Bakaliko — Restaurant in Skiathos Municipality

We visited this restaurant on our first night in Skiathos with high expectations based on its strong Google rating and a recommendation from our hotel. While there were definitely some highlights, the overall experience left room for improvement.

We arrived during a busy time and were seated at a side table away from the main dining area. This may have contributed to some of the service issues we experienced, but we completely understand that busy evenings can be challenging for any restaurant. Our waiter seemed a bit overwhelmed and took about 10 minutes to come back for our order after bringing bread and water, which we hadn’t ordered but assumed was standard. The food itself was very good—fresh, tasty, and well-prepared—and came out relatively quickly, which we appreciated.

However, after finishing our meal, we were left unattended for almost an hour, with no offer of dessert, more drinks, or, most importantly, the bill. We saw many staff members moving around, but none of them seemed to notice our table. In fact, my husband even had time to walk back to our hotel, pick up our dog, and return, and we still hadn’t been approached.

At that point, I had to get up and cross the road to the concierge to request the bill. A more senior waiter then stepped in and offered us dessert, which we assumed was a gesture of goodwill for the delay (though this wasn’t clearly communicated). When we declined and just asked to pay, he seemed visibly frustrated and went to cancel the dessert order, which we hadn’t asked for in the first place. The final surprise came when he noticed the water wasn’t on the bill and suggested to a junior colleague that it be added, though thankfully this wasn’t followed through.

Overall, the food was above average, and the atmosphere would be lovely if you’re seated closer to the water. That said, the service could be more attentive and organized, especially during busy periods. I understand that any restaurant can have an off night, but given the high rating and its established reputation, I would hope for a more seamless experience...

We went to this restaurant expecting to have a great time given the reviews it has had in the past and overall it has to be said we left the place absolutely mystified.

Let’s start with the setting. It’s a nice walk down towards the clubs part of Skiathos town, you walk past loads of equally attractive looking units most of which were empty. We were sad to see Scuna had closed early for the season as that operator (with their sister restaurants of AlaMer, Marmita and Artsenal are all truly excellent). We arrived at Bakaliko and it looked fine, was half full.

The service to start off with was normal - about 5 Greek waiters standing around generally being quite nonchalant and ignorant spending most of their time talking to each other than waiting the tables. We had arrived pre the rush, so in their mind they were clearly not in game mode. Not acceptable.

We sat down, eventually got served after having to get up to go and get one of their attentions. The waiter arrived and yes ‘OK’ .... as in, yes hello what would you like. Literally just ‘OK...’. He spoke good English in the end and was just being cocky. We tried to have small talk asking about when they were closing the season, he made some cocky comment that everyone else closes but they don’t and are the most popular on the island. We smiled (and collected our private thoughts).

Finally our food arrived which at best 6/10 in terms of quality. We ate about half of it and left the rest.

We paid, without dessert and left the restaurant. It appears that this is a favourite of the locals on the island, an institutional place and not one really in which quality is delivered. We ate at loads of really great places on the island..... Marmita, Artensal, La Cucina Di Maria, Under The Pine Tree amongst others... all truly excellent.

Personally we would not recommend it to our friends and it’s one...

I was recommended this restaurant by a Ving/Spies guide. After having been disappointed by my last dinner at a local restaurant I was thinking that this could only be of a higher quality. And it was. No doubt. I was greeted and seated. If I was of the latest generation of whiners over this and that “injustice” and “non-inclusion” I could’ve ranted about how single people going out to restaurants are ill treated as they never get the best seats since the owners - due to the capitalist mindset of forever wanting to maximize earnings - reserve and prefer to fill the most chairs and if you’re only one person, they won’t give you one of the best tables (with the best view etc.) since it’s always a table for four or more. They can’t have one single person take up such a table and you will be relegated to the second hand placing. I have no problem with this. I accept the fact and move on. Some notes on the food and drinks:

I had • a Mythos beer - as it should be • a bottle of Retsina - a brand I haven’t tasted before, and I was pleasantly surprised • a plate of olives - green and red/brown/black, tasted as they should • stuffed calamari - I could taste all the ingredients and that was fine. Not gobsmacked by the quality but overall good. Now I might be a seafood newbie, but isn’t seafood - even generally - supposed to be served warmer than lukewarm? Ok the outside and evening temperature was 28 degrees Celsius but still… I dove into the dish straight away but it seemed like it had been waiting on a shelf somewhere inside the restaurant for too long, perhaps forgotten.

This said, I’d still recommend the place. Maybe you have more luck than I did....