Maritsa

A captains' café by the water

Maritsa is at Pera Panta, the shore opposite Galaxidi's big harbour, with tables almost on the quay and the colourful village on the other side of the water. The building was a café where Galaxidi's captains met in the nineteenth century; Maritsa turned it into a restaurant in 1984. Over the years it became known for Ioulia's pies and walnut cake, and later Agis, her partner, brought cooking learned on Tinos. Today the house is still run by the family, with their sons Petros and Spyros.

What you eat

The menu, in Greek and English, is short and revolves around the sea. To start, white-roe taramosalata, smoked aubergine purée with tahini and herring, fava with spring onion and capers, and a black lentil salad with smoked mackerel. Among the marinated dishes, sea bass carpaccio with lime, ginger and pink pepper, and a sea bream ceviche with chilli.

Of the seafood, what is ordered most are the local mussels steamed with lemon, ginger and garlic, grilled octopus with black tarama and shrimp saganaki with tomato, feta and capers. There is pasta to share: orzo (giouvetsi) with prawns, linguine with bisque, calamarata with mussels and turmeric, black spaghetti with seafood, and a seafood paella for two. For those who do not want fish, beef burger and tagliata with potatoes. The fish of the day goes on the grill.

The wine list is almost all Greek: malagousia and assyrtiko from Argyriou and Alpha Estate, Santorini from Gavalas, retsina from Malamatina and house wine in a half-litre jug, as well as tsipouro and ouzo in 200 ml bottles. The website menu does not publish prices; ask the price of fish by weight before ordering it.

Getting there and when to go

From the Agora harbour you walk along the shore in a few minutes. It opens every day from 12:00 to 23:00, so it suits both lunch after Delphi and dinner watching the village lights come on. It is one of the places that fill up early at weekends: book by phone. If you are staying in the centre, the walk back along the quay at night is part of the dinner.