Antipodas — Restaurant in Municipality of Heraklion

First, the portion of the food is very generous. For context, I order its house salad, grilled sausages and pork fillet. All well cooked, seasoned and delicious. Now, reason for the low scoring. The food is good but not outrageously spectacular. It’s decent but definitely nothing for me to rave on and on about. The service was mixed at best. The waitresses seemed exhausted while the maitre’d is a little aggressive. I was one person and based on my order, the waitress didn’t warn me of the portion resulting in wastage. I waited for 20+ min for my food to no avail and when I find out why, they insist to have all the three dishes I ordered to come out at once, without asking if that’s even my preference. When I clarified that I’d rather have what’s ready to be served first, they continued to disregard my request. If I didn’t enquire in the first place, I would’ve been puzzled how a house salad could need 20+ minute to make. At the end of the meal, this is the first Greek restaurant I’ve been to (including those from Ioannina and Thessaloniki) where they didn’t bother to offer me any dessert (free or otherwise). While an earlier table was offered. Finally, when I went up to the cashier to pay, I was greeted by this absolutely miserable looking man who chose to talk with his hand i.e. gesturing me to tap on the POS system. The only time he spoke, was to ask me to hang on to collect my receipt. No “thanks”, no “please”, not even an “excuse me”. I sincerely hope they treat other Asian...

A few days away in Heraklion found us having an unplanned visit to Antipodas and what a great experience this proved to be.

We had spent quite some time walking the streets looking for a restaurant to catch our eye and Antipodas was our choice for evening dinner.

Set in a quiet and charming corner of town, Antipodas has an instant appeal from the moment you see it. A subtly lit and attractive exterior draws you in to find out more.

Inside, the open plan kitchen is central and the majority of the tables surround the kitchen and are under a canopy cover with screen walls so although you are essentially inside, it also makes you feel you are dining outside as well…. It worked really well creating a superb atmosphere. It was also nice to watch the expert chefs in action.

The staff are very efficient and helpful and the menu although not vast, had a very good choice and the quality of the food was excellent. The generosity of the portions is enough to fill the most hungry of customers.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time and experience at Antipodas and would strongly recommend that if you find yourself in Heraklion…. Go and visit the Antipodas team…. They’re great…!!

Didn’t get time to take any photos of the inside so two only of the outside I’m afraid but it will give you a feel...

The menu's non-meat options are just basic salads. I would say a kid who knows how to hold knife can make same dishes. Cut veggies, put a cheese, add a bit of olive oil. ^^ The soft drinks has only one fresh juice, orange. When we were done, we asked for the bill, but it seems the waitress was a bit out of mood due to some plates that were dropped and broken from her hands a few minutes before we ask for bill. She said wait, but long time passed and nothing so we went inside to ask for bill and pay at spot, but she reacted a bit angry, we went back and sat again for a long time, then her coworker came and gave the bill and finally we could go in and pay ^^ Also at the start, without we say anything, she started with "I can't split bills so one person should pay the whole bill in the end", the correct statement is "I don't want" because "can't" is about possibility, and it is very clear that it is POSSIBLE to split the bill, nothing complicated on it and no advanced technology is needed, it is just about mood and patience which I think the waitress didn't have and want an easy simple "This is a number, paid, finish", probably was scared that one minute time being wasted for her looking at the customers do a few kind gestures to each other, I pay, no let me...