Lui Potam
A woman stands with her back to the camera under a timber pergola, looking across the bay to the lit hillside of Himarë; pale plank tables and chairs stand on the sand around her at dusk

Potami Beach · Himarë · Albania

The tables are on the sand.
Himarë is across the water.

Lui is a seafood restaurant on Potami Beach, and the floor under its tables is the beach itself — worn pebble and sand, no terracing, no indoor room. On the seaward side a low timber rail is all that stands between the chairs and the water; along the rest of the frontage the beach runs out to the waterline under its straw parasols. Fish comes off the grill whole. The pergola is timber, the lights are strung along the rafters, and the shade is a net.

What you are looking at while you eat is the town. Himarë sits about 1.2 kilometres away on the far side of the bay — close enough to read the buildings, far enough that none of its noise reaches the table. Walking round the shore takes about twenty minutes.

Call to book a tableGetting there

The far shore

A kilometre of water is the whole difference

Potami Beach at sunset, the pebble shore curving away and the white buildings of Himarë along the far side of the bay
Himarë town centre
1.2 km

Straight across the bay. The white line of buildings on the far shore in every photograph on this page.

The same walk, on foot
1.4 km

Around the shore rather than across it. About twenty minutes at an unhurried pace.

Potami Beach
0 m

There is no walk. The floor under the tables is the beach.

Daylight

The beach it stands on

Potami is a beach in its own right, mapped and named — close to six hundred metres of shore running south from the mouth of Himarë's bay, and the restaurant stands about two thirds of the way along it. From the point the surveyors marked, the waterline is forty metres away, and all forty are beach.

Every table here is outdoors. Some sit under the timber pergola, some under a shade net, some in the open with a parasol — but there is no indoor room, and no floor other than the beach.

A table mid-meal seen from directly above: a grilled fish over grilled vegetables, linguine with prawns in tomato sauce, a plate of grilled prawns with lemon and a part-eaten plate of whipped cheese, on paper over the cloth

The kitchen

Whole fish, off the grill

Seafood is what the kitchen is for, with Mediterranean cooking around it. On the table above: a grilled fish laid over grilled vegetables, linguine with prawns in tomato sauce, a plate of grilled prawns with lemon, a plate of whipped cheese. Paper over the cloth.

Whole fish is sold by the kilo, as it is everywhere along this coast, so it is worth knowing what fish costs around Himarë before you pick one off the ice.

The table
Festoon bulbs under a shade net at blue hour, straw parasols and loungers on the shore, the mountains and scattered lights of the far shore behind

After the sun

The bulbs come on and the far shore turns into a line of lights

The restaurant is open from eight in the morning, seven days a week, and the day at a beach table is a long one — swimming, lunch, and then the hour when the sea goes flat and the mountains behind the town go dark. Call ahead if you are planning a late dinner.

What diners say

Diners on TripAdvisor score it 4.7 out of 5, and on Google 4.8. Both are worth reading in full before you choose, so both are linked rather than quoted here.

Questions

Before you come down

Where is Lui Potam?
On Potami Beach at Himarë, in Vlorë County, Albania. There is no street address to give: the beach is the address, and the tables stand on it. Himarë town centre is about 1.2 kilometres away across the bay, or roughly a twenty-minute walk around the shore.
Is Lui Potam in Himarë town centre?
No, and the difference matters. Potami is a beach south of the town, and the town is the thing you look at from the table rather than the thing around you. Walk the shore from the centre and it takes about twenty minutes; the driving route is much longer, because the road loops inland before it comes back down to the water.
What does Lui Potam serve?
Seafood, and Mediterranean cooking around it — that is how the restaurant describes itself. Whole fish comes off the grill with grilled vegetables. There is outdoor seating only; every table is under a pergola, a shade net or the open sky.
How do I book a table at Lui Potam?
Call +355 69 442 2533. There is no online reservation system and no website — the phone reaches the restaurant directly, and it is also the fastest way to ask what came in off the boats that morning.
How is Lui Potam rated?
Diners on TripAdvisor score it 4.7 out of 5, and on Google 4.8 out of 5. The reviews themselves are worth reading before you choose, and both are linked from this site rather than reprinted here.
What time does Lui Potam open?
From eight in the morning, seven days a week — both the restaurant's own Google listing and its Instagram give the same opening hour. It runs on into the evening; call ahead if you are planning a late dinner.