Ifestioni Restaurant — Restaurant in Municipality of Thira

I've been in Greece for 6 weeks and every lunch and dinner I tried to eat at a different restaurant to try as many as possible. This was the only restaurant in all of 6 weeks where I had a negative experience. I picked this place after a lot of research and I wanted to have a very nice meal before ending my trip to Greece. I saw the reviews and saw the pictures of the food and I was so excited and looking forward to coming to this place. I ordered a drink and a food. The drink came first in a tall glass that was covered in dirt and dust. I didn't want to be a bother so I thought long and hard about it, but, it was gross so I told the waitress, "I really hate to do this...but the glass is not clean..." and she looks at it and forcefully tells me, "it's only dirty on the outside so you can drink this." And walks away soon after that, looking annoyed. Okay, so here's the problem.

1. We do not know if the glass was dirty inside. It was filled to the top with the drink so who knows? If it is dirty everywhere on the outside, then what promises me that it wasn't inside?
2. The waitress was too lazy to even look at the glass or care enough to check that the glasses and plates are clean before serving it to the customers.
3. The waitress thought it was okay to drink out of a dirty glass if you can't prove that it was also dirty inside. Why would that be okay? Why would I want to drink out of a glass that's dirty anywhere? When I touched the glass, my hands became grainy and dusty and I needed to wipe my hands. Why is that considered okay? Hygiene and cleanliness should be the NUMBER 1 priority in any food business!!! If you are so lazy and sloppy that this is okay, then how do I know if anything in the kitchen is clean? Do you care that the food is expired or not? What else are you sloppy about? I immediately lost all trust in this restaurant and couldn't enjoy my meal at all. I would rather eat at a humble mom and pop restaurant with a sense of hygiene and cleanliness and care, than a supposedly high-end restaurant that can't even bother to have clean things. I don't drink from dirty glasses at home. And I should accept dirty things because I'm at a restaurant where I'll be paying for the food and service? This makes no sense. What if it was ONLY dirty on the outside. That's supposed to be okay????? What really shocked me wasn't so much the dirty glass itself (though that was very distasteful and it never happened once before here in Greece where standards are very high at restaurants) but the attitude of the staff who thought the obvious response to that was, "just drink it as is. Your hands can be dirty. To look at it, it can be ugly. But I'd rather not bother doing anything about it." The only reason why I gave an extra star was because eventually, because I wasn't going to drink that, the waitress did try to fix it then. So an extra star for that. But at that point, I already don't trust this restaurant and their standard of hygiene (which is the most basic and the most important) so I had lost my appetite and desire for the place and their food. I went to google map to start searching for a different restaurant to go to. This experience however highlighted to me what good experience I've been having in restaurants in Greece where everything had been 10/10 prior to coming to this restaurant. I don't recommend this place because who cares if the food looks pretty if hygiene isn't checked and in place and staff has such low standards of what is acceptable and...

We went to Ifestioni for a birthday dinner, booked well in advance after being impressed by the rave reviews and the spectacular looking dishes. It will give you a total masterchef experience, from making you fall in love with the food and sitting in awe of the favors to thinking why it isn't a Michelin star restaurant to quickly understanding why it isn't. Read on for more.

We were warmly greeted and seated. The food started with some complimentary items like carpacchio and veg filled balls with rice shell. The carpacchio blew us out while the rice balls were underwhelming.

We ordered the chefs bread which came with butter which has seaweed powder on top. Honestly, the seaweed powder was just theatrics and added no value in terms of taste or texture.

Then for starters, in vegetarian we went for beetroot salad with grilled apricot. It was really nice and the quantity adequate. Especially the grilled apricot, but in the entire dish there were like 5-6 pieces of grilled apricot slices, which was weird considering the quantity of beetroot in it. See pictures for an idea.

In non vegetarian, we ordered the meatballs which came with 3 dips and edamame and was excellent. I've never had meatballs so delicious in taste and texture. It would just melt in my mouth. Again 5 stars for the starters.

In cocktails, we ordered something called caldera air, which had gin, ginger, and lemon. We knew we could not go wrong with it. I forgot the name of the other one, but it was pink and a bit too sweet. (Edit 1: checked the bill, the name of the drink was "novel"). The amount of alcohol in the drinks were adequate. By now the bill was easily about 60€ and well worth the price we'd say. Keep reading for more..

The main course is where it all went downhill. For vegetarian (no meat or fish) there was only one option. If you have just one option for vegetarians in the menu, you should atleast ensure it is worth it. It was not. Legume balls which were too dry in a sauce that was underwhelming. 18€ for it, and to be honest, wasted. I could not have more than 2 bites. For non vegetarian we went for the lamb. It had 5 elements, two paste/dips and both were not good, two types of lamb - a rib which was ok, we left half of it; another block of meat which was good, but not excellent. The lamb sauce was good. If you mix it all and eat, in masterchef terms, the dish would not sing together. Overall not ok, but not good or excellent, especially because of the dips.

Some more things to consider: Even though we booked 2 weeks in advance and called them thrice to tell them that we are coming for a birthday dinner, the restaurant did absolutely nothing to make it special. The waiter who served us was good, and at the end of the meal gave us wine saying its complimentary as it's my birthday. Then proceeded to give complimentary wine to the couple behind us as well.. the bill ran to €110 and we tipped extra. I would not return for the reasons above. If I had to, I'd stick to starters. Also, don't go to this restaurant for any special occasion, they would do absolutely nothing to make you feel special. The waiter said it was his birthday as well and we couldn't help but feel bad for him as he was still working. We tipped only for this reason actually. On the brighter side, if the main course wasn't bad, we would never know what it means when the judges say the food elements doesn't sing together...

My boyfriend and I chose to eat here as a final celebration meal of my birthday holiday in Santorini. With a slightly pricier menu, glamorous photos and good rating on Google, we had high expectations of something special.

Turning up to the hotel restaurant, there was no parking and our table was not ready, even though we’d arrived 10 minutes late (after struggling to park). We were one of only 3 tables dining this night.

To start with, our waitress was very kind and smiley and chatted. Once we’d ordered, things went downhill. I’ve had Octopus a few times on this holiday, and this was the smallest, priciest and least tasty time. Our main was a deconstructed moussaka which had potato bubbles resembling rice crispies. To their credit, the meat was melt in your mouth and it was an interesting dish, but not what we’d call moussaka and a little disappointing on that front for a Greek dinner.

Our waitress cleared my starter before my boyfriend had finished eating, subsequently asking “are you done?” and clattering the plates as she cleared them. Mains were cleared in much the same way without asking how they were. I’d barely finished my first glass of wine, and I was willing to have another, but dinner was almost over and we felt like we were being rushed. The waitress took something off the table every time she visited. Catching onto this intuition, we felt the need to leave before dessert and ended up having more fun, better value for money and a more authentic experience at the local 24hr bakery where we bought one of each pastry for the price of 1 dessert at Ifestioni.

We enjoyed what we had of this place, but didn’t want to let it...