Yioryitsa’s Backyard — Restaurant in Municipality of West Mani

It's very interesting to read reviews of places you've been and they have a completely different image than the one you've formed after 5+ years of visiting! Obviously tastes and expectations are very different from person to person. So on to the review.

Food: an interesting marriage of traditional dishes with modern cuisine without skimping on quantity or quality.

Staff behavior and overall feel: you feel like you are surrounded by your old acquaintances already from the first visit. Friendly chat with Stavroula and the others, treats and even tweaks to dishes if you have a particular preference.

A specialty of the Courtyard: artistic evenings with various events (with the highlight last year in the summer of 2023 being the tribute to the now honorary citizen of Kardamili and much-loved Mariza Koch, who sang for us a little although she had a health problem).

Note: it was closed on Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday (unacceptable 😂) and although they offered us a family solution, we went to another excellent place again in Kardamili of course!

Conclusion: one of the musts...

A lovely, secluded little restaurant (and arts venue) hidden in the maze of Old Kardamili. I’ve stopped here several times for a Nescafé Frappe in the shade of the flower-filled lane outside, but reviewing now as for the first time I’ve eaten there.

An interesting menu that diverges from some of the usual staples in favour of something more akin to home cooking, but home cooking done well and with great care. Portions are generous, and my wife’s beef was so tender it could be cut with a fork.

The homeliness extends to the setting and the service too - you really could be eating in (or at least outside) a family friend’s home.

Kardamili is lucky to have several excellent places to eat, but there are dishes at Yioryitsas’ that are quite different to those elsewhere.

As mentioned above, in the summer there’s also a packed programme of cultural activities, with a list by the entrance and publicised on...

Have you ever gone to a restaurant while on holiday, and it feels like your little local eatery, you can just stroll in and nod and grab a table and a glass of wine and it feels like you’re home? Ah, places like Yioryitsa's Backyard make it hard to go back to my normal life.

We were only in Kardamyli a few days but went back to Yioryitsa's because we loved it so much.

On the second visit we were lucky enough to experience a group of music teachers from Kalamata finish their meal and then, at the urging of the owner, collect their instruments from their lodgings and play the most wonderful traditional songs while the staff, and some of the diners, danced. I’d love more nights like that in my life, but I’m glad I had that one. Visited...