Raeti Taverna Restaurant — Restaurant in Municipality of Chania

---- Food ---- We ordered four small meals for two people so we could taste everything. Fried squid, grilled octopus with fava paste, zucchini balls and garlic bread.

We were served appetizer which was two pieces of garlic bread with something that tasted like potato salad. Both were great.

The fried squid was delightfull. Perfectly cooked and crunchy on the outside.

The grilled octopus also tasted great and together with fava it made the whole meal more complex. However the octopus was a little burned so that was a little sad because it took away from our experience.

The garlic bread was excellent. The only thing that could make it better would be if it was cut to smaller pieces. But tearing it yourself also has something special about it.

I have never had zucchini balls so I cannot judge whether this is how they are made but I expected them to be firmer, they were almost like paste inside. Nevertheless they tasted great and garlicky, which I liked.

The whole experience was ended with complemetary desert, which was ice cream with some crumbs on it and some sort of raki. The ice cream was average and so was the raki. But it was not bad in any means, we just had better elsewhere.

---- Atmosphere ---- I hate when somebody is standing in front of the restaurant and tries to lure you in. This was not the case in this establishment. When we walked next to the entrance there stood a nice lady which welcomed us and told us to take our time when we looked at the menu. Whole restaurant felt traditional and nicely kept.

The only thing not ideal was the menu. It was huge and wooden so it almost didn't fit the table. However it was funny and not unpleasant.

---- Service ---- The service was good for the area. Often in other restaurants the staff is almost rude but not in here. They were a little all over the place but the restaurant was full so no surprise there.

---- TL;DR ---- The restaurant is must visit if you wish for great dinner experience in Agia Marina. The restaurant has home/upper class feeling and great food.

I would award 8/10 points which would translate to 4 google stars but to battle other reviews of the local restaurants I have to award 5 because it is...

We went here just for a souvlaki, nothing special expected. Menu was huge, everything Cretan you can think of, plus pizza. I tried the fried snails as a starter, worried that with such a big menu a niche item like this might not be done well, but they were really good! Oh and before that free garlic bread with this amazing feta dip.

Mains we had the pork souvlaki, as planned not really checking the rest of the menu. Really good pork, extra veg with a honey mustard sauce that went really well, rice was delicately spices, baked potato so soft. Couldn't ask for more from a souvlaki.

€8 for 1L house white is a great price, and it tastes great, cam win a proper old Greek metal carafe, with cool wine glasses. More good stuff!

Service was excellent, not being left to enjoy the atmosphere as often happens in Greek restaurants, but also not rushing. Free pudding was ice cream, yogurt and a coulis, which worked really well after the meal.

Total for wine, starters, souvlaki (plus free bread and ice cream) for the two of us was €40.

Downsides... Well wife's fried veg starter didn't have a dip (and we'd eaten all the feta dip... ) but was delicious and large (which is fine, it's veg, doesn't fill you up too much). My snails didn't have a small enough fork to get at them, had to use a knife. Erm, that's about it!

We'll be going back to try out more...

Had dinner with our kids there. The kids portion sizes are a joke, not even our 2,5 years old had enough. I had lamb chops, which were decent, but small size as well. Overall: overpriced for small size plates food. The waitress was rude, she explained to us that we have to order 4 dishes (2 for us, 2 for the kids) after 18:00, but she didn't understand what we were saying to her. One of the boys there was very kind and helpful.

People don't care if you eat and if there are small kids around, everyone was smoking while we were eating.

Bonus: we had no reservation so we had to wait about 5-10 minutes for a table for us. The waiting part was not a problem. We were amazed by the fact that the next family got a table right away, 4 as well, with no kids in their arms waiting. So the family with kids had to wait, the family with no kids got the table. Normally I would have walked away, but my wife really wanted to...