Foodie Times - Where to eat in Pefkos, Rhodes, Greece

One of the things that I most enjoy and look forward to about holidays is the food.  I love food at the best of times and eat out often when back at home, so when on holiday I love to explore different foods and eat as much authentic food of the country that we're visiting.  In fact my most frustrating holiday experience was probably when I visited Mallorca in 2003 and we went for allocation on arrival accommodation and ended up at Alcudia Pins which was basically Butlins in a hotter country - there was not a single place that we managed to find serving anything remotely Spanish!  (OK we found paella that was pre-made and microwaved in front of us)  In fact one of our favourite overheard quotes from the holiday was from a British Dad on the bus into the Port of Alcudia "Right kids, we'll have a quick look round town and then off to find a nice British Pub"  It made me quite sad.

My recent discovery of Forkly - an app which lets you do twitter length reviews of restaurant meals and drinks has been great fun (if a little interrupting of the flow of conversation across the dinner table) and I was pleased to be able to use it to track and remember some of the fantastic food that I enjoyed on holiday in Pefkos.  

Overall I was very impressed with the food on offer, I don't think I had a single bad meal and it was all pretty reasonably priced and I got the feeling that the restaurants whilst catering to the British palate (Pefkos did seem to have mostly British tourists on holiday) were very loyal to their Greek cuisine and history.  You can see all my reviews on Forkly, but here are some overviews of the restaurants that we visited.

Mary & Gina's Fish Taverna - This was our first evening meal in Pefkos, situated about half way down the main road that heads towards the beach.  The menu was really broad, obviously there was a lot of fish, but also lots of Greek options and something that would suit most people.  The waiting staff were very friendly and it was a pleasant restaurant surrounding, only a little disappointing that some of the nearby bars had such loud music it interfered with an otherwise very pleasant atmosphere.  My favourite dish here was the Kataifi - a honey and nut sweet dessert with a shredded wheat type texture of pastry surrounding it - this is what it looks like (although not the ones I ate as it was too dark for a good photo by the time we got to dessert!)  The link above also has a recipe that I might have to try out.

Nostalgia Restaurant, Palm Cocktail Bar & The Pool Bar - We spent a lot of time at these three places that are all part of Pefkos Beach Hotel which is where we were staying.  Partly because of how close they all were to our room, but also because there was free Wi Fi and the food and drinks were also very good.   The service here was excellent, the staff are friendly without being intrusive, get the British sense of humour and are also very attentive.  It's a great central location just at the top of the road that runs to the beach and on the Main Street in Pefkos.

We were out in Pefkos for my brother in law's wedding and he had the reception dinner at Nostalgia which was gorgeous - I had the Lamb Greco which was beautifully tender and the starters were a selection of very tasty Greek Salads and filled potato skins with Wedding Cake for dessert.  We also went en masse (About 15 of us) for a group meal later in the week and again the food was great - I had mushrooms stuffed with seafood for starters, Beef Nostalgia for my main and Chocolate Trap for dessert - all reviewed on Forkly, but here is a picture of the Beef Nostalgia to whet your appetite.

We had many different fruity cocktails from the Palm Cocktail Bar over the course of the 10 days that we were there, again many of which I've reviewed, but my favourite is probably the Strawberry Daiquiri 

The Pool Bar was great for snacks and drinks and I had far too many calorific Iced Coffees with Ice Cream and also a couple of extremely tasty and entirely home made "Village Pizzas" which were made from scratch pizzas (including the dough) with onion, tomato, olives, peppers, feta and cheddar cheese - delicious!

Anixis Restaurant - situated a little further along from the main thrust of bars and restaurants on the main road it was a nice quiet setting with a lovely view out across the bay to the sea.  The staff were incredibly friendly and welcoming and had possibly the tallest waiter I've ever met (at least 6 foot 7 inches tall!  I had a Greek Plate to share as my starter and it was huge!   We don't look impressed in this picture (taken by Lucien), but it's more incredulity at the sheer size of our starter we were about to undertake!

It would have easily shared for 4 people, but was delicious.  If I'd have realised quite how large the portions were I probably wouldn't have gone for 2 starters as my main course and I chose a seafood risotto and chefs salad (tomato, cucumber, lettuce, onion, boiled egg, olives, slices of cheese and ham and marie rose sauce)  They were both very tasty, but I probably only managed not even half of them.  

Artemis Restaurant - Located very much amongst the main throng of bars and restaurants this had a pleasant and calm atmosphere and beautiful plants and trees that helped it live up to it's billing as a "garden restaurant".  We had a mixed Mezze to start (Dolmades, baked butter beans, Meatballs, Tzatziki) and then I went for the Pefkos Lamb which was beautifully cooked with figs and honey and then for dessert I had the Dark and White chocolate Ganache which was beautiful and extremely rich, but made me so full I could barely move!

Spitaki  - This very much felt like a traditional Greek Taverna, and one of the buildings that make up the restaurant has been there since 1913 and is one of the oldest in Pefkos.  Located again in the main throng of restaurants, but wasn't impinged on by loud bars nearby.  We weren't so hungry when we went here so went for main course and dessert only accompanied (accidentally) by the most expensive bottle of wine on the menu which was also lovely. The waiting staff were again very welcoming and possibly even more attentive because of the local Rhodian wine I bought (which actually was only equivalent of £17).  I went for the Poseidon fish platter which was very tasty and very filling. (There were also lots of gorgeous cats around keen to entertain us for scraps which I don't think the waiting staff were pleased with us accommodating!)

Tsambikos - This was probably my favourite restaurant of all that we visited. A brief climb up a hill past the taxi rank meant that this restaurant can justifiably claim to have the best view in Pefkos across the bay. The food was beautiful - we had Cheese Saganaki and Mixed Hot Starters as well as an additional pre-starter of breads and dips from the fantastic bakery attached to the restaurant (you have to try their Croissants which are amazing and only 1 euro each - great for breakfast). For my main I had lamb again which was beautifully tender and for desserts we had Baklava and the strongest ever Irish Coffees! We were also given a aperitif which was a pepper-minty drink apparently to aid digestion.   Please visit the bakery even if you don't go for a full meal as the pastries here are fantastic - here is the Baklava that we enjoyed.

Zorbas - So we were intrigued by the offer of a 3 course meal for €7.90 which is more like the price of a starter in one of the other places we'd been during the week. Zorbas is located down a number of steps just opposite from the taxi rank. During our meal they had a CD playing with 5 different Greek pieces of music including (as you would expect) Zorba's dance. The CD stuck on several occasions and we heard it all the way through I think 3 times whilst we were there! Our expectations weren't high and whilst the food wasn't as good as we'd grown used to over the week, it was perfectly edible and the staff were friendly if a little manic and confused! We had a Mezze to start which would appear to be some stewed vegetables possibly served with Duck, and for my main again I had the Lamb - think Sunday lunch, only with tender Greek lamb & artichoke. It was served with lemon sauce which was more like gravy, but tasty, perhaps a bit too hearty for the climate?  Baklava for dessert was pretty tasty - no complaints.  If you are on a budget, this is great, but if you can stretch your wallet a bit more, you will probably enjoy better food in other restaurants, but it very much did what it professed to and was a tasty meal.  

Hellas  - Hellas is the number one recommended restaurant on Trip Advisor in Pefkos, and whilst we did enjoy our food, it was really busy, so service was fairly limited (we did well to get in though in fairness as several people were turned away and it was clearly very popular).  We had the Feta Cheese with sesame seeds and honey for starter which had been recommended by family and it was very tasty and unusual - crispy, sweet and sour.  However, a portion could happily feed 2 people so you might want to consider sharing.  For my main I went for the Greek pasta with prawns and it was unusual and quite tasty although would have benefited from more seasoning and the prawns hadn't been de-veined or shelled which I'm never that keen on.  The surroundings were gorgeous - trees with fruit on, varnished shiny stone floor, so I can see why it's a popular venue for weddings.  I liked it here, but it wasn't my number one restaurant of the holiday.  (Again there were lots of very cute cats around for us to enjoy looking at)

Georges - This was also recommended to us by family and friends and can be apparently hard to get into, although we found it really quiet when we arrived.  The service wasn't as attentive as some places we'd been to, but the waiting staff were pleasant enough.  I went for stuffed mushrooms for my starter which was lovely and my husband had some tasty Dolmades.  For my main I went for a mixed Greek plate to end the week as I'd started and my husband went for Swordfish which he'd only discovered on this holiday and really likes.  The food was tasty, but not as good as some that we'd had earlier on in the week - in particular the filling of my stuffed tomato tasted quite odd and so I fed it to the cats.  The presence of very adorable and insistent cats playing (excuse the pun!) cat and mouse with the waiting staff more than made up for the slightly disappointing food.  It was a nice meal to send us on our way back to the UK.  

Some general food observations from my 10 days in Pefkos:

• Wine is confusing! - in England you generally only get the question "dry, sweet or medium" when you are drinking white wine, in Greece this also applies to Red.  If you go for medium or sweet, you'll get something similar to a port or sherry, so opt for dry if you want something more like a Merlot or Rioja.
• Vegetarians are something of an afterthought, there are some restaurants with a "Vegetarian" selection on their menus, but often this comprises of just 4 dishes.  There are quite a few things that can be suitable for veggies, but a lot of Greek food is heavily based around meat and fish.  I think most restaurants would try and accommodate any requests and a lot of the menus did specify which oils they cooked their food in.  Pescetarians would be fine as there are lots of fish and seafood options.
• Despite being on an island and with many restaurants only 100m from the beach, most of the seafood and fish seems to be frozen (which they are honest enough to put on the menu), it was all very tasty, but a bit disappointing that there were not more fresh fish dishes.
• The variety of food on the menus can sometimes be overwhelming, but I don't think you'd be disappointed - one tip, if you like reading menus after you've chosen the waiting staff will leave you alone!  To signify that you are ready to order, everyone on the table needs to close their menus.