Koukounári — Restaurant in Municipality of Heraklion

Unfortunately this proved to be one of the worst experiences in Greece in the 6 years we've been here.

Maybe it was just a glitch, but my take on it is that this happened to others based on some of the reviews I've read.

We waited ~30 minutes to get a menu after we sat down. There were only two other tables of two occupied, but the staff was concerned about setting up the tables that were empty.

After we got the menu and picked our food, we waited another 15 - 20 min to get the first starter (we only ordered starters so we expected everything to get to the table at the same time). They forgot the water we ordered. After another 10 minutes with no drinks and one starter we got the water and no glasses to drink from. We asked for glasses and they brought us two glasses after they ran around setting another empty table.

Curious thing, one of the other tables waited a long time to get their order and got dirty glasses for their beer.

At some point, realising that they forgot yet another starter, I just asked for the check. It was maybe 30 minutes after finished everything they did bring. They got us the full check so I had to point out the extra dish that was forgot to be taken out of the check.

Conclusion - food was average, but service was way...

Terrible service, the worst experience we had in 6 years of coming to Greece.

Although the restaurant was empty, the owner said that most of the tables are reserved and he took a lot of time just to tell us what table we can sit at (it felt like he's making us a favor to let us stay). We waited more than 30 minutes just to receive the menus, all this time the owner just moving tables and chairs around instead of getting us the menus first or setting our table. They forgot to bring us the water we explicitly ordered, when we asked for it they just put the bottle on the table without any glasses. One of the dishes we ordered was never received. We also had to ask twice for the check which included the dish that was forgotten.

We felt like the waiters serving us had never been to a restaurant before in their whole life. I do not understand how this place has such good reviews, maybe they treat tourists differently vs the locals, which...

Absolutely charming place that lives up to the reviews.

We were 9 English tourists who rang in the afternoon to reserve a table and had no issues accommodating us even though they were fully packed!

The staff were beyond brilliant and attentive, always made sure we had everything we needed and explained anything we didn't understand - spoke great English.

Food was fantastic, we had one picky vegetarian who was very happy with the food. Very reasonable pricing.

A hidden gem up in the hills that is well worth the time.

The host treated us incredibly well, offering home made Raki which was lovely for those who fancy a local...