Araklia — Restaurant in Municipality of Naxos and the Lesser Cyclades

Worst experience ever during vacations. We arrived at around 21:00 and the nice balcony with the great view, where we wanted to sit, was full. A person that looked like the maître told us to have a walk close by and return after 15 minutes or so when a table might have been freed up in the balcony. We did exactly that and upon our return a lady told us that a table would be indeed freed up soon and kindly asked us to have a sit at the side of the restaurant looking at the road and wait. After 10 minutes the table was indeed freed up and she informed us again that it would be given to us shortly. She just asked us to show some more patience and wait another 5 minutes as they were cleaning it more thoroughly, to comply with new COVID19 rules. As we were about to move to our nice table at the balcony, a posh middle-aged couple shows up. We didn't worry, as we assumed that they would simply tell them that they had this reserved for us. At this point, I could hear the lady working at the restaurant arguing with one of her colleagues, a male replying to her "What do you want me to do now that they sat? To turn away those people?" (he meant the posh couple) After a few seconds she came out apologizing, saying that there was a reservation and that they couldn't give us the table that they had confirmed twice (!) was being prepared for us. We left immediately, telling them calmly and politely that this is utterly unprofessional and indeed appalling behaviour towards customers. The person that seemed to be the maître responded in a rather indifferent and rude way. We would not ever go to this place again and certainly not recommend this to others. The review here is due to the aforementioned unfortunate incident, as we weren't given the opportunity to taste and judge the food, which is truly a pity as it looked...

The food was good. Fava and vlitsa (boiled vegetables) tasty, chicken souvlaki flavorful, but the beef stew was just ok. Both mains came with lots of french fries, but we didn’t ask for other options different to the fries. Service is lacking. 1. We ordered a bottle of red wine, and it was served very warm. We requested for a bucket of ice, and it was delivered with a smile, but it took a while for our wine to cool down. 2. I hate to bring it, but we saw two large cockroaches crawling around, one on the wall close to the kitchen window, second was running through the wooden handrail. 3. Some customers, mainly the greek ones, are treated better, with more attention, than other ones who happen to be tourists. The quality of the food was good, and the prices are reasonable indeed, but going to the restaurant is not always about just having a meal. The overall experience that counts. Otherwise we could just cook in our kitchen and have the meal on our terrace instead. And finally, simple advice, make ALL your customers feel valued, not only...

We were very excited for our dinner reservation at Araklia and the restaurant at first glance looked really nice with great atmosphere, however after sitting at the table we patiently waited 20 minutes and we never received menus or even some water. Another couple also looked very annoyed as they were probably waiting longer. Furthermore, what actually made the experience even worse and caused us to leave was a family sitting at the next table. The kids were sitting in the ground with toys spread all around, running around the tables totally ruining the experience of a great place. Tip to the chef: restaurants are not just about food but also respecting your clients and overall providing a nice experience. Unfortunately we decided to leave and find...