I am afraid that if you are seeking Greek Tavernas that you will be bitterly disappointed. Lindos is a tourist attraction of similar authenticity as Eurodisney and suffers as a result. I would agree that Lindos should be visited (for an hour or so early morning) but after that it is a congested unpleasant experience if you are wanting to experience Greece.

You will need to look outside of Lindos for decent tavernas. The restaurants in the town are firmly in the picture menu and calamari & two veg. variety. There are a few bars of the beer and footbal TV sort, but totally lacking any local ambience - you might just as well be in Benidorm or Bournemouth!

Pefkos is just down the road and has far better restaurants/tavernas. For much better experiences head inland or north and take pot luck - almost guaranteed to beat the Lindos offerings.

Cheers,
Jet

Has Lindos really got that bad now? Admittedly it is a few years now since we went but we also went in October and loved it. I wouldn't go in high season but at this time of year it was lovely and staying there we got a totally different view of the place than the day trippers who crowd in for an hour or two. I'm afraid I can't rmember the names of the tavernas but we had good meals at a number of places with rooftop terraces and seem to remember a good Cypriot taverna.

Hope you have a good time, Maria

Like Maria we have also had some good meals in the tavernas with views of the Acropolis. Yes its touristy but it still has a lot of character and there are plenty of Greek destinations that are far worse than Lindos. Try Kavos, Malia and Laganas for a start. If its not too quiet Lindos should be great in October

lindos is ace. Just back from travelling about and stayed in Lindos for 2 days. I ate at the said Cypriot taverna with rooftop terrace (cant remember name either) but food was really good.
dont let other peoples harsh views spoil your holiday these sites are to advise you not make you wsh you'd never booked up. Im sure in October it wont be heaving and you'll get to see more of the place without the zillion people that day trip in height of summer.
Of course travel outside public transport is ace in Rhodes - dead cheap and air conned - only 4.5 euro i think to Rhodes town and takes 1 hour 15min which is nothing so its worth going there for a look about.
enjoy your holiday - rhodes is beautiful. We have some lovely pictures of Lindos if you want to see them just pm me your email address and i'll jot them over

Thank you Scalder I have put address on private message.

I didn't recognise the Lindos that jetnoise describes! We last went in high season, August last year and yes, during the day it is busy, possibly something to do with all those people visiting for that 'hour'! Once the boats have drawn out from the beach and returned to Rhodes Town along with the coaches from the coach park, which is well outside the main village, around about 3pm, the place is calmer, quieter and not so busy, even in high season.

Yes there are tourist type restaurants in Lindos but as I recall from a couple of visits to Pefkos, far less than the latter, which for me, lacks a soul being a mere strip along busy roads. That is one of the lovely things about Lindos, no traffic, the streets being too narrow to permit vehicles. There are enough restaurants in Lindos that offer decent Greek food and one of our favourites was Dionysos. Take the road opposite the church entrance until you get to the Lindos restaurant (not recommended) then turn left and it's about 100 meters in front of you. You will note that plenty of Greeks eat there, never a bad recommendation.

As to bars, yes there are those with Sky but I would judge them to be a minority. There are plenty of bars to suit every taste. Just take a wonder around in the evening and try them out!

Have a fabulous holiday in Lindos which we think is an enchanting place.

Following some of the responses I feel that I must explain myself better. I believed that the question was seeking "best tavernas", of which there are very few in Lindos if you are seeking traditional Greek tavernas.
There are plenty of restaurants, most of which have rooftop areas with great views of the acropolis (which is floodlit at night). However, these are "international" restaurants with "international" menus. Sure, most will do mousaka and kleftico and maybe even stifado (but not with rabbit), but that seemed to us the limit of the Greek dishes. Stuff like Spag Bol, "steak mexicana" (whatever that might be!) and frozen calamari rings "a la romana" made up the bulk of the (picture) menus. We tried many of the restaurants and were disapopointed in the lack of variety as regards Greek dishes (nowhere did Briam, Imam, Gigantes, Fassolakia etc) and the quality of the food they did do was mass catering (aka Brake Bros.) - the chicken dishes used those pumped up fillets with artificial grill marks in several restaurants (including the "Lindos Restaurant" which was the worst of the lot).
Walking round the lanes of Lindos was pleasant when it was not too busy early evening, but that is a narrow window between the day-tripper masses and the late evening rush when it got uncomfortably busy. The atmosphere reminded me of Albufera in Portugal or various Costa del Sol resorts rather than Greece. There were also lots of "stag" and "hen" parties as, for some reason, people seem to think it a good idea to get married in the little church in St Paul's bay and ship coachloads of friends and family over with them for a week-long party.

I did enjoy Lindos early morning (before 09:30) and early evening. The walk up to the acropolis is best done early morning anyway to avoid the mid-day heat, but was glad to have a hire car for the duration of the holiday to get out and find the "real" Rhodes.

Cheers,
Jet

Gigantes! A favourite of my partner and daughter. You can get them at Dionysos and also the taverna that is at the end of the row just passed the track down to the main beach. Cannot remember the name. You can also get Fassolakia at Dionysos although it goes by a slightly different name but it is the same green beans simmered with garlic and herbs. I have a feeling it goes by the Turkish name for the dish which escapes me at present.

Briam is roasted vegetables? If that is what you mean then again you get it at the Dionysos!

Agreed that the Lindos restaurant is unbelievably bad. They served us raw chicken!

There is also a little Formica top table type restaurant in a left hand side street off the main track from the church towards St Paul's Bay. I cannot remember the name but it really was traditional Greek food. The menu was tiny but what they had was tasty indeed. It is very close to Maria's. We were the only tourists in there when we visited.

Thank you all for your suggestions. I think I should explain that we had a holiday booked to Thassos for a long time then at the very last minute it was cancelled by Kosmar for ' operational reasons' We were offered very few options as a replacement and it wasn't that we fancied Lindos more that we had rejected all the other places that were offered and it was £300 cheaper than the holiday we had booked to Thassos. Anyway we are back now, we had a good relaxing holiday and the weather was great. However having visited different areas of Greece 2-3 times a year for the past 15 years I have to agree entirely with jetnoise that there are virtually no traditional Greek tavernas in Lindos. We found that 'Marios' came closest to the traditional Greek taverna for good food, atmosphere and price. Places like Dionysos whatever they may be are not Greek tavernas. They don't have the atmosphere of a Greek taverna and their views and their posh tables and chairs are included in their prices.

Passiontravel,
Thank you for coming back and letting us know how you got on! Kosmar did their very best to muck up a lot of people's 2007 holidays - we were in Stoupa in June and Lesvos (Anaxos) in September and met many people in a similar position to yourselves. The accommodation owners were less than impressed by them as well!
As for Lindos, it is a real shame as the place could be indecently wonderful but has, instead, been spoilt be mass marketing and over-development on the outskirts and simply can not cope with the numbers visiting/staying. The worst part were the parties of 20/30 "Stag & Hen week" numpties who rampaged through the streets most nights and capitalised the hotel swimming pool with their drunken antics during the day. Needless to say, there are quieter, more traditional parts of the island to explore and the rest of the islands to visit - we will not return.
I am glad, however, that you did manage to have a good holiday and recharge the batteries!

Cheers,
Jet

passiontravel, looking for a traditional Greek taverna is like looking for a traditional Turkish Lokhanta or a traditional Spanish Tapas Bar....they are a rare breed because people like us, travellers, tourists have changed the places that we visit. I long for the places I ate in 25 years ago both in Greece and Turkey but sadly they no longer exist in any great numbers, a bit like hen's teeth. Similarly, if in this country you cannot find a traditionally cooked steak ands kidney pudding without paying £35 for it!

So if you want a traditional Greek taverna then you may have to travel off the beaten track a little and not to places like Lindos! Some restaurants offer traditional dishes, note the word restaurants (and that was the word I used on my previous posts on this subject) because that is what we are talking about in the world of mass tourism. Nothing wrong with a restaurant offering a traditional dish!

I understand that through no fault of their own many restaurants in Lindos have had to change this year and the result is higher prices to make up for the smaller number of covers.