Apanemi — Restaurant in Municipality of Naxos and the Lesser Cyclades

Apanemi taverna, a real gem on Naxos

Except 1 bad review,(from whose it’s interesting to read the all reviews) al the others are roughly on the same way, I mean; nice restaurant, good food, friendly owner etc... On the other hand, the several photos posted by all kind of customers (and not by the owner himself, which is always something to check), can’t lie. We then decided to drive the 40km from Hora (Chora) to Moutsouna to enjoy a probably late lunch over there. We indeed arrived after 3PM: beautiful location ! Tables under the trees and in front of clear water, awesome. Around us, a lot of locals, we then realize it’s Sunday today. The waitress runs from the restaurant to the terrace with two menus in a hand, a paper table clothe on the other one...and a big smile, she is definitely a professional and actually she is the owner. Once more, looking back, there is no secret to success ! We got a full sea food lunch: Marinated raw tuna salad with rocket and tomatoes. Steamed mussels (a huge salad bowl) with herbs, garlic served in a tasty sauce. Grilled marinated chilies. And the same sea food spaghetti look so good on another table. It was fresh, tasty, almost to much even we enjoy a lot the Greek cuisine, unfortunately difficult to find out in Asia, where we live. Until now this is the best restaurant, location, quality of tasty meals and friendship we got for the last 2 weeks in the Cyclades even it’s almost always pretty good everywhere. The bill was also “lighter” than in Chora in front of the pier where smile is just an option, and even often, until you seat, but it’s an other story ! As a former professional in retirement for a year now, I could say: “ Don’t hesitate to do the trip, by car or by bus, it’s worth it. The road is all the way with a stunning view. Turn off the AC and open the windows, the air is filled with perfumes of flowers and mountain herbs. At the end of the road a reward is there, waiting for you ” Thank you Maria and all you staff for this...

Ignore the negative reviews. This was the best and freshest seafood I've had during our trip in Naxos, Paros and Antiparos. Anytime I see fresh fish on the menu I order it and it tasted the best at this place. We came here twice. All the fish and seafood comes fresh from their own boat. They bring you back to the kitchen to choose your own fish. Tonight there was barracuda, seabass, scorpion fish, red mullet and another local fish. We got the scorpion fish and seabass grilled with olive oil and lemon. It tasted better and different than all the other fresh seafood restaurants I've tried so far. Highly recommend. They also gave us free beets with the fish. A must order besides fish are the mussels saganaki. I'm not joking when I say these were the best mussels I've had in my life. We devoured it in less than 5 min. The service wasn't the best I've experienced on the islands (language barrier maybe?), But it wasn't slow by any means and they were polite. Don't let that deter you. This was worth the 1 hr scenic drive from chora past all the mountain villages. Free spoon...

This is the most disappointing restaurant I have ever been to. I ended up waiting 30 for them to even set my table. I waited 20 minutes for them to give me a menu and bread and then another 20 for them to take my order which I had to beg for them to notice me. All while serving and taking people’s order that had arrived after me. I ordered three things. A beer, a salad and fried squid. They gave me my beer, the wrong beer and opened before I could ask if they were out of the one I had wanted. They said yes all out sorry. And yet they didn’t ask if I still wanted it. Then they served my salad after 30 minutes, a salad with tomatoes and cucumber with olives. Doesn’t sound too hard to make and place out. Of course it was busy but like I said before people had been served well before me in record time. I was very polite and patient and they had apologized to me but did not get any better service after that. To this day I’m still waiting for my squid. FYI the salad was sad and not fresh tasting. The beer was nast and not what I ordered. The prices are exorbitant. Do not go here....