Tsopanakos restaurant in the Armeos area welcomes diners into a pretty and comfortable space. The menu features a variety of fresh meat dishes and cheeses, many of which are prepared with produce from the owner’s vegetable gardens. Tsopanakos uses its own meat and cheeses, olive oil, Greek feta, and bread baked in its own oven. The family runs the business, from farm to kitchen to waiting tables. This familial warmth creates a relaxing environment which is enhanced by the gorgeous view over the sea to nearby Telendos from the spacious veranda. Signature dishes include fylla (the local name for dolmades, or stuffed vine-leaf rolls), goat slow-cooked in a wood-burning oven, and delicious ‘meatballs’ made from octopus meat. On Kalymnos, large round barely rusks as used as the base ingredient in a salad called mermizeli. These rusks were sponge-divers’ staple as they didn’t spoil for very long periods of time; seamen would simply dunk in seawater and eat. Tsopanakos uses this old tradition in its mermizeli recipe, briefly softening the rusks in water before crumbling with generous amounts of feta, capers (stems and leaves), sardines, and sea squirts. Meals at Tsopanakos end with a house treat: loukoumades, deep-fried dough puffs drizzled with honey.