traveldk.com

I would like to share for all the interested public the awful experience we had in so-called ‘exclusive Avli Restaurant’ in Rethymo, Crete on 19th of September 2008. Although the Hotel Manager has strongly suggested not to go to that restaurant; trusting all the positive comments we have read in various publications, hoping to have memorable last night in Crete, my husband and I have arrived at the restaurant. I have to admit that one of the very few Professional approach was the greeting at the door upon our arrival. (And the only other was the waitress who was serving the drinks and water) After we have been seated, the waiter has brought us the menu and we have given our order. My husband has asked for the calamari as starter and ‘dorado’ as the main course and I have asked for pork as starter and ‘baby veal cutlets as the main course. As soon as the starters arrived, I have realised that the portion of the starter was too big, so I have asked the waiter to cancel the main course, if possible. As he did not understand English, he has answered yes, but neither returned back with an answer nor referred to another waiter who can speak English in order to assist us. 10 minutes later I was able to ‘literally’ catch up a waiter and he said it was too late. When I mentioned that I have voiced this request approximately 10-15 minutes ago he told me that that specific waiter did not understand English so he could not understand what we have said, we should have found an English speaking waiter. At this point, I would like to ask if this is an answer one should expect at an international – again so-called - ‘top of the lists’ restaurant. The least we would expect was some training about how to treat to the guests at this type of a restaurant. Unfortunately this was not the end of the ‘horrifying’ experience. The calamari my husband was so chewy – not marinated enough – that it was unedible. Even in the small ‘village restaurant’ in Loutro, we had way beter quality then this. He has ordered ‘dorado’ as the main course and what we have received was a bream – to be more precise ‘a gilt head bream’. My husband has special interest in fish, so he can name any fish on the spot and when we asked about this, the answer we have received was ‘this is what we call Dorado here’ and without saying any other word, the waiter disappeared.

about a year ago