The Beach Shack right on the beachfront serves tapas-style snacks. It’s popular at lunchtime but there’s a lack of seating (especially seating in the shade). A tuna bun was bland, but the guacamole was creamy and freshly made. The Cretan Mournies restaurant, where food is cooked in a woodfire oven or over charcoal in the traditional way as you watch, really merits five stars – both for food and service. Portions are hearty and full of flavour, vegetables come from the hotel’s own organic garden and the garden-style restaurant is decked out with fairy lights and baskets of brightly coloured fruit and veg. Ask for the meze for two, €17 (£14.50) and watch as the chef pestle-pounds the smoky freshly grilled eggplant to make melitzanosalata at your table. Best of all is the barbecued lamb ofto, slow-cooked and served with big floury potatoes.
Buffet breakfast is served in the light-filled Mediterraneo restaurant with views over the flower-filled gardens. There’s plenty of choice and lots of healthy options: smoothies, juices, nuts and fruit; also hot stations serving the usual eggs, omelettes and bacon but also plenty of cold cuts, including salmon. You can also enjoy a copious Cretan breakfast at Mournies.
Almyra, the Italian restaurant (in a lovely sea view spot), was disappointing: a rib eye steak with boiled potatoes was tasty, but my grilled eggplant starter was burnt and a Tartuffo pizza, consisting of very salty cheese and very ripe smelling mushrooms, was inedible.
