Monato da gusto — Restaurant in Lefkada Municipality

Delicious food compared to other places in Lefkada, however I don't know why they have removed one of their most delicious reinterpretated dish, the mousaka. You had a 5 star rating from last year when I visited you more than once in my vacation. Since last year, service has severely downgraded, yet it is still a couple of levels over anything served in other places on Lefkada island! It is a beach bar that presents as a fine dining restaurant but if you are a Greek visitor, it is ok for women to sit at the table with literally a thong and a bra. Don't get me wrong, if I get to eat near naked persons, the whole fine cuisine part is kind of destroyed. It was clear they are either regulars there or known to the restaurant but if we want rules to be followed in other instances, apply them everywhere and at least ask to wear a Pareo on top of a thong. On the table there is nothing to repeal wasps while you eat. At the beginning you are asked if you want to eat or drink, even though the tables are empty: we always eat, but shouldn't you bring the menus to entice the people with what you present, and then you will see what the order is? You can print multiple menus with both food and drinks and have them hanged in a small elegant basket by the side of each table.. Related to the atmosphere, a guy from Monato constantly yells in Greek at people who park in the Monato parking - could not believe this sort of behaviour was present here as well... This year, I visited Monato 2 times. Most of the waiters are ok, one of them the more dark haired, tall and skinny waiter however destroys the whole experience and the work of the other waiters who were decent. "Which country are you from?" and "What do you want to eat??" hurried and addressed with a tone where you ask yourself if between courses when they changed the waiter, you have also been teleported to a tavern where you pay a quarter of Monato's check. Either you changed the managers or you need only new tourists to visit your business and rate it, therefore punishing the second time visitors... Anyway, I do not recognize a single waiter from the ones from last year... At Monato's bathroom you are almost trampled by guys from Paragliding business wanting to use...

How I would describe this restaurant is somewhat overrated and definitely overpriced.

The food was ok, but we were impressed only by the desert. What we had: the Ionian salad, which had lots of tomatoes and cheese, but very little salami and I could not taste any olive oil or anything balsamic vinegar in it... there simply was not much taste to it; the steamed mussels had a very strong flavoured spinach sauce, so strong that you could not feel their taste at all; the orange cake is what did impress me; it was a very large portion, very tasty and with different flavors you could feel. I also had a fresh orange juice which was very good, but they brought it warm because I requested not to have ice cubes. In my opinion, if somebody says they don't want ice cubes then the fresh should be made with cold water. We only had 2 starters and a desert, all costing 57€. In comparison, we went to another restaurant later that evening and had 2 starters, 2 main courses (one of them being fresh red snapper) and a beer, which all cost 56€ and the food was fantastic. So yeah, this place is way too overpriced. You can't charge me this much for this little food, which is not even that tasty. We will not be eating here again.

As for the sunbeds, they charged us 15€ in September for 2 sunbeds and an umbrella. You can pay with card. They can bring you drinks and a few small dishes to the sunbeds. It's very interesting how the Ionian salad costs 12€ if they bring it to your sunbed, but it costs 14€ at the restaurant. I'd like to know why...

You need to come early in the morning if you want to find free parking. Otherwise, paid parking in the shade was 6€ for...

In my humble yet completely honest opinion, this restaurant is mainly all about aesthetics, the atmosphere, the food that looks like literal works of art, but, the taste itself is not that good, at least the things that i have tried. Clearly the food is not for everyone. I do appreciate the effort and the creativity that was put in cooking and creating these gorgeous meals, but some meals should have been left as they originally were meant to be, for example the Gyros and Tiramisu (that was literally just foam with cacao powder on it-it was absolutely horrendous, even the local grandma makes a better tiramisu than this chef). Portion sizes are great. I am not going to talk about the price because i think that it is and it is not worth it..for the taste its not, for the looks and experience, it definitely is. One thing that i recommend is the steak, its delicious..aaaand..maybe the chicken with sweet potato puree, that was good aswell, but if u are not a fan of sweeter food, u should not get it. I think the salads are alright aaaand, about the seafood, i cant give any opinions because i havent tried any, but based on what other people say, it is delicious (or at least i hope so). The service si so and so..depends on the waiter. OVERALL i personally wouldnt come here or in these types of...