Arismarí — Restaurant in Municipality of Apokoronas

Update 2 August 2021:

Skip this place unless you wish to waste your money and time. More details: We didn't book a table. We asked for a table for 5 and the lady suggested to wait 10 minutes for another family to leave. The table was finally freed after 30 minutes. We sat and ordered food from the menu. I personally ordered pizza, which would be served with delay, as the waitress warned me. "Do you know approximately how much will we wait?". "No, I have a lot of pizza orders". OK, then lamb. After 1 minute, I changed my mind, decided to wait for the pizza. I went into the restaurant and told a lady about the change in order. The lady told me "ok, order changed!". The first appetizer came after 15 minutes (pita sfakiani), the second appetizer (tzatziki) came after 40' and the 3rd (salad) came after 1 hour. First dish after 70 minutes, second and third after 80'. We complained but the waitress had an easy bad excuse: "we are full of customers!" And guess what. No pizza. Only lamb. We complained and she got the lamb back. Then came the other waitress again, ready to serve me the lamb: " you know, there is no more pizza. You should change the order with me, personally, not with the other lady! But trust me, this lamb it's delicious. You will enjoy it.". OK, I ate the lamb. Nice. Not exceptional. After another 20', (total 100') another lady came and told us that the 'falafel 'dish we ordered, is not available anymore because they ran out of ingredients!!!!! She suggested to serve the dish incomplete! Obviously we refused the offer and asked for the bill. Of course, they didn't bother to mention the fried potatoes that never came...

I am fully convinced that we were punished because we didn't book a table and we didn't know the staff in person.

And the excuse? Simple and bad: "look how many customers we have today. Look for yourself!" I can't imagine why is that my problem. They accept too many customers they finally can't serve! Poor professionals without any idea of customer care.

And the prices? Oh dear, no way. Very expensive. You can find many better places in the area to eat decently as human.

This is the worst service I've met so far in Creta. Maybe in Greece. A very sad experience from the beloved village of my grandparents.

This is not Cretan hospitality. This is not Cretan at all. Go eat somewhere else!

Last but not least: They need to learn the word 'sorry' . NONE of the staff wore mask!!!

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And this is my older 4 star review in 2019:

A beautifil little tavern with plenty of traditional dishes and pizza, in the heart of the Gavalochori village. We 've ordered salad, pizza, 2 traditional dishes and 2 coctails. All were tasteful. I give 4 stars because I found it...

Arismari was highly recommended, but we were sorely disappointed. The restaurant owners have changed and it is not a place we can recommend.

The service was down right rude and after we received our food, no one checked on us or cleared the table until we got up to pay. The food was served in a completely random order - appetizers with or after the main courses - and it was impossible to eat together as a party. Due to the lack of service we could not order more drinks or water. The supposed owner of the restaurant repeatedly shouted commands across the courtyard and her attitude was annoyed and frustrated towards her staff and guests, not welcoming or friendly at any point.

The food quality ranged from ok to poor. The beef steak was not cooked to order and drastically overcooked (with a proud price.of over €30) while the beef souvlaki was partially rare. The oil for the patates was obviously too cold and they turned out soggy and oily and almost inedible. The salads and the appetizers were mostly ok, just served way too late. Since no plates were cleared off the table we did not have actual space to eat and had to place plates on the floor or the neighboring tables.

Several dishes on the menu were not available during our visit and several grilled dishes were offered instead. The sides were rather boring as pasta without sauce or potatoes.

The atmosphere of the restaurant is truly lovely and we would have loved to spend more time and enjoy our stay. The decorations are pretty and the courtyard with the tree at its center makes it feel like a tiny platia. Unfortunately, we never felt welcome and due to the food chaos and lack of service we were unable to enjoy our...

Same experience as other reviewers, they are absolute rude and tell you you have to move to another Table, even if there is enough space. They do not even tell you where to move, just like "go away there, go back"..like telling a sheep move.

And, that was the first sentence she said after I ordered a cafe. She even did not know if my wife or children wanted to have a some food. Kids always want something. Skip those unfriendly people. She wanted us to sit in the sun with a 2 year old baby.

Top: The waitress even lied to us, telling us "this people sit here" and pointed at some strangers walking buy in the background. The strangers did not even intend to come into the restaurant. The moved trough. Have you even been told such a set up lie? Are all greece restaurant owners super rich now?

What an absolute unfriendly move of this old woman. How can you be so rude to a family with a child coming at 4 in the afternoon for a drink that takes 15 minutes? It was not time for the evening meal at all, low season in October. Look at the picture, the people left and straight ALSO only had a drink. Why didn she kick out those people?

My advice: Better do not run a restaurant if you act like this.

We left the place without looking back. Read other reviews, they had same experience. That place...