Mr Karamitsos, Navagio is one of the most famous restaurants in Milos, with a great history of 23 years in the field of dining. For you, it’s the first year here, and you’ve already proceeded into significant changes. Tell us a little bit about this.
Changes made have basically to do with the menu. Two skilled persons, Vangelis Moraitis and Vangelis Papaioannou, have undertaken the warm dishes, while Stefanos Kouvaris is in charge of the cold ones. It’s a talented team that has worked in Spondi and Varoulko, two amazing restaurants with awarded cuisine. We also made some changes throughout the external image of the place, the furnishing, so as the restaurant to be bale to go ahead and compete with the rest.
You have completed your first months of operation and we already see the warm response of the people, who seem to have loved your cuisine. The Mediterranean cuisine is actually a little misunderstood… In which way does Navagio serve this type of flavours?
At the beginning I was concerned about that too. I was worried about leaving the Greek cuisine and famous seafood and enter the Mediterranean recipes. But by saying Mediterranean cuisine we mean Greek flavors that are actually “teased”, such us the octopus carpaccio for instance, which combines Greek and Italian kitchen.
Given the high quality and standards you have already created and undoubtedly Navagio offers, how accessible is it for the average Greek or the foreigner tourist to taste your dishes?
Well, we changed all the rest, but we kept the prices at low levels, just because of these difficult times we’re all going through. Our aim is to attract the people and not scare them with the image of a serious profile. Now more and more people get to know our service and cuisine and it turns out that they love what we have to offer.
Tell us about the wine list in Navagio Restaurant.
Dionysis Psaraiais, who has worked in the Astir Palace of Vouliagmeni, but also in many European restaurants, carefully curated the wine list. He is a great sommelier and specialized in wine, and chose labels that harmonically match our menu and Mediterranean flavours.
What are your plans for the future?
We hope for the best in Greece so as the local businesses like ours to continue running. Furthermore, we are interested in expanding the culinary options offered in Navagio, getting more staff and become more competitive.