RIGEL CAFE BISTRO — Restaurant in Municipality of Thira

They made our day ! Driving on the way to the lighthouse, we noticed a small house with a couple of tables and chairs on a terrace with a stunning view on the Caldera. We then decided to stop there for a drink on our way back, and so we did. Coming in, the owner as a welcome told us ; « Among the messages on the wall, writen by people from different countries, if there is one in your language, you get a reward » As soon as we found it, He said : « Do you know who makes the best coffee ? » It could be embarrassing for ud to answer, fortunately, he is the one did it : « It’s you ! » And that’s how we have learned a new interesting thing in our life ; how to make the famous Greek coffee. He firstly explained to us what was this strange « heater machine filled with sand ». Then, following his advises, we had to do our coffees by ourselve, and so we could confirm that the answer to his very first question,(who makes the best coffee) was « of course us ! » We decided next to have our lunch over there and we spent almost 4 hours talking with the both of them, tasting also some Greek salties or sweet speciality included cheese. After a last « best coffee ever » we of course, as a franco-thai couple wrote in our 2 languages on the walls. Unforgotable day in this place to not miss...

The place looked promising but we unfortunately had a bad experience. We were the second couple in the whole restaurant and the first couple there were drinking their coffee, they obviously had finished their lunch. After the waitress spent 5 min watching us choose our dish from all the things that looked great in the menu, we called her to order. She then let us know that both our choices were unavailable. I then had to ask if anything else was unavailable and she literally turned page after page of the menu and indicated that everything was unavailable. It was basically a choice between a Greek salad and a few savory waffles. Fair enough, we ordered and waited. And waited. And waited. After 30 min, still the only couple in the restaurant, she brought a bottle of water. 10 minutes after this we went downstairs in the kitchen and asked if the food was going to be ready soon, to which she replied that they hadn't start cooking yet and that we could leave if we wanted to. Which we obviously did at this point. We spent more than 40 minutes there and only got a non cooperative waitress and a...

We were lucky to find this gem as the majority of restaurants in Santorini are closed in November. We were happily surprised to be served absolutely delicious, local food! Salad vegetables are grown right in front of the restaurant and shrimps tasted really fresh. Owner and staff were all really friendly. Best restaurant we’ve been to so far in our three days...