Restaurants of Chania, Crete

Nikos Tsepetis is not only the owner and manager of the popular Ammos Hotel . He is also a lover of good Greek food, as he should be. The Ammos hotel has one of the best restaurants you will find in an hotel. Forget what you have heard about lousy food in hotel restaurants. The Ammos has two middle-aged Greek ladies cooking traditional Cretan dishes using local vegetables, meat, fish and of course the excellent olive oil which the island is famous for. These are his favorite restaurants in Chania and the surrounding area.

"Thalassino Ageri" is a fish restaurant in the old and very aristocratic quartier of Chalepa next to the old leather factories (out of old city, open at night), with tables on the rocks and great views of the harbor (park yr car and walk around the area, see the old neoclassical houses, visit the house of Venizelos, the most prolific greek leader of last century, which is beautifully turned into museum and the very pretty russian church « Agia Magdalini ».

  "Manos" fish restaurant in the port of Nea Chora (next to the harbor, open all day long) is laid-back and reasonably priced ( i like it beacuse it s less touristy and very greek, and Manos he is a good guy)
"The Well of the Turk" in the old quartier of Spalntzia (old city, open night) is Arabic-Cretan fusion in a mystical enviroment ( see the interior, try the eggplant balls and go early if u want to avoid the crowd).

  "Anaplus" (old city, open night) is beautifuly located in an old venetian ruin,excellent « ofto » (meat cooked with ceramic mud).

  "Antigoni" & "Apostolis" are fish restaurants in the old city (open all day long), on the beach front with amazing views to the light house and preferred by the wealthy locals.

"Karnagio" (next to the beautiful old custom house, recently turned into the impressive center of the mediterranean architecture, open all day long) is a classic place with the bigest range of food (good food but too big for me)
"Tamam" (old city, open all day) again not my cup of tea (very saucy) but people love it.

My favorite trips for food hunting are: Therisso and Zourva villages.

To go to Therisso u drive through a beautiful gorge (it s good if u r not athletic enough to dare the famous Samaria gorge or the not so famous but equally pretty Imbros gorge in the amazing region of Sfakia, the only place in Greece where the men keep the good old tradition of vendeta), stop at the village and visit the local museum  (the cretan revolution against Turks started here) and the stone-mill monument of Crissi Tsepeti (my grand grand grand mother) who the very moralistic  legend says that Turks smashed her head at the mill to punish her for not succumbing to their sexual attacks) then  on yr way to Zourva you drive on a cliff with a view to die for and at Zourva there is the very good restaurant of Emilia's, (old cretan lady very gossipy but good for u, she speaks only Greek:-), the place is open day and night.

  Rabdoucha Beach (looks like Amalfi in Italy ) before Kissamos  has the best italian restaurant I have found in Greece by a Sicilian chef, called Don Rosario (that's a find! Ask for the sun dried tuna fillet)., Open from early in the afternoon

Other villages: Neo Chorio, Armeni, Stylos, Fres (very Nice!), Tzitzifes (a very good restaurant called Tzitzifies, open all day).
Near Chania there is the village Perivolia and my favorite joint (never seen any tourist here) called Tsikas or O Pirgos. It's like a kafenio with the best pork souvlaki, best french fries, best meat balls and unbelievable cheap, it s better to take a taxi to go, otherwise u never find it. Unfortunately lately he only grills at night, around 9pm.

Falassarna beach (among the top 10 beaches of the world according to conde nast traveller)   has the best fish soup, aka Kakavia, at Kapetan Nikolas and in the village of Vlatos (on yr wayt o the spectacular elafonissi beach and the even better kedrodasos beach) go to Milia Agricultural Unit, a very good restaurant using only organic products. (both they are open day and night)

In the south I love the beach Anidri at Paliochora, and there is a small canteen which has very decent food (try the octapus salad) and then u can walk up to the village Anidri (one good  hour walk, or go with the car). It is a beautiful village and there is a very nice restaurant called Sholio (the old primary school) with a modern and inspired cuisine but mostly with amazing views to the south coast sea.

If u stay at Ammos Hotel make sure that u dont leave the place before u  try the dolmades and the « marathopita »( dill pie) and ask them to make specially for  u « katsiki augolemono » (goat in egg and lemon sauce) and the utterly famous cretan pilafi (aka wedding rice)

That's all for the moment. I hope this is helpful to your readers.
Nikos Tsepetis
Ammos Hotel  

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