Karpathos Restaurants: Tavernas by Area

Karpathos keeps its tavernas around the port of Pigadia and the beaches, with fish restaurants at Finiki and Lefkos on the west coast and small family tavernas in the green highland villages. The island is large and its eating places are spread across it, so this guide is grouped by area to help you find a table near where you are staying. A hire car makes reaching the village and beach tavernas far easier.

Port dining

Pigadia

Fish villages

Finiki & Lefkos

Beach taverns

Amopi & the coast

Village tavernas

The highlands

Pigadia and the port

Pigadia has the widest choice of eating on Karpathos, with restaurants and shops ringing the port and the traffic-free boulevard. Wooden fishing boats and the ferries come into the harbour, so the waterside tables get the working-port view, and the town beach and its hotels run north from here. As the capital and main port, Pigadia is the easiest place to eat well without a long drive.

Amopi, Afiartis and the south

Amopi, the main resort south of Pigadia, has a good number of taverns spread among its bays, with snack bars on the sandy beach. Nearby Afiartis, the windsurfing bay by the airport, has several restaurants and a supermarket; the Hotel Poseidon restaurant sits in a garden of bougainvillea above the beach and serves fresh fish, seafood and local dishes. This southern strip is the handiest area to eat if you are staying near the airport or Amopi.

The mountain villages

The green highland villages keep small, traditional tavernas away from the coast. Aperi has supermarkets and taverns, and Othos has a mini-market, taverns and restaurants. Around Volada, walkers rest at Tannassis Tavern on the mountain paths, and small local places nearby - among them Klimataria and Antonios Tavern, known for its shrimp souvlaki - serve honest Greek cooking, with pizza and Greek salad to be had in Othos. These villages suit a slow evening meal among the Greeks rather than the tourists.

Finiki and Lefkos

The west-coast fishing villages are the place for fresh fish. Around the harbour of Finiki you find a number of fish restaurants that are especially popular with the islanders themselves. Lefkos, further north, has a small fishing port and a wide choice of tavernas along its bays, plus the Potali Bay pizza restaurant and cafe near the gently sloping beach. Both make a good lunch stop on a west-coast drive.

The beach tavernas

Several of the quieter beaches have a single good taverna and little else. At Achata on the east coast, Anna's Place is the beach taverna, with a few sunbeds and parasols and no other facilities. Damatria in the south has the Taverna Poseidon by the sand, Kyra Panagia has a few taverns and a mini-market behind its white-sand bay, and Agios Nikolaos beach at Arkasa has a few tavernas among its restaurants and shops. Knowing which beach has a kitchen is worth planning before you set out.

Diafani and the north

Diafani, the northern fishing harbour and second port, has restaurants, bars and tavernas close to the quay, handy before or after the boat trip to Olympos or the islet of Saria. It is the natural place to eat in the far north of the island, where roads are few and villages small.