Matapan — Restaurant in Municipality of East Mani

A nice place for dinner in the area with a calm ambience and welcoming staff. The food unfortunately was not value for money. The lobster tartare had a ton of store-bought mayonnaise and you couldn’t even tell if you are eating lobster or crab or surimi (and when the waiter presented us with the dish, he said that it is crab..) and the base was also store-bought seaweed salad. Definitely not worth 25€! The shrimp tacos had nice shrimp, but the filling was a bit watery and again the shell was store bought hard taco shell which got soggy really quickly and we couldn’t eat the third taco. The octopus couscous tasted like it was cooked in ready-made stock (vegetable stock cube) but the octopus was tasty and tender. And finally there was poor timing with the dishes and the main courses came almost at the same time as the starters, so we ended up eating them cold. The dessert was tasty. The overall feeling was that they are taking shortcuts in quality, but the store-bought ingredients do not justify the dishes price-points. We ended up paying 70€/person. We were disappointed but I would recommend it, but avoid the pricey fish dishes and opt for the pizza and simpler...

I visited the restaurant on Thursday, July 16 2020. Mani is not famous for its gastronomy, so my visit to Matapan was the most pleasant surprise of my latest trip - my wife’s origin is from the nearby village Lagia. The restaurant is housed at an old traditional restored house with a fantastic outdoor seating area. Describes itself as a wine bar and indeed has an interesting wine list. Drawback: has very limited choices of wine by the glass. The owner to whom I made a relevant comment said that soon they will have more choices. On the food side it is basically a pizzeria with some salads and a few hors d’oeuvres, well suited for a wine bar. The pizzas we had were very good (thin crust and high quality ingredients) and a plateau of cold cuts and cheeses was excellent. On my next visit I will try the ceviche (!!) - although the environment was appealing, I was hesitant to do so on my first visit without having some personal experience with their cooking. Prices may seem high compared to local standards, but the food and the environment are not comparable to local standards. Note that the waiters were wearing their Coronavirus masks properly...

Lets start with the positives. This is a very beautiful place, nice garden seating, good atmosphere. The negatives. The food was overpriced for Greek standards in my opinion and considering the competition in the general area they lack variety in their menu. I tried the Mani and Spicy Pizza with a salad. The food arrived almost one hour after we ordered. The pizza had a burnt crust. The large amount of pizza sauce overpowered any other taste. They only have one brand of wine available for order in a glass, all the other options require you to order a bottle. So i could not try out various wines.The service was slow even though the place had only two occupied tables. The situation maybe influenced by the covid 19 measures. The restaurant had an actual dog fight right near where i was seated. They allow pets which is good but they also seem to allow stray dogs. No problem with the animal situation but uncontrolled pets can be a danger to people seated in the restaurant. The scene belonged to a tavern not a wine bar/ restaurant. Napkins on table were wet due to the damp weather, but it shows you how long the napkins where out there...