Delfinaki Tavern Naxos — Restaurant in Municipality of Naxos and the Lesser Cyclades

I have no words for this place. Probably the best eating experience of my life. Located in a peaceful, beautiful sea settlement, owned by a warm hearted family, we tasted - among others - octopus and pork that melt in your mouth. The pork dish is probably the best I’ve ever had. Fresh and homemade ingredients, from the wine in your glass to the tomatoes in your salad. Do you know this dish that when you were a kid you were ecstatic when your mother made it? At this place, every dish tastes like this feeling. I find it quite hard to fit what I experienced there in a few words. During the meal, we had a conversation with the owner, reminding me that when you visit a place to eat, it’s not only about the food you see in your plate and taste in your mouth, but also a social ritual of people getting together to exchange stories. And I felt poor in this trade, since I was talking to a man who spent 35 years working in Naxos’ mines and is a smiling encyclopaedia of the island’s history. In the end they treated us some homemade rakomelo, limoncello and watermelon. If you’ve read up to this point, I think it won’t surprise you if I state that the rakomelo was the best I’ve ever had. It’s food as it should be, a place like home and people that want to take care of you as if you were family. If you visit Naxos, don’t you dare skipping this place. If you don’t have a car, hitchhike. If no one takes you, walk. I can continue but I think you get the point. If you are hyped or at least have a good feeling about going there from what you’ve read here, I’m absolutely confident, that the actual experience will surpass your expectations. What I’m not confident about, is when I shall leave from a restaurant in the future, feeling so full from every single...

We stayed here with my fiance for 3 days. We have left naxos port straight after our arrival to go to Lionas once we arrived. It was our first time in Naxos and we didnt really know where to go.This was the best choice of our holidays. after a road that enhance your driving skills we have arrived to Lionas. 3 days of happiness in a wonderful place. The appartement was perfect, fully furnished and quiet. The sea is at 20 meters, its a lovely bay, quiet and nice, perfect for swimming and get tanned :-). But the top of this place are definitely the people owning it. It's a family business, the mother is the cooking chief, the son takes care of the visitors and make sure they have everything, the daughter is in charge of the house keeping and the father is producing the wine. The food is amazing ! Everthings is local, , they grown their own vegetable, serve their own wine, the fish is fresh, straight from the sea you can choose between what they caught before they cook it for you. We had the chance to try all the typical starter and the plates. All awesome ! Special highlight for the octopus cooked with wine according to the family recipe of their grand mother. My fiance choose the Moussaka. Best moussake ever. Try the home made fries, oh and try the small fresh fish fries.. delightful. Make sur to have enough place in your stomach before starting, portions are very generous... and you cant go without tasting the desserts (not too difficult to finish once you started). The surronding of Lionas is beautiful, there are many villages to visite, curiosity to see and nice beaches. A big thank for your warm welcome to your place. We will come...

We had a rather strange encounter with the owner of Delfinaki. After driving into the village and parking on the public parking opposite to the restaurant we were greeted. It was friendly but somewhat over top, also for Greek standards (I am Greek). We greeted back but decided to go to the beach further down the road to have a look if we want to go later for a swim.

After that we went to a different restaurant at the beach for lunch. Upon returning to our car 1 or 2 hours later, I noticed that they where pointing at the heads and yelling something at medium intensity. I did not pay much attention, but when the same happened when we were leaving in the evening, it dawned on me that they were insulting us and their finger sings where about us "having a screw lose".

I am not sure what the problem was, but I am suspecting they didn't like that we parked near their place but went then to another restaurant. That behavior was not acceptable, considering that we parked at a public parking. Now we will certainly not go there the next time we visit.

EDIT: After reading a few reviews, I noticed somebody else having made the same experience. This seems to be a regular thing. Hence, I cannot recommend...