UMAMI

Nous avons fait un super repas, le monsieur est très gentil, nous a donné plein de conseils pour notre visite et à offert le dessert! Allez y les yeux fermés !

Yakitori Crispy Chicken was absolutely amazing! From the raw ingredients themselves, to execution, sauce and everything in between. Salad with various veggies included makes for a filling course. My partner got the (optionally) GLUTEN-Free Spaghetti with Mushrooms and cleaned the entire plate to the point of it looking unused. This is a good little place to eat, I highly recommend it.

Delicious food. Beautiful presentation. Generous portions. We'll be back soon.

The food was delicious. The service was a bit slow but super nice.

We stumbled upon Umami on a cold night in Crete around 10pm, when the owner was just about to close shop. Luckily, our bedraggled appearance was pitiful enough that he kindly allowed us to have a late dinner at his restaurant. The food he served was a revelation -- definitely some of the best I've had in Greece in my week of travel thus far. His menu is diverse and flexible, incorporating both vegan and meat-centric options, though I definitely recommend the vegan stuff.

We ordered a masala chai, a mushroom gyro and a coconut bacon salad. The masala chai incorporated black tea and spices, and though it's certainly not an authentic chai one usually finds in Indian restaurants around the world, it was enough to warm us to the core, a welcome respite from the drizzle outside. The mushroom gyro was mind-blowing. The owner sauteed three different types of mushrooms (brown, white and oyster) with a greater proportion of the latter, which he taught us is ideal for grills. The mushrooms themselves took on a heavy meaty flavour, smelled and tasted akin like a rich beef steak in my opinion. The homemade hummus was the best hummus we ever tried, buttery and smooth, but packed full of rich flavour. Even the tortilla wrap that was used was toasted to brown-spotted perfection. For the salad, we were treated to a generous pile of various leafy greens, avocado, pomegranate, what seemed to be apple chunks, Cretan cheese, and an interesting coconut bacon -- fried strips of coconut. The coconut bacon gave the salad a strong umami taste that paired really well with the avocado and the cheese, giving rise to a fascinating mix of musky, fatty, savoury flavour, offset by the well-curated selection of rocket, cabbage, and other greens. Overall, the food was a mind-bending journey into what vegan food should aspire to be --flexible and diverse, encompassing vastly different tastes and feelings, amazing, powerful, original.

After we ate, we spoke a little to the owner who had been gracious to allow us to eat late in his restaurant, prepared the food in front of us, shared his ingredients and process, even let us taste a sample of his umami bombe(?) sauce which was a very potent mix of soya sauce, sesame oil, mirin, and other Asian-inspired ingredients, and taste-wise evocative of caramalized onions, Worcestershire sauce, and Chinese braising sauce. He was kind and welcoming, and made us weary travellers feel at home. He even gave us some of his homemade velvet sponge cake to bring home, which was absolutely wonderful.

All in all, Umami's food is exactly that: umami as hell, packs a powerful punch while not trying to replicate or mimic meat-centric foods (like certain Impossible meat brands) but instead showcasing what vegan food can achieve if given access to homemade ingredients, fresh produce, and a whole lot of love. If you're in Heraklion and are looking for a good meal that showcases a whole different side of Greek cuisine, then Umami is a must try.