Spavento — Restaurant in Ithaca Municipality

This place is a cornerstone of bar life on the island for the younger set (i.e. not a traditional greek tavern). For over 30 years, George and Jenny have been serving up great cocktails, tasty deserts, and the best music mixes on the island (mostly rock with diversions into Cuban) with warmth and wonderfulhospitality. The retro equipment decor (vintage cameras & music players) add to the vibe that's a hodgepodge of throwback Tiki and backstreet locals hangout.

The bar sits at the intersection of the defacto commercial entrance to the village, ready to welcome you. As essential a stop in Kioni as Kioni itself...

We arrive in Kioni in one of the hottest afternoons in July. None of the cafes here offer air conditioning except spavento. Five of us almost occupied the entire cafe, but the owner was patient, and the cashier boy was lovely and keen to learn the ropes of serving guests and running the cafe. In the end we rested well and ordered freely whatever we wanted to drink. The bill turned out to be quite reasonable, which was a nice...

Called in for lunch on a day cruise. Tables with nice setting by boats on quay however food poor. The ciabattas were very stale and dry, even though toasted at least a day old for certain. Worst was pulling a long brown hair out of toasty that managed to get snaggled around a tooth. The (lack of) freshness was pointed out upon paying but was dismissed as 'toasted'. Do yourself a favour and try...