Taverna Bouraki, Chania, Crete

On our first day in Crete, the hotel recommended a local taverna that would treat us well. We took the recommendation. The kids fell asleep in the car along the way, so we had to carry them into Taverna Bouraki.

The staff was really nice and understood as the children slowly regained consciousness. When we asked about pasta for J, the fellow said, "Spaghetti?" and nodded yes. We ordered just one plate, figuring L would share. We parents ordered from the tourist menu, which includes a starter, salad, main course, and drink. My wife had the fried zucchini flowers (zucchini and cheese deep fried like onion rings or chicken nuggets), Greek salad, village sausages (locally made), and wine. I had stuffed eggplant rolls (a strip of eggplant wrapped around a feta cheese/pine nut/herb concoction that was great), Greek salad, pork souvlaki (a meat kabab nicely spiced), and wine.

Appetizers, with our kilo of wine and cruet of olive oil

Greek salad (for one)

Souvlaki

The portions were quite large. We didn't quite finished the Greek salads (mostly tomatoes, with slices of red and green peppers, cucumbers, and a generous hunk of cheese on top, all drizzled with olive oil) and did our best to eat the luscious mains. Even the kids couldn't finish one plate of pasta between the two of them.

Wine is served by the kilo, so we had a substantial jug to finish between the two of us adults. I did the heavy lifting there, though my wife had a hard time resisting the delicious local wine.

J and L met a boy from another table and they went back and forth hanging out with him (they were English speakers too). We had our iPad with us, so J showed him some of our games. The other parents seemed okay with it.

After dinner, the waiter brought out a quarter of a pineapple sliced up and some baklava, along with a little jug of after dinner wine with very tiny glasses. We tried the wine (called "raki"), which my wife could barely sip ("That's firewater!"). The pineapple was fresh and the baklava was great--usually in America it's soaked in honey and is syrupy. These were light and wonderful. Even though we were stuffed from the big portions prior, we made the effort and finished off this wonderful dessert.

Desserts and appertif!

All the dessert was not extra on the check, I guess it was included in the tourist menu or they are just super generous here. We made it back to the hotel okay and had a very good night's sleep!