Εστιατόριο Αστραγαλία — Restaurant in Sami Municipality

Having eaten Claudia’s food for many years on days out with Ionian Discoveries we were really excited when she told us that she’d opened a restaurant with Nicola and we were not disappointed.

In over ten years of visiting Kefalonia, this really is something exciting in terms of restaurants on the island. Lots of the dishes simply can’t be found anywhere else and many make use of old school preservation techniques like salt curing and smoking and others, like to cod fish pie, channel local recipes used during Lent.

We visited four times, twice for dinner and twice for lunch. Dinner highlights included the salt cured grey mullet, the aforementioned cod fish pie, an octopus salad, marinated tuna tartare and smoked swordfish and tuna carpaccio. All were amazing with a huge range of flavours and textures.

The first lunch plans, for the cheese and salami platters, were rapidly changed when Nicola casually dropped into the conversation “Oh, and we have a Rabbit Bruschetta on today”. Now, I’ve eaten a lot of rabbit, both at home and all around the Med, but this was the best Rabbit dish I have ever had. Confitted until it was falling part and served simply on a lovely slice of bread that had been griddled until it provided the perfect crunchy contrast to the soft meat. Simply delicious and a real insight into Claudia and Nicola’s approach, the dish was on because they’d got their hands on a rabbit. On the three other visits it wasn’t available. We also had a cheese platter with seven very different cheeses including the amazing Astragalia, after which the restaurant is named, which is made by Nicola from his herd of goats. Paired with some very local honey it was amazing.

The second lunch was back on plan with the cheese and meat platter, this time there were eight cheeses and the meat platter had seven very different meats and sausages. Nicola also made us the most amazing griddled bread, crunchy, drizzled with top quality olive oil and lightly sprinkled with dried oregano and sea salt. How something so simple can have so much flavour was a revelation.

On the first visit we asked Nicola to recommend a wine and he chose a lovely Arneis from Piedmont. Not a wine I’d ever come across before, but boy did it complement the food. On the other visits we had the incredible Greek IPA from Touls Brew in Patras on the mainland’s western coast.

Nicola and Claudia were also excellent hosts, taking time to explain each of the dishes and actually sitting down to explain the cheese and meat platters, which really adds to the experience. We also chatted about the subtleties of curing and smoking, both of which I do at home, and the plans Claudia had for a large crop of apricots that she’d picked from her garden. These chats made it clear exactly how passionate and knowledgeable they are about their food. It's also important to point out that the same care and attention was given to all of the customers, particularly if it was their first visit.

As said at the start, this really is something special, possibly even unique. I don’t know of anything similar and it’s all the better for it. Thoroughly recommended. Roll on September, when we’ll find out what’s in season as the...

Summary - food is tasty, however small portions and overpriced. Staff not willing to resolve a complaint.

We dined there last week and were warmly greeted by the staff and ordered starters (bread, tzatziki and Beetroot salad). They arrived quickly, the beetroot was oddly presented being dry with slivers of garlic, and an indifferent taste. We then received a very small portion of bread and then had to ask for more, which took too long to arrive.

We ordered mains of calamari and pasta (vegetarian) Norma at €14. Both portions were meagre, given the price that was on high side for this village on the outskirts of Fiskardo. We are not large eaters and were not very hungry, howvere compared to the 14 dinners that we ate, in the surrounding areas from very modest restaurant to the most expensive, this is not good value. When we questioned why the portions were small, we were met with a defensive response by Nicolos saying that there was 90gms of pasta, per portion. As experienced cooks we disagree (I regret not taking a photo), most restaurants would have rectified it by offering more. Furthermore, the house wine is €7 per glass, everywhere a 250ml carafe is typically €5.

In conclusion, our most expensive meal in the area, with small portions. My advice is to avoid it and go across the road to the Stonehouse where you will get better value and larger portions. We had a great meal there...

We had the most beautiful meal at Astragalia two nights ago, we are still thinking about it! Don’t be put off by the quieter location (this made the meal more special), this food is 10x the quality of central Fiskardo and much fairer priced for what it is. This is a real gem, all of us have been coming to Greece for 20 years and it’s lovely to find another truly special place. Every single thing you eat is sourced in-house, from hand collected sea herbs to homemade focaccia. For how special it is, it is extremely reasonably priced too. The salads were delicious and each of our mains were too, going for tartare, fried fish and lamb respectively. The staff were so friendly and attentive and also gave great advice when we over-ordered initially, which I always think is a great sign of a restaurant that wants to give its customers a lovely and balanced experience. I could go on and on but you...