Kosta’s Grill House — The Family Table in Tsilivi
Family restaurants get underrated in food writing because “family-friendly” is often coded language for “the food doesn’t matter because the kids get chips anyway.” This is not the review. Kosta’s Grill House does the things that make it excellent for families precisely because the food is genuinely good and the operation is run by someone who understands that feeding children well is harder than feeding adults.
Kosta himself — Konstantinos Petrakis, in his fifties, with a grill manner that suggests he was born standing next to a charcoal fire — has run this restaurant on the inland road through Tsilivi for eighteen years. He is at the grill every service. The food is consistent in a way that comes from a single hand running the operation.
The Grill
Everything comes off charcoal, not gas. This matters. Gas grill food tastes like food cooked over gas. Charcoal food tastes like itself, slightly better.
Mixed souvlaki platter — this is the anchor of the menu. Pork and chicken souvlaki on skewers, a portion of pork brizola (bone-in chop), a village sausage, and chips, all arranged on an oval plate with bread and a small portion of tzatziki. The portion size is large. For a family of three or four, two platters is usually excess.
Loukaniko — Greek village sausage, smoked over wood, grilled until the skin blisters and splits. The interior is coarsely ground pork with orange peel and fennel seed — a flavour profile that has nothing to do with supermarket sausages and everything to do with four thousand years of pork preservation knowledge. Order these separately, not as part of the platter, so they get proper attention.
Grilled chicken thighs — marinaded in lemon, olive oil, and dried oregano, cooked skin-down until the skin is crisp and dark, the meat still juicy. This is the dish for children who won’t eat lamb but need proper protein.
Chips — made here, not frozen. Cut thick, fried in olive oil, salted properly. The best chips in Tsilivi, which is a genuinely competitive category.
Practical Family Details
High chairs are available without asking. The kids’ menu exists and contains things children will actually eat: grilled chicken, chips, small souvlaki portions, ice cream. The tables outside have enough space between them that pushchairs fit. The staff — including Kosta’s daughter who manages the floor — are experienced with children and don’t flinch at noise or mess.
The outdoor terrace lights up warm in the evening, which makes the 19:00 family dinner hour feel pleasant rather than institutional. By 21:00 the Greek families arrive and the atmosphere picks up further.
The Budget
Two adults, two children, sharing two souvlaki platters, one Greek salad, soft drinks: approximately €45-55. For Tsilivi, where the seafront restaurants charge significantly more for significantly less, this is excellent value. The bread is included and bottomless. The water is free with food.
Kosta’s doesn’t need a review to be full — it’s busy every night in season. But it deserves to be known by families looking for somewhere consistently good, reasonably priced, and genuinely welcoming.
