Himara '28
Open blue folding doors under a fascia lettered Restaurant Himara '28, looking into a dining room of stone, pale timber and cane chairs

Spile · Himarë · Albania

Restaurant Himara '28

The ground floor and the terrace of a house that opened on this seafront in 1928 — open to the promenade, and cooking the sea in front of it.

DirectionsCall for a table

Downstairs, and open to the front

Restaurant Himara '28 is the ground floor of the Himara '28 Hotel building on the promenade at Spile, and the gravel terrace laid out in front of it. The doors fold back onto the walkway, so the room and the terrace are really one place, and you do not need a room upstairs to sit in either.

The cooking is Mediterranean, built on local specialities and fresh ingredients from this coast. In practice the menu is led by the sea: carpaccio and crudo, octopus and shrimps off the grill, linguini and risotto, and whole fish sold by the plate. Behind it all is a pastry counter working recipes that have come down through the family. Greek and Albanian cooking both run through what is eaten in Himarë, and this kitchen sits where the two meet.

What the kitchen cooks

Open blue folding doors under a fascia lettered Restaurant Himara '28, looking into a dining room of stone, pale timber and cane chairs

The doors fold back

The whole front of the room opens onto the walkway, under a fascia the house has painted its own name across. Inside is rubble stone, pale blue plaster and a timber ceiling; outside is gravel, white chairs and the bougainvillea. In summer the two are the same room.

From the house's own menu

What comes out of the kitchen

Cold sea food

  • Seafood salad
  • Marinated anchovies
  • Octopus carpaccio
  • Crudi shrimps tiger
  • Salmon tartare
  • Crudo mix

Hot sea food

  • Saganaki shrimps with tomato and cheese
  • Grilled octopus with mashed potatoes
  • Steamed mussels
  • Grilled shrimps
  • Deep fried squid
  • Shrimps baked in salt
  • Mix seafood, grilled or deep fried

Pasta and risotto

  • Fisherman's linguini
  • Fisherman's risotto
  • Risotto with shrimps, saffron and lime
  • Ravioli stuffed with shrimp, truffle sauce
Thinly sliced octopus in oil and lemon along a white fish-shaped dish, with lime at the tail
Octopus carpaccio
Grilled prawns, squid, octopus and black mussels arranged on a rectangular white platter with lemon wedges and green herbs
Mix seafood, grilled
The whole list

Two rooms, one of them outdoors

Dining room with a stone wall, pale blue plaster, timber ceiling beams, live-edge tables and cane chairs, a painted beach scene on the wall
Inside, off the promenade
A set table and white wire chairs on the gravel terrace, bougainvillea trained up the post, the sea beyond
The terrace, under the bougainvillea
Looking out over the terrace tables and the beach beyond them to a moored motor yacht on flat water, a rocky headland behind and pines framing the view
What the terrace looks onto
A tall window with deep blue joinery set in an arched plaster recess, a palm in a ribbed terracotta urn standing in front of it
The arched window on the promenade side
A hand-painted board hung from the awning frame, a drawn sun and wave above the lettering Himara '28 Mediterranean Restaurant, the sea and pines behind

The house upstairs

The rooms above this ceiling are Himara '28 Hotel, and it is the same house and the same family — one address, one telephone, one front door onto the promenade. The kitchen is the older half: the business opened here in 1928 and the rooms were added by a later generation.

A table and a room are booked separately, on the same number. If you are looking for the rooms rather than the cooking, the house's own site has them.

Himara '28 Hotel

Finding the door

The promenade at Spile is a pedestrian front, and this is the stone elevation with the blue joinery and the blue board over the doors. Other kitchens stand within thirty metres of it on both sides, so the fascia is the thing to look for.

Getting here, in detail

Address
Rruga Promenade of Himara
Spile, Himarë 9425
Vlorë County, Albania

Questions

Where is Restaurant Himara '28?
On the promenade at Spile, the seafront in Himarë, at the address the house gives as Rruga Promenade of Himara, 9425 Himarë. It is the ground floor of the building rather than a unit behind it, so the terrace opens straight onto the front and the sea is across the walkway.
Is Restaurant Himara '28 part of Himara '28 Hotel?
Yes. It is the hotel's ground floor and terrace — one address, one telephone, one front door onto the promenade. The business opened here in 1928 under the Goro family, was closed under the communist regime and reopened by the family in the 1990s; the rooms came later. The restaurant is open to the promenade as well as to guests upstairs, so you do not need a room to eat here.
What kind of food does Restaurant Himara '28 serve?
Mediterranean, built on local specialities and fresh, locally sourced ingredients. In practice the menu is seafood-led — carpaccio and crudo, grilled octopus and shrimps, linguini and risotto, whole sea bream and sea bass — alongside Albanian cooking and a pastry counter.
How do I book a table at Restaurant Himara '28?
Call +355 67 497 1522. It is the number the house prints on every page of its own site, and it reaches the same desk as the hotel — a table is booked separately from a room.
Can I see the menu before I come?
Yes. The full menu is published as a document and linked from the menu page here rather than reprinted, because prices move between seasons. The range of the kitchen is set out on that page.
Is there a sea view from Restaurant Himara '28?
The terrace faces the water across the promenade, with pines between, and the tables on it look onto the bay. The room behind the doors is a stone-and-timber interior with a painted beach scene rather than a glass frontage, so the view belongs to the terrace tables.