, and yet quite expensive. The setting is lovely and the waiters were all very pleasant, but we found very little on the menu, and what was on there was no very interesting. After reading many other excellent reviews about this restaurant will have decided we will try it again this year. I shall keep you informed.


Casa De Blue: Dreadful restaurant. The owner seemed a little desperate to get people into his restaurant and found him to be a little over the top, but it all seemed very false. The food was awful, tasteless, and the whole thing was a waste of money. We shall not be returning to this one.


Crystal Palace: Lovely food, and probably one of the most authentic restaurants we found in the area. The only problem we had with this place, was that when the started was served, we had just started it, and they arrived with our main course, and just plonked it down on the table. By the time we had finished our starters, the main courses were going cold. We felt this was a little rude and did put us off going back. What we did eat though was very good, and we shall be going back to this one this year.


Klimatis: One of the best restaurants we found. Good food, good service, beautiful setting, under the grape vines, right next to the beach. Extensive menu and always something new to try. Always got a local raisin brandy after dinner free of charge. Their garlic and herb butter they serve before dinner is just lovely. We can highly recommend this restaurant and we will definitely be going back here several times.


Lorraines Magic Hill: Excellent restaurant with excellent food and good service. It is a little more expensive than all the other restaurants, but the extensive menu with a lot of different dishes to choose from, makes it worth it. I have seen some bad reviews about this restaurant this year, and really hope it has not gone downhill, but we will be going to see for ourselves, and will return several times if it is still good. Wonderful setting up on the hill above the beach, excellent for watching the sun go down.


The Organic Restaurant in Lourdas Village (cannot remember its name - certainly not rememberable): This has got to be the worst restaurant we have ever visited. It advertised home grown organic produce, but it still came out of a tin. The soup to start was like wallpaper paste and that would probably had more flavour. We then ordered the mezes - since when have chicken nuggets been part of the greek mezes? Disgusting food, not very clean, and table divided by old bed steads???!!! Dreadful place and seriously to be avoided. My husband and I were both ill the next day.


The Castle Cafe - think thats what its name was. A lovely little cafe set right next to the ruins of the old castle. Nestled under some ancient olive trees, this wonderful little cafe is just a little gem. Serves light lunches and is licensed. All food is cooked fresh to order. We had lovely lunch there - the other cafes down the road from it were deserted, so I think this says something. We can highly recommend this place, and will definitely be returning this year.


After the above disaster we did tend to stick to Lorraines and Klimatis, we were to scared to try anywhere else, as we did not think our stomachs could take it.


This year having done some research, we shall be visiting some new restaurants along with some old. Ones we want to try are Patricia's, The Olive Tree, Tricolor and Spiros. I will keep you informed of our progress.