We travel to Karditsa for traditional food and delicious local meat in beautiful villages overlooking Lake Plastira. The Thessalian land has a rich livestock and gastronomic tradition that is worth experiencing if you happen to be in the city of Karditsa and the mountain villages around it. On your trip, don’t miss to visit the taverns we recommend you to taste the wide variety of local meats, such as lamb chops, beef steaks and sausages, goat on the spit and sheep, but also the delicious stews such as giants in the wood oven or tagliatelle with smoked trout.
See below for our choices:
Voyatzis
Type: tavern
History: The shop started as a café in 1930 by the grandfather of the current owner Dimitris Vogiatzis and slowly evolved into today’s unique tavern of the local Karagouniki cuisine in the whole of Thessaly.
Serves: Emblematic dish, the delicious “duck crabmeat”. The duck is boiled and lightly fried. Every weekend he sets up a series of casseroles and prepares dishes that are hard to find elsewhere: pork shank with plums and potatoes, lamb with spinach – and with potatoes. If they can find it, they also cook braised veal tail with orzo, guinea fowl stew, etc. Mr. Dimitris and his wife Sotiria have their own chickens, geese and ducks, sheep and pork and vegetables with which they supply their tavern. Karditsomagoula.
The Chardaki
Type: traditional tavern
History: The place started as a tavern in 1939 and became a tavern when Yannis Korobilias took over in 1951. It continued, passed into the hands of his son, 81-year-old Vassilis Korobilias, and is now run by the third generation, Stavroula Korobilias and her husband Babis Tsilikas.
She serves: Famous for its lamb chops, excellent their huge beef steak, aged for 22 days, and the handmade sausages of Agrafa with leek. Stavroula prepares delicious stews and pies, such as giants with pastrami in the wood-fired oven, chickpeas with eggplant, lamb with greens, fake lamb and grass pie. The shop lays tablecloths on the tables in the courtyard amidst the greenery or in winter in the hall with its fireplace and wood-burning stove. Mesenicolas village.
Dolopes
Type: meat tavern
History: The grandparents of the Kerasiotis family, traditionally cattle breeders, started the business in the 1960s near the big plane tree in the village. In 2000, their children moved the tavern higher up, at an altitude of 1,500 m, with a breathtaking view from the terrace of the wooded mountain slopes and Lake Plastiras in the distance.
Serves: Exclusively their own meats (wild boar, goat, pork) on spits and grills. Great liver in the pan, goat on the spit, and wild boar meatballs. When they butcher beef, there’s steak and liver. All dishes are prepared by the three women and two men of the Kerasiotis family. Dolopon, Agrafa, Karditsa.
Fagotopi
Type: tavern
History: Engineer Xenia Psifi and her brother, also an engineer, opened the tavern in 2000 with the aim of bringing something more modern to the area apart from the classic grilled meats and pies.
She serves: Xenia makes the most of the amazing local meats and puts lamb meatballs with yogurt sauce and lemon zest and sheep burgers on the menu. Also, pork neck steaks with a semi-sweet pink wine sauce from Mesenicola and beetroot garlic cabbage balls. There is even a pasta with thick macaroni. Kalivia Pezoulas
Florence
Type: tavern with traditional stews and casseroles
History. She retired 5 years ago, but she still makes her famous fried bread, and the tavern has been taken over by her son Yannis and his wife Maria Stoubou.
She serves: Lamb and pork roasts every Sunday in the wood-fired oven, several stews, beef braised in the clay oven, chicken or sheep with beans, pancakes and ribs, fried zucchini from their garden and salads with their own vegetables. Anthochori (nearby to Plastira’s Lake)
Zarnabalos
Type: tavern
History: Grandfather Nikos Zarnavalos started the tavern in 1959 when the waters of Lake Plastiras covered his land. The business was passed on to his son Thomas and today it is run by grandson Yiannis Zarnavalos, who also runs the family butcher shop next to the tavern.
He serves: Creata of the hour, skewers and meat stews, all local, but also oil dishes with vegetables of their own production. The “shepherd’s pouch” with lamb and cheese in oil paper and the “peasant’s pitcher” with beef, cheese and potatoes in clay. The handmade sausages and lamb chops are excellent. Plastira Lake, Kalyvia Pezoulas, Karditsa.
