Two of us ate for 30 euros. The food wasn't bad: a greek salad (moderate, quite boring) and lamb souvlaki (rather small and dull) plus two cheap, fun puddings, bread, a glass of wine and a coke. The service was friendly and very good: they treated us well. The balcony was a pleasant place to dine. We also ate at Aquarius, Aiolos, Apostolis, The Pines and Flamingo (all better than Gallera) and at Scandinavia (worse). Aiolos was the pick of the bunch, for both food and location.

Two of us ate for 30 euros. The food was good: local salmon stuffed with spinach and cheese (delicious though small) and lamb stuffed with vine leaves, feta and wine (also tasty but meagre) plus bread, a beer and a coke. The service was friendly and good: fairly efficient. The atmosphere was pleasant enough. We also ate at Aiolos and The Pines (better than Aquarius), at Apostolis and Flamingo (similar) and at Gallera and Scandinavia (worse). Aiolos was the pick of the bunch, for both food and location.

Two of us ate for 27 euros. The food was excellent: Kefalonian meat pie (properly meaty and really good, and much better than the one at Scandinavia) and a seafood platter (delicious, large and varied) plus bread, a glass of wine and a lemonade. The service was very friendly and orderly. The atmosphere was second-to-none: the promenade location really is outstanding. We also ate at The Pines (not far short of Aiolos), at Aquarius, Apostolis, Flamingo, Gallera and Scandinavia (all worse, but Aiolos was the pick of the bunch, for both food and location).

Two of us ate for 28 euros. The food was rather bland: soutsoukakia meatballs (reminiscent of school dinners) and Kefalonian meat pie (inspired by the wonderful one we had at Aiolos, but in this case moderate at best) plus bread, half a bottle of retsina and two lemonades. The service was efficient enough. The atmosphere was spoiled by the screening of a football match, but this was of course our fault for not checking. We also ate at Aiolos, The Pines, Aquarius, Apostolis and Flamingo (all better than Scandinavia) and at Gallera (about the same). Aiolos was the pick of the bunch, for both food and location.

Two of us ate for 26 euros (an outstanding price). The food was very good: beef stifado (though it was described as veal on the menu, it was a prime cut and excellent) and chicken souvlaki (tender and succulent) plus bread, and two lemonades (that must be how we saved money!). The service was good. As another reviewer has written, we found wasps a real problem and they hastened the end of our meal: they were very persistent. That spoiled the meal a bit. We also ate at Aiolos and The Pines (better than Apostolis), Aquarius and Flamingo (similar) and at Scandinavia and Gallera (worse). Aiolos was the pick of the bunch, for both food and location.

Two of us ate for 25 euros. The food was outstanding: kleftico lamb (melt-in-the-mouth with an incredible flavour: quite simply the best lamb we'd ever tasted) and Cobb salad (good, strong flavours) plus bread, tsatsiki, fried Feta cheese and half a bottle of robola. The service was like lightning: we were served in about three minutes flat. The already-pleasant atmosphere was improved hugely by the celebrity presence of Roy Hattersley on the next table. We also ate at Aiolos (the only restaurant to rival The Pines) and Aquarius, Apostolis, Flamingo, Gallera and Scandinavia.

Flamingo appears to have scored quite badly on this website, but evidently only owing to the reviewers being irritated by cats and the upper classes. The restaurant was, we thought, better than that. Two of us ate for 32 euros. The food was fine: chicken Caesar salad (easy enough to do well, but the chicken wasn't warm) and a steak charcutiere (very tasty medium rare, done very well) plus bread, half a bottle of robola and two lemonades. The service was good. It was rather packed in the courtyard, and consequently a little hot. We also ate at Aiolos and The Pines (which were great), at Aquarius and Apostolis (similar to Flamingo) and at Scandinavia and Gallera (the poorer relations, we felt). Aiolos was the pick of the bunch, for both food and location.

I have stayed in many two and three star hotels all over Europe, and I would recommend this hotel.

We visited Skala during the last week of August 2005. It was not too crowded and there was always plenty of space on the beach and in the restaurants and bars. The temperature was 27 to 34 degrees Celsius but a pleasant, cooling breeze made the hotter hours tolerable.

We made a tour of Ithaca with Panem (using their office on the main street in Skala) for 29 euros each. We had already made the Discover Kefalonia tour with Thomson. If only we'd known at the time: Thomson and its rivals offer exactly the same tours, but Thomson is twice as expensive. There is no other difference between the tours (air conditioned coaches on both tours).

We made a tour of Kefalonia with Thomson (through the holiday rep, after the morning welcome meeting) for 36 euros each. We later made the Ithaca tour with Panem. If only we'd known at the time: Thomson and its rivals offer exactly the same tours, but Thomson is twice as expensive. There is no other difference between the tours (air conditioned coaches on both tours).