Taverna Meraklis since 1983 — Restaurant in Municipality of Symi

September 2025 This place is so popular you need to book to avoid disappointment. The owners and staff are so lovely it's a real joy to eat here. Our fantastic waitress was a real star! Because it's so popular it gets real busy but it's definitely worth waiting for, plus they brought the wine and bread right away,so no stress. My husband's swordfish was huge, absolutely delicious and came with rice and chips, all wonderful. My beef and orzo was out of this world good, plus ample. They brought us the most delicious, complementary,creamy rice pudding with cinnamon. Treat yourself, but remember to book.

2021 Loved this place so much last year we came back...twice! The owners, Georgios and Mariantha, are so lovely and kind. I had the same dishes as last year (I now see) and it was still delicious. The front of the restaurant is now under grape vines which is lovely. We also rented their apartment on the Main Square in Symi (the Main Square apartment), near the harbour, and were delighted with that too (further details are found on TripAdvisor). The pictures below are internal shots of the room, as well as views from the balcony and the apartment front.

Last year 2020 This pretty, vine covered restaurant is one street back from the harbour on a charming pedestrian pathway. The food is great; the oven lamb with orzo was delicious (€9)! As was my grilled fresh seabass (€10). For dessert (complimentary) we had creamy ricepudding once and then Greek yogurt with rosemary scented honey. I'm not a fan of this style of dessert but this was truly heavenly! The portions are generous and the...

It was very hot and the only free table was in the sun. Our waiter forgot at least 3 items we ordered and we had to remind her. They were short of staff and it was very busy so service was a little poor and slow. The food was nice, but portions were not really big, they were a little too expensive and they charge you a lot for just 2 slices of bread for each person (a whole bread is literally 30-50 cents for tavernas if you buy it from the bakery if you make it in house like what 15 cents?). Simis shrimp was AMAZING! Very small portions again so a little to the expensive side but you can only find it there so I would pay that price (I've tried to order simi shrimp in Athens or other places and it's not the same). Overall it was okay, but could be better. A kerasma would be a nice touch as it used to be offered in greek restaurants and tavernas. We did tip our waiter because we understand it's hard to work so hard in that weather and that's why they got a thirds start on the service.

Also, toilets could have been better too, maybe a renovation and a little more...

We've had a really horrible experience in this taverna.

Food: Food was mediocre, nothing special. We ordered Tzatziki that we never received. The dolmades were good. The sea bream was really overcooked. The house wine was flavourful.

Service: Now we get to the worst part of the experience. Our waitress was rude, when we wanted to order she came and literally said "Don't talk, write" and gave us a notebook to write down our order. Then she came and literally started to translate our order in Greek and she wrote it down for herself. Basically we didn't save any time with that, she still spent 5 minutes translating. Then, we asked for draft beer and she started to mock us, saying "Of course we don't have". At the end, she stepped over one of us and looked with disgust. The whole act of order felt like a demeaning show which left us stunned and speechless. This was the most disrespectful waitress I've ever seen.

Atmosphere: Overall good. However, there are bunch of kittens walking around and going on the tables to eat the leftover food which was...