Taverna "I Vengera" — Restaurant in Municipality of Rethymnon

I took my family to I Vengera tonight after we found the place strolling through the old town just the other day. We thought it looked inviting and nice and we wanted to try something new, so we gave it a go. For context: We are regulars to the area and have been coming to Crete for 10+ years now. We consider ourselves food lovers and enthusiasts and have a pretty good overview of the local gastronomical scene from basic, yet qualitatively great tavernas to more fancy restaurants and even Michelin star places. I have to say that I can not understand nor confirm the high praise that I read in the reviews for I Vengera after eating there. We had a variety of mezze to sample the offerings and everything on our plates was sub-par and on the lower end of culinary experiences. The served apaki were some of the driest slices of meats that I have ever had, the often photographed „grilled octopus on fava“ was chewy, rubbery and somehow fatty at the same time and left my wife and I wondering, how this was even possible. The underlying fava was totally tasteless - maybe for contrast. Even basic staples like Dolomadakia were disappointing in taste, plain, unseasoned and dry in consistency. The tomato chutney on the feta in fillo dough had a weird taste, very sweet and trended more towards the more classical fig jams that are often served with that dish, leaving all potential excitement for a fresh take on the plate disappointed. The Vengera green salad was okay but drowned in both cheese and dressing, which muted all other aromas that it had promised. The best plate on our table were the fried country potatoes, which were really crispy, yet mostly unsalted. Overall we ended up with a table full of not even half eaten dishes and a feeling of general disappointment. The staff, who was friendly and attentive at first, noticed the state of our plates on the table and asked about it, but when we addressed the issues in a friendly, yet honest and direct way, they simply shrugged off our criticisms as „this is just people‘s taste“ - which it is not, when you are served dry and stringly meats, chewy octopus and basically tasteless dishes. Even though I explicitly asked for a check to put an end to that disappointing evening and get out of there, they then took their time to clear the table and attend to other arriving guests first, rather than bringing us the bill. I waited for a couple of minutes before eventually having to get up myself to pay at the counter, which concluded one of our worst culinary experiences in the Rethymno...

Don’t fall for the courtyard location and glowing reviews.

We’d reserved a table for 3 and being seated we waited ten minutes for the menus to turn up. At 30 minutes without even a glass of water i was ready to go… but they came for the order just as i was about to stand up…

We ordered a variety of the foods and the quality varied widely- the stuffed vine leaves and filo feta was excellent… the salad, tempura prawns, pasta, dips were ok… nice but nothing special.

our order was delivered randomly… with the pasta arriving after everyone else had finished… And some of our food going to other tables… It took fifteen minutes for the bill to arrive…

I paid 40cents extra because i didn’t have the exact amount… And i begrudge that extra tip…

All in all an exceptionally disappointing evening… Far too few staff, with no co-ordination… and food that was ok, but nowhere near the quality of the restaurants...

The restaurant has a pleasant courtyard. We sat against the wall under a "bay leaf" tree (laurel). We started with Tsatziki and tarama which were both fresh and tasty. The waiter was happy to bring more bread. We then enjoyed the Cretan lamb ("tsigoriasti") with potatoes which was very tasty although probably only ⅓ of the meat was edible (the rest was bone and fat). The lamb was brought up before we'd finished the appetizers. We had to ask for the plates to be taken when we'd finished and again for the dessert menu but we'll put that down to the non-hurried approach to dining here. We were given yummy homemade orange cake with vanilla ice-cream...