Greece: Naoussa Restaurant
My sister and I wanted to try tomato fritters, a traditional Santorini dish, before we left the island. With only one meal left, we made sure fritters were on the menu before stepping foot in Naoussa Restaurant:
Which meant the sole server in the entire restaurant had a lot of time to chat with us. He was incredibly gregarious and joked nonstop with my father...even after my father accidentally guessed the server's age to be a decade older than he actually was.
The bottom layer was made of some kind of spiced bread/cake.
The food at Naoussa was good, though not exactly outstanding. However, what made the meal so enjoyable was our interactions with the server. We learned that he hailed from Cyprus and didn't get to see his young son very often. He told us about how crazy things get during peak season.
As the night went on and the tables filled, he had less and less time for us. However, he refused to let us go home. Parties that arrived after us ate and left, but we remained. Instead of bringing us the bill as we requested, he brought us more wine. We had no other plans and it was our last night in Santorini, so we didn't mind. We had a blast watching my father get more and more giggly the tipsier he became. But when we started yawning, the server finally took pity on us and set us free.
If you're in Santorini over the holidays, Naoussa is a great restaurant option. (It's even open on Christmas Day!) The food is decent, the portions filling, and the prices reasonable for the island. It's a great place to just sit down and take your time enjoying a meal.
And should you swing by, make sure to say hi to our Cypriot friend for us!
Naoussa Restaurant
next to the Central Orthodox Church, Fira 84700, Greece
+30 2286 021277
http://naoussa.restaurant/
When we arrived, there were only one or two tables occupied. The rest of the restaurant was empty:
Which meant the sole server in the entire restaurant had a lot of time to chat with us. He was incredibly gregarious and joked nonstop with my father...even after my father accidentally guessed the server's age to be a decade older than he actually was.
My sister and I were appalled ("Always go low, Dad!" "I was going low!"), but luckily, the server wasn't offended by my father's gaffe. He even brought us complimentary house wine:
That made us feel really special...until we realized that complimentary wine was brought to every table that hadn't ordered drinks.
The baked lamb in lemon sauce (16.80€) also helped assuage our disappointment:
The spaghetti "Naoussa" (13.20€) was a mix of carbonara and tomato sauce:
At the end of the meal, we were brought more free stuff in the form of these dessert cups:
That made us feel really special...until we realized that complimentary wine was brought to every table that hadn't ordered drinks.
Oh, well. Free is free.
We started off the meal with a dip sampler (16€):
The dips included tzatziki, eggplant dip, tarama (smoked fish), cheese dip, mashed fava bean, beet dip, and egg salad. The standouts were the eggplant and the tarama. The portion sizes of each individual dip might have seemed tiny, but there was plenty to go around. We ran out of pita before we ran out of dip.
The dips included tzatziki, eggplant dip, tarama (smoked fish), cheese dip, mashed fava bean, beet dip, and egg salad. The standouts were the eggplant and the tarama. The portion sizes of each individual dip might have seemed tiny, but there was plenty to go around. We ran out of pita before we ran out of dip.
We were really excited to order the tomato fritters, but all our dreams came to a crashing halt when the server told us they were out. We were similarly let down when we tried to order the next best thing, eggplant croquettes.
Instead, we had to make do with moussaka (11€):
The baked lamb in lemon sauce (16.80€) also helped assuage our disappointment:
The spaghetti "Naoussa" (13.20€) was a mix of carbonara and tomato sauce:
At the end of the meal, we were brought more free stuff in the form of these dessert cups:
The bottom layer was made of some kind of spiced bread/cake.
The food at Naoussa was good, though not exactly outstanding. However, what made the meal so enjoyable was our interactions with the server. We learned that he hailed from Cyprus and didn't get to see his young son very often. He told us about how crazy things get during peak season.
As the night went on and the tables filled, he had less and less time for us. However, he refused to let us go home. Parties that arrived after us ate and left, but we remained. Instead of bringing us the bill as we requested, he brought us more wine. We had no other plans and it was our last night in Santorini, so we didn't mind. We had a blast watching my father get more and more giggly the tipsier he became. But when we started yawning, the server finally took pity on us and set us free.
If you're in Santorini over the holidays, Naoussa is a great restaurant option. (It's even open on Christmas Day!) The food is decent, the portions filling, and the prices reasonable for the island. It's a great place to just sit down and take your time enjoying a meal.
And should you swing by, make sure to say hi to our Cypriot friend for us!
Naoussa Restaurant
next to the Central Orthodox Church, Fira 84700, Greece
+30 2286 021277
http://naoussa.restaurant/
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