The far south's signature dish — mussels farmed in the lagoon beside Butrint, steamed with white wine, garlic and lemon, eaten minutes from where they grew.
Food · local speciality
Order a bowl
One very good lunch
Ksamil
Beside the ruins of Butrint stretches a lagoon connected to the sea by the Vivari Channel — and strung across its waters are the mussel farms that supply the best tables of Ksamil and Sarandë. Butrint mussels have been cultivated here for decades; the lagoon's mix of fresh and salt water gives them a sweetness locals will defend at length.
The classic preparation is the simplest: steamed open in white wine with garlic, parsley and lemon, mopped up with bread. You'll also meet them fried, in rice, and in saganaki-style tomato and cheese — but order the classic first, ideally at a Ksamil table with the water in view, and you'll understand why the dish never left the neighbourhood.
Almost every good restaurant in Ksamil and along Sarandë's seafront lists them — look for 'midhje Butrinti' and ask if they're from the lagoon (the proud ones will tell you before you ask).
A bowl of steamed midhje with bread and a cold white wine or Korça beer is the benchmark. They're at their plumpest outside the hottest weeks of summer.
The mussel lines are visible across the lagoon from the Butrint site and the Vivari Channel ferry — dinner with a backstory.
Work up the appetite at Butrint National Park, ten minutes from the table.
Sleep it off on Ksamil's white sand — the full guide covers the coves and crowds.
Add the Blue Eye or the Lëkurësi sunset and the far south is complete.
Restaurants, hotels, boat operators and car rentals can be featured on this page — in front of travellers planning this exact visit.
Get featured here