Selene Restaurant

After a major chill by the pool, we went back into Fira for drinks and dinner. 

We had read that Franco's was the place to go for drinks and a killer sunset.  Truthfully, you can't go wrong anywhere watching the sunset but Franco's has a very sweet set up.  Lounge chairs over looking the water where you can put your feet up and sip a delicious drink.  Quite nice.  Our views were spectacular as we watched the sun slowly dip behind the water as if we were sitting on the edge of the world.  We all had a cocktail at Franco's watching the sunset before we walked over to Selene for dinner. 

Selene popped up everywhere when we did our research on Santorini.  They have a cooking class which I attempted to get us into a few months ago to no avail.  My gut tells me that they weren't interesting in the family action after reading about the class.  A little bit of watching, a little bit of eating and a little bit of drinking.  Although the kids would have loved it, I can understand why they were hesitant. 

The restaurant is mostly outside and down the road from the main town which is nice.  An expansive wrap around porch hugging the mountain.  Really beautiful.  The menu is eclectic and innovative vs. traditional Greek which we have seen in most places.  Some of it worked, some of it didn't. 

We began with a little taste from the chef.  Raw white tuna in a small cup of spicy gazpacho.  Nothing to write home about.  The appetizers were the best part.  The kids all opted for the octopus carpacchio served with white eggplant.  Beautifully presented, thinly sliced octopus that rose up above the disc of chopped eggplant that was very flavorful.  I went with the sea urchin.  Two raw clams, pounded down and mixed in with the avocado puree.  Then two artichoke hearts that had the artichoke puree served inside of them and sea urchin inside of that.  The flavors worked and were quite good but you really couldn't taste the sea urchin because the avocado was overpowering but I liked it.  Fred went with the zucchini that was served way too raw and filled with langostines.  He gave it a thumbs down. 

Dinner was mixed reviews all around.  Josh and I went with the lamb.  Although I know fish should have been the call, nothing was calling out my name.  Layered lamb and tomatoes inside rice and feta over the top and grilled.  Think lasagna with the ingredients I just mentioned.  Not that interesting and quite bland.  On the side was a supposed lamb chop but they had taken off the bone and rare/medium rare is not in their vocabulary.  As Josh put it, it tasted gamey although it isn't game.  He was absolutely right.  The girls went with the grouper.  Fillet of grouper grilled.  They loved it, I thought it was boring.  Here is why restaurant critics are not always spot on.  My tastes don't necessarily mean they are yours or my own kids for that matter.  Fred went with the pistachio crusted snapper and didn't like it at all. 

Based on dinner, we blew off dessert and strolled through town.  We returned to NRG Crepe and Josh went with the sweet crepe.  Nutella and banana.  Can't be beat.  He looks happy eating it.  The girls went with gelato.  Jessica was having withdrawals from Florence.  Not the same in Greece but we tried.  After tasting one place, 10 euro a taste.  I actually liked that they charged us because after we tasted everything and decided it wasn't that great at least we paid them for the opportunity.  Instead we went to a place that we had walked by a few times when leaving town which had pretty decent gelato.  The chocolate was the best, the strawberry was a bit too sweet.  The place was called Cafe Karavan.  They also had Greek pastries, bite sized.  It filled everyone's sweet tooth. 

Back to the hotel.  Until tomorrow...