Calypso — Restaurant in Ithaca Municipality

Extremely disappointing experience at this restaurant in Ithaca (especially as Greek). The staff was unfriendly and dismissive toward us from the beginning. Our food arrived more than an hour after ordering, and only after we reminded them three times.

To make matters worse, the dishes that were supposedly "delayed" included steamed mussels, seafood kritharoto, and stuffed vegetables — nothing that should take this long. When we politely asked about the delay, instead of an apology, we were met with arrogance and excuses like, “It’s normal to wait an hour.” For pre-cooked stuffed vegetables? Really?

What made the experience even more frustrating was not just the delay, the lack of apology, or the absence of any offer to cancel the order — but also the fact that when the food finally arrived, there were no spoons or napkins on the table.

As for the prices, nothing was reasonably priced, nor was anything exceptionally good. Our order included a Cretan ntakos salad, some cheese pies (which were the only items that arrived promptly), stuffed vegetables with rice, steamed mussels (which were not fresh), seafood kritharoto, and one bottle of white wine — which alone cost €29. 100 in Total

As for the excuse that “there were 100 customers,” the honest and professional thing to do would have been to tell us you couldn’t serve us in a reasonable time — so we could choose to eat somewhere else.

No one chooses to sit through 90 minutes of waiting with only appetizers, a salad, and a bottle of wine. It’s common sense — it simply ruins the entire experience.

If this is how you treat customers, don’t be surprised if we don’t come back.

One...

We have been coming to Calypso for five years and each time it never fails to delight. The owner and staff welcome us like family, always finding time for a chat and give us the best table possible. The seafood is freshly caught, the sardines are perfect, grilled with lemon. The grilled shrimps and squid are incredible, I have yet to taste better ones! The shrimp pasta and seafood orzo, cooked in ouzo and tomato sauce with a little parsley is so fragrant, with a delicious fennel and anise flavour, a delight to taste! The orange cake, cooked by kiria Xenia herself is their signature desert, refreshing with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

The location is amazing, on the quieter end of the harbour, looking across the bay to the windmills, with a refreshingly gentle breeze on a hot night. Definitely worth adding kioni to your itinerary for this...

Needless to say the views and location are wonderful. However, that’s about it with this restaurant. SERVICE: examples of inadequate service includes things like bringing a salad without a spoon and we had to ask for it … or bringing the food out without silverware having to wait looking at your food. The people were always available to help when asked. FOOD: for the $$$ we had to pay food was very disappointing - overcook the meat, very small salad portions to share, over saucing the food covering any potential taste. WINES: steer away from any reds as they’d are kept outside of a wine refrigerator, get hot during the day and when served, though they were placed on ice, were...