Tales from a Greek island part three …… the restaurant on the hill with a story

It was our third day on the island, and we had already tired of the sea front restaurants, which offered much the same food and pretty much the same views.

And so, I suppose it was that combination of boredom and curiosity which took us across a field and up a steep flight of steps to “Lorraine’s Magic Hill”, which offered fresh and organic food, collected in the morning from their own fields and cooked that evening.

A measure of the popularity of the place was that on each of our three visits the restaurant was fully booked, with more than a few of the customers  returning again, and in some cases were loyal regular visitors who had been coming for years.

And we could see why, because while there was plenty of traditional Greek food on the menu, many of the dishes had been imaginatively enhanced by Lorraine’s style of cooking.

At which point I could reel off what we had eaten and what we wish we could have eaten, but that can be easily remedied by anyone who follows the link to their site.

Instead I shall focus on the restaurant, its location and above all Lorraine, her three daughters and the remaining seventeen staff who make the place special.

Which brings me to the story, because Lorraine is part Austrian, part German and part American, and comes from Montana.

She fell in love with “the love of her life” when she was just seventeen, and the pair decided to open a restaurant.

And the rest as they say, was a lot of hard work, steel determination, and a love of food, especially Greek food.

They open at 7.30 in the evening, but Lorraine will have been there since the morning, having taken a swim in the sea, while thinking of what mix of fresh food could be combined for the evening meals.

It is an approach which does sometimes lead to surprises with the meals that had been decided upon the night before undergoing slight changes as Lorraine tweaks a dish with a variation of herbs or a combination of different vegetables.

So it was, that on one of our nights there, a new aubergine starter was added, because the crop lifted from the field that morning was so perfect it required to be given its own special place on the menu.

And there were plenty more dishes which you could see were the product of that imaginative approach.

In turn, they were set off by the views from the restaurant out across the bay, which as the sun set were spectacular, to which can be added the friendliness of the staff their attentiveness and a few added little touches which I think I will leave you to discover.

Location; Lourdas Beech, Kefalonia

Pictures; Lorraine’s Magic Hill, 2019, from the collection of Balzano

* Lorraine’s Magic Hill, https://lorrainesmagichilllourdas.com/