Candouni Restaurant, Oia

We went to this restaurant in mid-August of 2020. It seats about 60 people and on a hot August night was very warm with tables on top of each other. We were lucky no smokers were next to us. They also had 2 local musicians...playing traditional Greek music which was very enjoyable. We had the owner as our server who speaks excellent English and told us he treated his customers as if they were visiting his home. As we learned later, this was not going to be the case. The positives of this restaurant were the food. The fresh fish was very good, a small bass/levraki filet that was reasonably priced and not charged by the gram as most upper tier restaurants charge for their fresh fish and had a very unique “head up”presentation (see photos)and was accompanied by fresh vegetables which were also very good. We ordered many appetizers which were a mixed in quality. The tzetziki was excellent but the domatokeftedes/tomato fritters were large but over fried and had a lot of flour or other mixer in them.(see photo) Now about that owner. One of the persons at our table said their house wine was overpriced at 34E per bottle. The owner heard her say this and went into an angry rage. He yelled at our table that it was reasonable pricing for the vineyard where it came from and people who come to Santorini and spend $1,000.00 per night for hotel rooms shouldn’t complain about prices. We were all shocked at this behavior since it was a private conversation and he had no idea where we were staying. Bottom line for Candouni, enjoy the food - avoid the owner.More

Pretty much the exact scenario as what LucieD671 wrote. The owner/waiter just ruined the evening by just going mental and shouting just for politely asking for the bill the second time after other customers received theirs and they asked after us so a normal person...would assume they just forgot; this is the when I asked again (nicely - I can''t stress this enough!) and he just went mental; shouting at me and my girlfriend for asking for the bill 5 times ; he says "this is an island, we are chilled here" - can you see the irony in that statement alone - my word. Avoid - tourists are human beings too ...More

Where to begin... we went there because our hotel suggested it to us but they’ve never tried it. The place was empty but we decided to go anyway, the setting was cute, candles roses ect.. The waitress was polite, maybe to much and it started...to feel weird, we ordered two glasses of wine and tried to sell us a bottle. Then she always said something when ordering the food to push us to get more and more saying it wasn’t enough. Diner was good, the prawns were just warm. Meanwhile the guy(probably the owner) from the clothing store in front came in and randomly started to serve dishes out of nowhere. He started shouting with some junky woman, awkward situation. When we finished our diner no one cared for us anymore , we requested the bill but a table of greek people arrived and they didn’t bring our bill for another 20 minutes. When finally it arrived we noticed a big red stamp on it written « service not included « . I felt like we ended up in a tourist trap. I went to the cashier to pay and this weird man asked me if I wanted to leave a tip for the waitress. I answered that I usually leave it on the table and never seen such a stamp on any of the taverns I’ve visited for the last week. From then he started to be agressif and told me now you not my customer anymore, you go! Also said: this is a restaurant not a tavern and it is my restaurant I do what I want. Many more details I won’t write. I felt terrible, this is the worst and only place I’ve been treated like this in my whole life. When I went back to the hotel the girl from reception told me it’s not normal at all to write the service is not included, indeed this is nog America.. I guess he got used to USA people leaving ridiculous amounts every time and insulted everyone not being part of the game Please do not go!!! Just because it’s not right to support people whom treat their clients this way Oh and he charged my credit card in my currency without asking, which I will get a real bad exchange for itMore

This place sits in a back street of Oia which is actually nice given that the caldera front walk is just way too busy to be pleasant. So u don’t have the caldera view but U sit In a pleasant little patio with lots of...flowers. Place is busy which is a testimony of its good food quality. And the food was actually pretty tasty - we had vegetable and fish and lamb and all was very well prepared. Too bad that the (apparently) owner takes a bit of a heavy handed attitude towards its customers. The man is just Uber défensive as to anything that concerns his restaurant and time-tested recipes. Take him mentally out of the picture and this place is a good place to eat.More

The food here was tapas and didn’t sound like much so we ordered loads but when it came it was actually too much really. The waitress seemed rather offended when we couldn’t manage it all actually, and insisted that we took it home with us!...The atmosphere was dark, candlelit and cosy with lovely decor outside, but the service was very slow and we had to ask for the bill several times before it actually came. Wouldn’t write home about it.More

We went to this cute family restaurant six years ago and had a great meal we hence decided to visit here again on our last night. It took nearly 30 minutes to have our order taken but the wine that was recommended was delicious as...was the bread and accompanying dips. We ordered a prawn starter which was fabulous but ......then it starts to go downhill. Our main course of the ‘house speciality’ lamb arrived whilst we were still eating our starter ...we were told that ‘oh, Greek food all comes at the same time’ by the Maitre-D.....but if this was the case, then the table wasn’t large enough for all the plates. The lamb meal, especially the vegetables, was very cold - which we mentioned to the waiter so our plates were removed whilst a new version was made. When this arrived, the lamb ( which was very tasty) was hot but the vegetables were again cold - we mentioned this when asked by the Maitre D if it was all ok? - to be told that the food was served at room temperature.... again we said it wasn’t even warm, and before we knew it, the plates were whisked away from us very aggressively by the ‘maitre-d’, saying ‘we will make you another one!’, despite my husbands protestations that we couldn’t eat any more - the Maitre-D sped off to he kitchen with the plates! After a pause of a few minutes, my husband went to the kitchen area to ask them not to cook another version as we were over it by this point and not to bring any more food. He had to louden his voice as he felt he wasn’t being listened to, and the Maitre D and chef started shouting at him! I asked for the bill and queried if they were really going to charge us for the lamb. At this point the Maitre-D threatened to call the police. He asked the table next to us how their food was - when they also said it was cold, this he just ignored them! We received terrible service and I am sure that the police have better things to do than attend a restaurant where a charge for a meal is queried. The bill wasn’t Cheap but we paid just to get away!More

We ate at 8.30 and the restaurant had live music which wasn’t really to our taste (two traditional Greek players) and was a bit warm and humid. The waitress was grumpy and pretty much ignored us. She wasn’t welcoming. The waiter was pushy and slightly...aggressive but we played along and ordered tapas to start and two mains together with their own (not the house) white wine. The food was amazing. It was really good. Tasty, fresh, well presented and good value. The service was slow and the atmosphere was worth it! We would go back.More