Mandella tavern in Sardes

The Sardines is a mountain village located about a quarter of a road, north of Myrina. Its inhabitants are mainly cattle breeders and beekeepers, while many musicians (lyre players) who played in the traditional festivals came out of the village. In the interwar period it had 800 inhabitants but after the war the migration affected the village with the result that the village has one third of the old population. Sardes may have been deserted, but they became famous from their one and only tavern, the famous Mandella tavern.

Mandella tavern in winter it is open, it also plays the role of the only cafe in a spacious room with a fireplace. From spring the tables are spread out in a beautiful, comfortable and covered with a huge arbor courtyard that in summer extends to another open space opposite, while in between the alley of the village passes.

Mandela, Paleologos Triantafyllou, is in charge, but his mother Krystalo has the high supervision, a stately figure who comes and oversees every night - having, for many years, dominated the kitchen.

Next to him are his wife Eleni and his son Giannis,  but also a cheerful staff that creates a very pleasant and relaxed atmosphere.

You will not eat here despite them Lemnian flavors as the locals eat them in their homes without frills and so on, but with raw materials unrepeatable. Fresh salads, handmade bread in the wood oven, rooster with florets, wild rabbit stew, goat with potatoes, hare braised, pork, ears of must, traditional dishes in hearty portions. The owner, Mandela, stuck his name on it - lived many years in Africa - by his fellow citizens, who jokingly called him "Mandellas" after the well-known African revolutionary leader.

The name, however, has another meaning, this time influenced by the German language, where Mann is the man and Teller, who in German is pronounced Tella, the plate, so the man's plate, Man-tella.

That is why the gastronomic wandering of every gastronomer Lemnos will inevitably pass through Sardes and Mandella's tavern.