Katogi Greek Tapas — Restaurant in Municipality of Ios

⚠️⚠️⚠️ CAUTION! ATTENTION! PLEASE READ BEFORE GOING! ⚠️⚠️⚠️

We had one of the most traumatic and frightening dining experiences of our lives in this restaurant. The owner literally touched my hand aggressively, screamed at me while everyone watched, and humiliated me so badly that I left in tears after what had been an incredible day on this beautiful island. It ruined my evening and almost ruined the end of my trip.

I live in Portugal and my friend came all the way from South America to visit me. We were both falling in love with Ios and wanted to try traditional Greek food and drinks. That’s how we ended up at Katogi – a beautiful-looking, trendy restaurant that seemed fun and laid-back. At least, that’s what we thought…

From the start, things felt wrong. We asked for recommendations of typical Greek dishes or drinks. The response? “Everything here is traditional, what do you mean?”. For drinks, we suggested sangria but asked if there was something more typical. They just shrugged and said: “I don’t know, drink sangria.” Strange, but we let it go.

Later, I asked about something written on the menu – chicken gyros. The response was aggressive: “THIS IS NOT GYROS. WE DON’T HAVE GYROS HERE. GYROS IS FAST FOOD. IF YOU WANT GYROS, GO NEXT DOOR!” – while pointing at a small pita shop outside. I was embarrassed, but I still ordered it, even though she refused to explain.

They also brought the wrong dish (pasta instead of what we ordered). When we politely said it wasn’t ours, they rolled their eyes and snapped: “Didn’t you order this?!”. No apology, just attitude, as if we were a burden for speaking up.

When my “gyros” (really pita with chicken) finally came, I simply asked if it came with potatoes. The reaction? More eye-rolling and yelling: “NO, BECAUSE THIS IS NOT GYROS – I ALREADY TOLD YOU!” The whole time, it felt like we were inconveniencing them just by asking questions.

On top of that, my main dish came out alone. My friend had to wait much longer for his, so we ate separately. When I mentioned it, they said sarcastically: “This is a tapas restaurant, if you wanted food at the same time you should have told us. Why didn’t you say so?” At this point, I told them I felt uncomfortable with the service.

That’s when everything exploded. The owner suddenly rushed to my side, stood right over me and screamed: “YOU SAID MY SERVICE IS BAD? WHY? HUH?” I froze in fear. She demanded answers, shouting louder and louder, forcing me to explain myself. When I calmly said she had been rude since the beginning, refusing to give recommendations, mocking my questions about the menu, and even yelling when they got our order wrong, she completely lost control.

She slammed the menu on the table, leaned into me, touched my hand and screamed: “Do you want me to kiss your hand?! You ask too many questions! I don’t have to recommend anything! If you don’t like it, leave – and write a bad review!” She was so close, towering over me, with her eyes wide open and her body twitching aggressively. It honestly felt like if I said one wrong word, she would hit me. My friend, terrified, couldn’t eat or even speak.

I stayed silent, humiliated and afraid. Nobody intervened. We paid, left in shock, and I broke down crying outside. The atmosphere inside was heavy, fake-friendly but full of hostility – she was jumping around, loud and erratic, almost as if under the influence of something. I was genuinely scared.

It has been a week since this happened, and even now I get a knot in my stomach remembering it.

⚠️ Please, be careful. The food might taste fine, the place might look cool, but the experience was aggressive, humiliating and even dangerous. No tourist should have to go through this.

Instead, go to Sainis – another traditional Greek restaurant where we were warmly welcomed with delicious food and respectful service. Support businesses run by kind and genuine people, not by owners who abuse and humiliate...

Well if you are looking for a masterclass in how to disguise mediocrity with theatrics, this restaurant is your destination. Here, the dining experience is less about food and more about enduring a series of odd rituals and missteps that could almost pass for performance art.First, the house rule: you must sit obediently while drinks are served before you’ve even seen the menu. Why? No one knows. Perhaps to soften the blow of the menu itself, which is a triumph of pretension over practicality — a collection of dishes that manage to be both overdesigned and underwhelming, with glaring omissions of basics that any competent kitchen should provide.Waiting for food feels like waiting for Godot: endless, inexplicable, and ultimately unrewarding. When it finally arrives (if it arrives), you’ll have had ample time to observe water dripping from the pipes above, a charming reminder that ambience here is purely accidental.Then comes the pièce de résistance: the payment system. Should you dare to pay in cash, mysterious discounts materialize, as if the restaurant were operating in some parallel economy. Transparency clearly isn’t on the menu.Service oscillates between the bizarre and the unprofessional, punctuated by antics better suited to a street performance than a dining room aspiring to sophistication. In the end, this place is a satire of fine dining: all the pomp, none of the substance. If form without content were edible, this restaurant would finally have something...

Excellent food, arrogant service when it comes to reservations. None of the dishes were disappointing. All of them exceeded my expectations. One of the most delicious restaurants we’ve been to in Greece. The decoration was beautiful, and the ambience was fantastic. Despite all the positive things I could say about the place, I can’t get over the service (specifically the lady with black hair who greets you when you first walk in). After trying to walk in, we decided to call in to make a reservation for 6 people the next day. When we arrive at the time of our reservation, the hostess very inhospitably greets us by telling us we were late and she has given away our table (despite the clearly empty tables behind her). Luckily one of our friends couldn’t make it and we inform her we would actually only be 5 and won’t need a big table. Lo and behold! She lets us in with all her magnanimity and ushers us to a table that could’ve easily seated SIX people. This is a huge flaw in the tavern, which is inhospitable and discourteous at best, rude and arrogant at worst. There is no need for a countryside tavern to be so exclusive and hostile with its reservations and table management as if it was an elite private nightclub...