Carte Postale — Restaurant in Municipality of Chania

We had been to Carte Postale a few times in the past. The environment was nice, the drinks and deserts were very good and it was overall a nice experience.

We came earlier this year before the tourist season opens (in March), with a big group of people to try the food because the menu looks good but we had never tried it. It was 8 of us and we ordered about 80% of the menu. The food was not bad, it was terrible. We were shocked at how bad the food was given the menu. There was no balance of flavours whatsoever and whoever cooked it clearly didn't know what they were doing. Regardless, many places in touristy spots tend to drop their quality if they are also open in the offseason so we decided to give it another try.

Today, we arrived 2 people for food and the place was about 70% empty. (photos attached) The waitress informed us that we can sit and order drinks or deserts but unfortunately they couldn't serve us food "due to high volume of orders". We looked at her not understanding what she was explaining as the place was empty. She said that they are expecting more reservations to come (in the future) so the kitchen cannot take more orders. She was not telling us that the place will be full and there is no space to sit. We could sit, they just couldn't serve food.

Looking through the reviews we found other customers were turned away while the place was empty. The owner's response was "Due to an increased number of food reservations, especially during this period, we often cannot always serve all our guests at dinner time". What kind of restaurant turns customers away because they did not plan enough food for the tables they already have?

We will not give this place...

This place was absolutely horrible both during our booking and afterwards.

TLDR: many more restaurants and cafes with the same view and MUCH better service

I usually hate giving bad reviews but this one is well deserved.

We visited during our trip to Chania and the only positive thing about it was the view. Otherwise, all negatives. To put a long story short; the portion size of the pasta is TINY, it took 6 waiters and 45 minutes to get a liquors and spirits menu, the waiter had absolutely no idea about wines, the charcuterie board was also very small and had barely any variety and the dessert took 35 minutes to arrive.

Worst of all, after leaving the place we decided to leave a review, however, the restaurant responded by basically saying that, since we were sat at one of the nicest tables, it should trump the bad service. They said that we were not sat at a drinks table but at a dinner table as an excuse as to why the spirits menu took so long and proudly said that they did not move us to a drinks table simply because we wanted a whiskey WITH OUR DINNER which consisted of pasta as well as a charcuterie board unlike their lovely response. They also said that they didn't evoke the 2 hour rule. Yeah, because we did not stay for more than 2 hours. We knew the reservation was for 2 hours only and, therefore, we respected that. When it comes to them asking whether everything was ok, we did not respond positively because we did not respond at all since no one ever asked. Unless a waiter was called to our table by us, no one came to check up on us.

Absolutely atrocious and for your own sake fix the service and the way you treat...

We just encountered a very unpleasant attitude in this place where we went on recommendation.

We sat at one of the empty tables in the place where no one welcomed us. The waitress came and said that the table, which had no sign showing that it was reserved, was reserved. We asked where we could sit and she said all the other tables were available. We moved to a corner table that had just been emptied and still had dishes on it. The table was cleaned but not served. After a while, the head waitress brought the menu. At this time, only 3-4 tables were full.

Then the other tables started to fill up one by one. The waitress, who never smiled from the very beginning, started to look at the other tables, including the tables next to us that had just filled up, and took orders from them. But she never looked at us. When she came back to the table next to us, we made eye contact, but she still didn't come to our table. We tried to make eye contact with her a little more but we failed and we got up without ordering.

When we got up, she only looked at us and I gestured to her as to what was going on. She came up to me and I asked her why she wasn't interested in us and she apologized, that she had been distracted. I told her that I couldn't believe it because she came right up to us, that she was interested in everyone who came after us, that maybe she didn't want us there. She said there was no such thing, that she was just distracted and busy.

The place was neither busy nor distracted. There was some other reason I don't know and it was not pleasant.

I am in Crete for another week and I will definitely not...