P i g h i a n o s   C a m p o s   -   R e t h y m n o n   -   C r e t e   Taverna Baonakis is a very popular traditional restaurant at  Pighianos Campos which is one of the hotel suburbs of the port town of  Rethymnon, on the north coast of the island of  Crete.   Inside it provides room for 180 guests. When the sun shines both locals and tourists prefer to sit outside on the terrace and enjoy the Cretan specialties. The menu of course includes the standard Greek and international dishes, but people in the know order Cretan mezedes: That is a varied mix of small dishes which are placed in the middle of the table, and everyone serves himself just according to his personal taste.   Ioannis ("Yannis") Baonakis and his family follow very old cooking recipes and do the shoppings in the traditional way as well. All ingredients come from local production. They also take care that all providers will use only local products. So the bread is from the bakery in the neighbouring village, and the baker exclusively uses flour from a neighbouring mill, where they only use cereals from the neighbouring farmers.   For some years now there have been governmental promotion programs for restaurants which work this way, and they even get money from the European Union, but Yannis does not participate in these programs. He always cooked the same way as he does it today, and he does not intend to change it. The taverna's success supports his point of view. It is not only popular among the holiday-makers who stay in Pighianos Campos and the neighbouring villages but also among the locals who like to use it for family parties such as baptisms or weddings.   During the tourism season, bigger groups are well advised to reserve a table by phone. In Crete they have baptisms and weddings all-year and some days they might be fully booked.   There are also some aparthotels in the neighboorhoud who stopped running their own in-house restaurants, and instead just send their guests to Yannis both for breakfast and for dinner: It is just impossible to maintain a comparable standard in a small in-house restaurant. During the winter, Pighianos Campos is closed except for Taverna Baonakis. In the guestroom there is a large open fireplace and one can meet people from all corners of the world who travel Crete outside the times of buzzling tourism.     Text by Ingo H. Dietrich Photos by Matthias Konopka     Taverna Baonakis Ioannis Baonakis Pighianos Kampos GR - 74100 Rethymnon Phone 0030 28310 72252 You are visitor #   5 4 1 5   View the guestbook Sign the guestbook Recommend this site to a friend Recommendations: The Internet Catalog of Crete Apartments & Studios Holiday Villa Holiday Villas Private property for sale

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