Karnagio | Seaside Wine Restaurant — Restaurant in Municipality of Rethymnon

We visited this restaurant after seeing many positive reviews online, and to be fair, the overall reputation seemed justified at first. The atmosphere was nice, and some of the dishes were truly enjoyable — for example, the lobster pasta was excellent, perfectly cooked, and large enough to share between two people. We also tried their Santorini fava with octopus, salad, wine, and a dish with aubergine and feta, all of which were decent.

The problem started when I ordered the tuna steak. The fish itself was cooked properly — nicely pink in the middle, not rubbery — but the vegetables on the side arrived cold, and the tuna was so heavily oversalted that it was simply inedible. I ate maybe one third of it just to check if the inside was any better, but it wasn’t. The plate was left untouched aside from that, which should have been a clear sign something was wrong.

I mentioned this to the waitress as soon as she came by, but she was confused and walked away. Later, the floor manager came over, and I explained again that the tuna was far too salty. His reaction was dismissive: “You should have said something earlier.” That was surprising, since we had ordered several dishes, not just the tuna, and it wasn’t realistic to chase waiters around when they were all extremely busy during high season. Finally, when paying upstairs (since they don’t allow card payments at the table), I mentioned it once more to what seemed to be the owner. His only response was, “Well, if you didn’t like it, I’ll tell the chef.” No apology, no offer to replace the dish, no adjustment to the bill.

For context: I own two restaurants myself. In my experience, if a guest is clearly unhappy — especially if a dish is barely touched — it’s standard to either replace the meal, remove it from the bill, or at the very least offer a small gesture like a dessert or a drink. The food cost of that tuna was probably around €8–10, and a simple dessert costs maybe €2–3. Any professional restaurant would have absorbed that cost immediately to save the guest experience. Instead, here we were charged the full €20 for something that couldn’t be eaten.

This was especially disappointing because Greece is known for its hospitality and warm service, but here the staff had three opportunities (waitress, manager, owner) to handle the situation properly, and none of them did.

To be clear: the lobster pasta was almost excellent, and maybe we’d return for that dish alone someday. But the way this restaurant handled a basic mistake — oversalting a steak — was unprofessional and left us leaving confused and disappointed. A big place like this should...

We recently had a family trip to Crete with 12 family members and chose to spend our last evening at Karnagio and all felt that we’d definitely saved the best ‘till last !….The location is simply stunning as it is tucked away on the other side of the main tourist part of the seafront and marina. There are several deck terraces on different levels which go down to the water level … perfect for watching the sun go down while drinking wine and having dinner ! The restaurant is clean , spacious and bright and has a a lovely mix of warm and friendly local atmosphere and charm . It’s definitely a family restaurant and obviously one which is well known locally . The food at Karnagio was simply amazing - wonderful fresh seafood and fish, superb pasta dishes , vegetarian dishes, great steaks as well as the normal local favourites and the childrens menu managed to satisfy our group of 5 young children who completely cleared their plates !… never an easy task ! The owner of Karnagio is Konstantinos and both he and his staff were great and went out of their way to make sure that everyone was looked after and had everything they needed to make it our best meal and evening together on the island !….if you like Greek deserts then you must order the Greek orange cake !….Konstantinos Mother made it and we all agreed that we’d never tasted anything as wonderful ! ….At the end of the evening we all felt that we had been treated just like family and friends and that if we ever get the chance to return to Rethymno then this is the place we’ll come back to first. I don’t often do reviews of restaurants but this one deserves to be made … this restaurant and Konstantinos were brilliant and you will not be disappointed if you choose to...

Attended Karnagio for dinner with a group of friends. We met the owner, Janis after taking a stroll through the area looking for restaurants for the next evening and he invited us in to take a look. The setting is stunning, outside the bustle of the city centre and right by the water. The view of the sea and city is incredible.

The food was superb, although it is a seafood restaurant there were other meat and vegetable options. I had the red snapper after Janis' recommendation and it was excellent. We shared a variety of plates to start also which were all delicious and as is the way which Greek portions, there was plenty of food!

We shared a bottle of local wine which we throughly enjoyed and Janis offered us some local raki to taste as well as another sweet spirit made from the gum of a tree. It was the perfect after dinner drink, we all loved it.

The restaurant is really reasonably priced also, we had attended other restaurants in the immediate area however Janis' prices were more competitive and maintained the high standard. The service was great, much better than other restaurants in the...