ΧΑΡΤΙΝΟ ΚΑΡΑΒΙ — Restaurant in Kythnos Municipality

Let me start by saying that this place was recommended to us as the "gourmet" restaurant in Dryopida, and we had been told that the owner was an actual chef. Being vegan I said, OK, here I'll probably have a chance to find something to eat. So, the first day of our visit we came straight to this restaurant to have lunch. I asked about the fresh papardelle with wild mushrooms and truffle oil. Nope, they were made with parmesan cheese. And nope, they could not do it without the parmesan. I was actually informed that no changes could be made to any of their dishes to accommodate my diet. OK. Fair enough. You don't want to make the effort, I get that. So, I ordered the dolmadakia and asked for the yogurt sauce on the side (how "When Harry met Sally" is that?) and some vlita (boiled greens) and my partner ordered the papardelle. I need to say here that even for the yogurt on the side, they gave me grief. After a while the dolmadakia arrived. I was starving so I was REALLY happy to make their acquaintance! Imagine my disappointment when I bit into one and to my dismay my taste buds received a shock they still haven't recovered from. This dolmadaki was stiff from being stuck into a fridge for quite a few days, the rice was tasteless and that lemon sauce was not doing much to cover for the disaster that this dish was. As you can imagine, I was a tiny bit tiffed and I asked to see the chef. Oh! What an unforgettable experience! Here comes this guy, who had not been in the restaurant at all (the waiter went out to call him), resembling a beach bum and looking at me through his designer sunglasses, as if I were a fly in his (I hope tastier and more fresh than my dolmadakia) soup. "Hello, how can I help you?" he asked, obviously annoyed by my gall. "Can I treat you to a dolmadaki?" I offered, equally annoyed... "What's the matter?" he replied, feigning ignorance as to what the trouble might be. "Well, take a taste, please," I said and waited for the waiter to bring him a fork. As the "chef" was taking a taste of his creation, I explained that rumour had it his place was one of a more refined culinary culture and I couldn't, for the life of me, understand how he could consider these dolmadakia "servable"... His response? He shrugged his shoulders and said, "But from what I know, dolmadakia yialantzi are served cold, no?" No mention of the utter lack of taste, of the fact that these were days old, that they were stiff. He just shrugged again and said, "OK, we'll take them back." Did someone ask whether I wanted something else? No. Then my vlita came. Nicely boiled. And then the vlita for the table next to us came, where some foreign couple was sitting, who had obviously been clients as the chef was very friendly with them. Do I have a problem with that? Nope. What I have a problem with is that their portion of vlita was almost double! So, the moral of the story. You're a vegan? Not welcome. You have expectations of being treated with respect as a client? Not welcome. You complain to the chef for something blatantly wrong with one of his creations? You are punished with half a portion of what there IS for you to eat. I don't usually write negative reviews. I just move on. But when all the guides recommend this place as one of the highlights of your Kythnos experience, I have to say something. This guy is what's wrong with my country. I am a proud Greek and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else in the world. BUT, what I can't stand are people who are riding a wave of good public relations and do NOTHING to serve their clients with respect and love. Yes, love. You need to love food and you need to love people to serve them good, nutritious food. You don't prance around as if you just walked in from the beach and treat people who have a legitimate complaint as second rate. You listen and you show respect. Shame that so many people are swayed by magazine reviews that are obviously the result of great P.R. From my side, this is what a...

Overrated and overpriced restaurant. We booked a table for 4 and the responsible for the bookings was very kind. However, the night did not continue so well... :) The appetizers were very small, the salad was overpriced and nothing special... Let's move on to the main dishes. The first one arrived a bit cold, the other two main dishes arrives with a 10mins delay and the 4th one...never arrived!!!! I ended up watching my friends eating and my main dish never arrived. When they finished eating, I canceled my order as I didn't want to eat alone. We didn't get any kind response from the older waiter. We also observed that the table next to us had the same issue! They had also forgotten a main dish for them.

I believe that if you want to be treated as a gourmet-modern restaurant you need to change lots of things in this "restaurant". First of all, it's unacceptable to serve the main dishes with such a high time difference. Secondly, you shouldn't forget any dishes and if you do, you need to apologize. The behavior was unacceptable.

P.S. in the photo you may see the 3 main dishes and my empty...

For some reason I had higher expectations of this restaurant. I give 2 stars because of the following that bothered me:

at 21:00 o clock many dishes were not available anymore I ordered some sparkling water and the waiter told me “it just finished ”. On a Friday night at the beginning of August! My friend ordered some rosé wine and the responsible of the restaurant informed us that they just put it in the fridge. For a restaurant with $$$ that is unacceptable. The waiter recommended the T bone steak so we ordered this dish among others (this was the most expensive dish of the menu). I told him I would like it medium. The steak we git was well done and terribly cooked. They did not even bring a steak knife which we had to ask for. When I was asked about my overall experience by the owner (?) I nicely told them that the steak was very well cooked and difficult to chew. She started explaining me in an annoying manner (“listen to me how it should be”) that the meat comes from a young veal and this is how you cook it…..

The other dishes we ordered...