Takis Fish Taverna at Limeni (click for website)
‘A derelict shadowless little port and a group of empty houses bereft of life appeared at the bottom of steep olive-covered rock. There was not a breath of wind and when we left the cover of the caique’s cool awning the sun came stampeding down to the attack. We plunged for shelter into a slovenly kaphenion awhirl with flies.’
This is how, in his book Mani, Patrick Leigh Fermor described ‘…the hot little port of Limeni.’
And now? Beautifully renovated buildings and tower houses of honey coloured stone, not ‘bereft of life’, but still very quiet in the hot lunchtime sun. The ‘derelict port’ lies below the main road (that wasn’t even there in those days), down a steep, narrow lane that was part of the zigzag track that climbed the ‘steep olive-covered rock’.
There is no way of knowing which of the buildings might have been the ‘… slovenly kaphenion …’ but the restaurant ‘Takis’ certainly isn’t it. Down stone steps, and right at the water’s edge, there is a large area of tables, some on the open stone terrace and some under cover, and above these, on a balcony, more tables. At the back of the covered area is the building itself, with the kitchen and a display of fish for your judgement and choice. Just outside this building, on the first day we went, the fisherman was delivering that day’s catch.
And when your choice has been made (sea bass for us), it’s given to a man at the bottom of more stone steps that plunge into the sea, where he guts and scales it, throwing the waste straight into the sea, and from there, it goes to the man at the huge charcoal grill at the back of the terrace.
We went there after going to the market at Areopolis and luckily we got there fairly early for lunch, for in no time at all the place was very busy with couples and families; it was clearly the tavern to go to for local people as well as travellers.
On our second visit, a weekday lunchtime, as soon as we arrived we were greeted by Takis with a look of recognition and when we ordered our food a litre of wine appeared, a gift from Takis himself ... a lovely place altogether.