Naoussa Restaurant (Santorini, Greece)

With as many restaurants as there are in Santorini, one would think that proprietors would do everything they could to please the people who walk through their doors and not deliberately offend paying guests. Unless you want to quite possibly be treated badly, however, and maybe still not get anything to eat, you will want to make a point of avoiding the Naoussa Restaurant here. 

As guests of the Atlantis Hotel next door, my wife and I and the other couple we are with here had had our eyes on Naoussa for several days and, after a day exploring the island, decided to get cleaned up and go over there for dinner one night. When we got there, a man who we understand to be the owner sized us up and asked us if we had reservations. This seemed like an absolutely absurd question, as the place was almost empty and not more than half the tables actually had anyone sitting at them! 

We told him we did not and, at that point, everything might have ended well enough if we had just walked away. The proprietor, however, a fellow that looked something like a little Mickey Rourke, offered to recommend "another restaurant," which immediately got my hackles up, as the last thing I need is someone assessing which restaurant is appropriate for me. 

Declining his offer for guidance to whatever restaurant he thought would be more suitable for us, we started to leave and -- ideally just would have -- when the maitre'd said that yes, they actually did have a table for us! He then had a waiter lead us down a set of stairs to the lower level of the restaurant, which was also about half full and, while not as airy, did have one side open to the sea. One of the tables had children at it and this was the clearly the area intended for parties that the restaurant did not want displayed in it most public areas and I was trying to figure out which of the empty tables they would seat us at. 

They led us right through through this area, however, right past a laundry room and into a stifling vault at the back of the restaurant that was clearly being used as a storage area! At that point, thoroughly disgusted, with my wife beginning to gasp from the close atmosphere and the waiter starting to clear debris off the unused table in this grim space, we did finally all just turn around and walk away. 

A little research revealed that three other restaurants are affiliated with Naoussa Restaurant, Ellis Restaurant, Daphne Family Tavern, and Olympos Family Greek Tavern. While I have not eaten at any of them and cannot comment on their food I would not go to any of them for fear of suffering the same humiliating treatment as the result of a prevailing attitude shared by all of them. 

I am not sure what prompted the staff at Naoussa to treat us the way they did but I really don't care that much about the reasons. I put up with this sort of horrible crap for years when I was a soldier or a student backpacking around Europe and I am done with it. A restaurant that acts this way toward potential patrons does not deserve business from anyone. It bears mentioning, in any event, that our group consisted of two young to middle-aged couples and that we had gotten cleaned up and dressed for dinner and were not in any way grungy, attired in beachwear, or the like. We also had money that we did not and never will spend at Naoussa or any of the other establishments affiliated, and have a platform for warning other people about what they can expect from this strange and unfortunate place. They can be sure that the comments that appear here will also be reflected on TripAdvisor and a number of other travel-oriented sites.