For the first time this year we went to Greek Night at the Atki Arilla hotel – it was BRILLIANT, best Greek night we have had in Arillas
We have often called by to Atki Arilla if we wanted a quiet drink in previous years, but had never eaten there I really like Spiros' Bahamas cocktail and a visit there makes a nice relaxing end to the evening. The family who run the hotel are very friendly and hospitable – and always wave to us as we walk up and down to the beach, which is nice!
They charge 25 euros for the Greek Night – which sounds a bit pricey compared to other venues who tend to have normal pricing. However, this is for 4 courses (inc Greek salad) with unlimited wine, along with well over 2 hours of entertainment - it is definitely worth it.
You do not have to stick to the set Greek Night menu, they are quite happy for you to have anything off the menu for the same set price. I am not a big meat eater so had Swordfish instead of pork for mains. The food and service was excellent and the house wine was chilled to perfection and easy drinking (perhaps TOO easy drinking as we had quite a bit – lol!).
The evening started at 8 with the meal, and the Greek dancing started at 9. There was a lot more room than in most places as they had moved a lot of tables in the restaurant to form a dance floor. It was easy to have an uninterrupted view of the dancers.
The dancers posed for pictures initially, and were happy to have guests photographed with them too. They did 3 separate 'sets' changing costumes in between each one. The dances covered all areas of Greece and the islands, and each was briefly described before the music started. At the end of the second and third sets the dancers invited guests to join in which was a real laugh and great fun.
The dancing did not finish until nearly 11.30, and the wine was still flowing freely then. We stayed a little longer then declined yet another refill and made for our bed. I am relieved to say that despite being worried we had over indulged on the wine front – lol – we did not have even the hint of a headache in the morning, proof it was decent stuff!
This really was a brilliant night – good food, good wine, good company, excellent entertainment and service. If you want a great night out give it a try!
Thank you for your BRILLIANT report Judi :-)
Despite the family from the Akti being friendly, always waving to us and making a fuss over my grandson I've not yet dined in their hotel. Now that I have read your post I will make a point of visiting in September/October...mmm...I hope you left some wine in the barrels ;-)
Eileenx
We have always thought it looked hot and stuffy in the Akti , but if the night is as good as you made it sound we may have to give it a try when we are there next year .
Yammas
Dave n Anne
Think we will give it a go as well sound smashing value. Viv
This is what the Forums all about.
Thought we knew Arillas quite well but we are still "Learners"
We've never been in the Akti but have stopped and chatted to,the owner, I think.
It looks good in there. We thought possibly to pricey for us but how do we know if we don't checkout the menu? - Never assume I 'spose.
4 courses, unlimited wine & entertainment. - How much in England for all that??
Negg
Have to say, we stopped @ the Akti, and the best sight of the day was Spiros, waiting to greet us, at about silly time, with a smile, and some coffee.
am definitely going to "drag" my family along there next week!
good on ya gaye.
Sounds like a very good night there. We went to the Greek Night at the Horizon. We normally give them a miss, seen quite a few Greek Nights in our time. We have seen better dancers than at the Horizon though, they didnt seem to be very inspired and not sure what they were doing. They seem to be a bit more commercialised now with the taped music.
Our special memories of Greek Nights are when they have a live band, the young dancers are very engergetic, really get everyone going and then when they have gone the local men and the boys dance, the fathers kneeling and clapping watching their young sons and these little lads dance and twirling and slapping the floor. Really lovely to watch. They dont even do the plate smashing now thank goodness.. I suppose its health and safety or probably the cost of all those broken plates.
We even got told of for plate smashing at the wedding but some locals didnt take to much notice, health and safty gone a bit far or not I wonder. Viv
We happened to be in the Armourda last year when they had a Greek night, would avoid it usually ! I am very sociable usaully but shy when it comes to things like this, but I deceided to join in when they asked for volunteers. I really enjoyed it and Keith and Hannah joined in the second time around, we just had a laugh. So just go and have some fun and learn a little bit of culture.
I think it was the same group as they did three sets and changed costumes.
I dont know why some dancers add some really silly activities... in Agios Gordios one year they ended up getting the men to belly dance taking their shirts of which was not always a good look !!!! Then at the Horizon they got you to bend down put your hand through your legs and grab the hand of the person behind, not good if you are in a skirt. I ducked out of that one, left Lynda high and dry trying to keep up with them all, I was laughing so much it hurt...Then a conga around the pool, not very Greek! I suppose they're trying to get everyone in a party mood.
Hi blondegirl, think we had the same troop as your had. It was at Tria Adelphia. They had us all going round the pool holding hands between legs! It was very funny though, all the guys were terrified of one of the girls, a tall blonde, in case their steps weren't right. We all had a great laugh.
Whereabouts is the Atki Arilla Hotel? Will try that one when we go to Arillas in September.
I think its opposite the two music bars.
The music at Akti was tapped, no live musicians unfortunately - I suppose things have become more commercialised everywhere for these sort of things. We just missed the Arillas festival thingy along past Brouklis which was the day after we left. That seemed to be for ex-pats who all come back to join in, so am guessing that was more authentic?
Must admit, we have more accidentally than on purpose come across Greek Nights before at other places. Having just had the disappointing night at Thalassa we decided to give this a go.
The dancers seemed very professional and I thought extremely good. After the second set they got everyone to join in with the dance where you hold hands following them threading in and out of other dancers (NOT through legs thankfully!) Because of the size of the dance floor created by moving tables into the lounge area there was plenty of room to do this despite a lot of people joining in. No silly belly dancing or embarrassment of any kind.
After the third set they got people to join in again, in a circle holding shoulders Zorba style - moving in and out, up and down (almost okey cokey like if you get me?!) which was quite a giggle. They also got people to copy a couple of movements from dances they had performed - to much clapping and cheering from everyone else. I found myself doing a movement (paired with a smiling Romanian guest) where you hold hands crossed in front of you, lean back, then twiddle round fast on the spot. That was quite fun - good job I had suitable flat shoes on - LOL. I am usually shy about joining in this sort of thing, but am really glad I did.
The food was good - not top notch haute cusine, but nicely cooked and tasty. As said previously, they had a set menu but did not mind you having anything at all from the ordinary menu instead.
One thing I would suggest you check on the menu though is the dessert. As we all know, Greeks dont seem to go for desserts in restaurants like we do. There was a party of Romanians who were having what I think was described as 'Apricots in syrup' We noticed when it came out it looked suspiciously like tinned - which the Romanians seemed delighted with. Not something we would expect in a restaurant so double check what you are going to get so you can choose appropriately. We were quite happy with everything else, my swordfish was fresh and nicely cooked - very tasty. OH had the set Greek dish (cant remember what it was now!) but he said it was nice. He had been enjoying sampling this dish at different places to see the different variations on it (He is a lecturer/professional chef so always on the look out for new ideas etc)
We felt the evening well worth it all-in-all. The whole thing flew by and everyone was friendly and enjoying themselves. The wine genuinely was unlimited, we refused more than we drank - and we drank quite a bit - LOL! They gave us water too at no extra charge - were friendly and hospitable, nothing was too much trouble.
I hope those of you who are going to try it have as much fun as we did.
BTW - you are right, it is virtually opposite the 2 music bars. The restaurant is opposite where the Wok House used to be, just down from Armorada on your way to the sea front, right hand side.