Chrisostomos

Chrisostomos is a no-frills Cretan seafood taverna in the Tabakaria leather-tanner district just east of the old harbour, in a stone-walled room that opens directly onto the water. The chairs are wooden, the tablecloths are paper, the fish board is updated by hand every morning, and the whole operation has been doing the same things since 1979 with no apparent intention of changing.

The cooking is Cretan-tavern-uncompromising. Whole grilled red mullet with olive oil and lemon; octopus grilled over charcoal with vinegar and capers; sea bream salt-baked at the table; the iconic kakavia fisherman's soup; Cretan dakos with mizithra and oregano; sardines preserved in the kitchen and grilled to order. The catch comes off the boats moored fifty metres from the kitchen and the restaurant does not bother with anything that did not.

The wine programme is short and entirely Cretan — house Vidiano and Vilana poured by the carafe at fair prices; a bottle list of forty Cretan references; a small Aegean section. The raki at the end of every meal is from the proprietor's village. There is no pretence at international wine and the kitchen is better for it.

Service is led by the proprietor's family, runs at the slow Cretan tavern pace, and is unfailingly warm to international visitors. The room fills nightly with locals and tourists who have been correctly directed there. The bill, considering the quality of the fish, is genuinely the best value in the city. It is the most reliable best-fish-for-the-money dinner on the western Cretan coast.

Chrisostomos is a team-dinner room in the Cretan tavern register — long shared tables, mezze platters built around grilled fish, raki flowing freely through the evening, and a per-head bill that nobody complains about. It is also the right casual first dinner for a couple who would rather eat with locals than with tourists, and the right solo-dining counter spot for a traveller who wants real Crete on a working budget.