Macaroni Restaurant

Sani Resort

During my 3rd Erasmus experience i had the chance to go to Greece in the spectacular luxury resort which is Sani situated in the Halkidiki Peninsula, the city of Kassandra. How i got there? Good question, i have just returned from my 2nd Erasmus internship in Malta and i still had 4 months left from my total period so after consulting with my coordinator he gave me the green light for seeking another internship.

Said and done i started to email a bunch of resorts, companies and you name it from all over Europe and more. In no time i got this email from Greece, basically was saying in how many days you can be here. It was Tuesday when i got the email and Sunday we were in Thessaloniki already, me and my Erasmus partner in crime Peter of course. Trying to find a place for internship can be sometimes a challenge because in my university they do not help us finding a place so we just need to send a lot of emails in order to find something eventually. For studies is completely different you have a list from where you can choose from so piece of cake with that.

I never been to Greece before but i always wanted to and i had no clue about Sani Resort or what we are going to do there. We arrived in the human resources office told the nice lady our story that we are Erasmus bla bla and after she told us something about this what it seemed to be very large resort, gave us a bunch of brochures and told us where our accommodation will be. More about the actual story of this experience make sure to check my blog post about 'Work and Travel Greece'.

In this post i want to present with more details the restaurant i worked in and why is this such a cool place which attracts bunch of celebrities and elite society.

Macaroni Restaurant

Even though i was Erasmus in this place they don't actually care about this so basically they treat you like everybody, work is work and we all came there to do that. They assigned me and Peter in two different restaurants across to each other, they send me in Macaroni Restaurant an Italian restaurant with 5 star rating. It seemed to be quite luxury and exceptional service.

This was my first job ever in which i worked more than 10 days and for real cash. I stayed there 4 months in which i can say i earned good money besides my Erasmus scholarship.

Inside the Sani resort there are bunch of restaurants and coffee places, everybody said that i was so lucky to be assigned in Macaroni which was by far the best place to work in with the best manager and staff.

The staff

The manager Henri was a 40 year old Greek guy, super cool and always treat us with respect and was funny as well.

Then there is the vice manager which is this 38 women called Eleni half Russian half Greek, she can be sometimes a real pain in the a** if you know what i mean maybe because she is still single and has been a waiter all her life but i don't want to be mean..

The manager Henri with some of the waiters including me.

Then there is Joanna a polish over 30 women, shes married with a Greek guy so all her life and work is Sani Resort, i guess being a waiter is a life goal now.

Three Greek boys are the main waiters which of course they all been working in this restaurant for over 5 years. And then it was us the assistant waiters which we were all foreign nationality. Maybe that's why is this place special because we are all from abroad. In that summer of 2014 we were 3 Romanians including me, 1 girl from Ukraine, one from Serbia, one from Slovenia and another guy from Finland. And of course all the Greeks.

The menu

The restaurant was entire Italian and based only on seafood delights but with great wine and champagne. A lot of pasta option and exquisite desserts. Most of the guests were Russians and British and very few Greeks. But many times we had just big tables reserved for celebrations or different occasions.

The best sellers were always the caprese salad, the pizza margherita and lobster with spaghetti inside. And of course beers and glasses of wine and champagne always were a must.

The customers were sometimes a bit stressful and many times gave me a hard time especially the Russians one, maybe that's why i don't have good opinions about them. In Macaroni just people with money came so sometimes they were treating us superior and had very high demands. For example there was a table with Russians and my friend the Ukrainian waiter went to serve them and in that time in 2014 there was a conflict between Russia who invaded Ukraine so they were not on good terms to say at least. On this particular table they have asked her where she is from because almost all clients ask us this thing, i forgot to mention that we were all speaking English in this Resort and the Restaurant, so when she said she is from Ukraine they basically ask for another waiter.

The schedule was split with one day off per week but during the high season like July-August we did not had any day off. So i had like 3 different schedules :

from 8 until 1pm and returning at 6: 30 pm until 11:30 in the night

from 10:30am until 2:30pm returning at 7pm until last customer usually 12 in the night.

from 12 in the noun until 3pm returning at 7pm until 12 am in the night.

First i was skeptical about this schedule but after i loved it because it gave me this extra 3 or 4 hours when i could just go to the beach and get a tan or a quick swim. Usually it was not so busy in the mid day but after 7pm it was crazy so busy and we were just running around until it was close to 12 am. Sometimes i did not had time to use the restroom that's how busy it was.

We were all working with a main waiter and we had our own area in which we served that day, left, center or right.

The place had outside dinning area which you can see in the above picture and also inside area but mostly we used that in case of rain or major events. All the time people they were sitting outside. Near the restaurant you can see the area for yachts in which the wealthy man use to leave their yachts all year around.

Inside the restaurant.

My favorite thing about the restaurant was the time when we were ending our shifts and the boys in the kitchen always cooked for us amazing foods and we were all sitting chatting and eating together. Maybe is this the reason in which i gained a lot of pounds.

You can see in the pictures below what we were eating every night, now of course the plate is not looking presentable because we always ran to took a bit of everything. But this crazy food combinations i would never forget, pasta with mash potatos or chicken with melon and many more. Good times!

God i still miss this food and you never know when i will be returning back there. Besides the great salary they also make for you great deals :

1. Five year work contract with medical insurance and a lot of other benefits.
2. Inside the resort you may use for free all the beach facilities and also a 20% discount in all luxury shops.
3. Free accommodation and free transport until your work place.
4. Not to mention free uniform and laundry.
5. Salary package is 550 euros plus tips ( tips i made around 800 euros per month)

The tips were usually 4 times per month, we were all gathering all the tips together and after split it between all the waiters and assistant waiters. In a good month as i said i gather up to 800 euros which was good money considering i also had my Erasmus grant.

Of course i cannot say the work is easy because is not by any means, for example my friend Peter we couldn't resist until the end because off all the work stress and pressure so he left 3 weeks earlier. But all in all it may be crazy work hours and you will be exhausted and your feet will hurt a lot but overall it was a great experience and i am indeed considering to return back one summer.

The Sani resort is open from 1st of April until around end of October.

Some of the best customers which i came across were a bunch of Romanian celebrities like singers, the mayor of Bucharest but most they were footballers from Thessaloniki team, Liverpool and other which sorry i cannot recall but football is not my interest.

For more information i suggest to visit the Sani Resort website and why not maybe someday your path will lead you there.

Best of luck!