Palio Arhontiko — Restaurant in Municipality of Platanias

Heaven in Kolymbari!!!

We were lucky enough to stumble upon this restaurant on our first day in Kolymvari. It is situated right on the seafront and is surrounded by other restaurants and café bars. The whole appearance is what sets it apart from the others. It’s extremely elegant building with exposed brickwork, wooden beams and atmospheric lighting. It has dining both in and outside, but the outside veranda allows you to take in those magnificent views.

On first impressions, you would think that this restaurant would be very expensive, but this could not be further from the truth. In fact, on our first visit we asked if our bill could be checked as it seemed extremely low. The menu is extremely extensive………..a modern, innovative and delicious twist on traditional Greek cuisine. The wines are exceptional and please make sure you try a cocktail prepared by Aggelos.

Once you are seated, you are instantly greeted with very beautiful glasses, bottled water and a glass of sparkling wine, all complimentary. Where else would you get this level of service? Whilst you choose from the menu, warm Cretan bread with tapenades are served. We tried many superb dishes, but our favourites were the Octopus and the Local open pie. Unfortunately, we never got to order any desserts as the portion sizes of the meals were extremely generous. Despite this we were still presented with beautiful complimentary desserts.

The most impressive aspect of this restaurant is its customer service. We were made to feel very welcome from our very first visit, almost like friends. That set the tone for the rest of our holiday. Despite staying in a 5* hotel nearby, we made Palio Arhontiko our base and when we were not sight-seeing, we enjoyed drinks and snacks during the day and made use of the sunbeds to the front of the restaurant. We would quickly go back to the hotel for showers and a change of clothing, before returning for a gastronomic delight.

Vassilis, Maria, Katerina, Giorgios, Ioanna, Aggelos, Maria and Dimitra, we thank you so much for making our holiday such a fantastic and memorable one! We have waited 5 years to be able to go on holiday and thanks to you guys it’s been amazing. What you have achieved in terms of food creativity, customer service and a beautiful setting is amazing….. be proud of your achievements! Thank you all for becoming our friends and we hope to be able to return in the future!

With...

Finally, a restaurant in Crete which we can rate with 5 stars!

It's true what others have said, this is not your average tavern or restaurant. Food is seriously good here, staff very attentive and welcoming.

From the beginning they served us with complementary prosecco and also some bread with 2 small bowls of 2 different creamy cheeses on the sides. They were great, very delicious.

We had plenty of appetizers here because they're amazing: the cheese gruyere pie with fruits marmalade is so delicious that you have to try it; the shrimp saganaki was good but it was lacking something... maybe some more tomato sauce? I don't know but we did have tastier saganaki elsewhere. It wasn't a big issue, I just feel that there's room for improvement there; the mousaka is something absolutely divine, I honestly have no words to describe it... except that it's the best mousaka I had in my life! You have to understand I ate a lot of mousaka in my life... my mother makes mousaka, my girlfriend's mother also makes mousaka... but this was better! Everything was cooked to perfection... the minced meat, the grilled zucchini, potato and aubergine, and not to mention the layer on top, which was some sort of melted cheese, maybe mozzarella. You have to try it!

For the mains we had: Chef Maria's salad, which was very delicious, full of greens and pistachio, and some mushrooms; the freshly caught grilled red snapper, which was good but the res snapper in general is not the most delicious fish; we only tried it because it was from the open sea (not farm) and we wanted to see if it tastes different but it doesn't. But this has nothing to do with the restaurant.

At the end, they even gave us complementary deserts. The ice cream it had was much better and delicious than what other restaurants served us. These people are just amazing, it's the best restaurant we've dined at in Crete so far! Thank you so much for the amazing food and...

Horrible experience. But firstly, the good: our food was tasty, my friend’s wasn’t hot. The young waiter who looked after us was very friendly and attentive. The bad: the owner is awful 🤣 I’m not kidding! This guy must be unwell from walking around holding on to so much fury at the world. I bet he can have a fight alone in a locked room with his own shadow. We were astounded that someone could be so miserable when they live in this beautiful place. But our biggest shock was being treated so terribly by this man. Let me say here that I have been coming to Crete for 16 years. I speak Greek and always make an effort. We are polite and cultured people and travel a lot. I have eaten in hundreds of Greek restaurants and I’ve never experienced this! I know full well that I am not supposed to sprinkle cheese on top of seafood pasta! But I just love cheese. Last time I checked, it wasn’t a reason to abuse paying customers. I am surprised he doesn’t employ his own private cheese police ready to respond to emergencies! I have eaten in top Italian restaurants and asked for a sprinkle of cheese. Often we have a little giggle at how this is not the done thing but we all move on and no one has a cardiac arrest. May I...