Ahhhhh, Santorini…I can’t think about you and not want to go back! I also crave a glass of chilled white wine and a warm bowl of fava dip, whenever you enter my mind. Santorini is famous, food-wise, for a few things: yellow split peas, tomatoes, and wine to name a few. The white wine grapes are called Assyrtiko, and you can see them growing all over the island. The most common way to prepare yellow split peas is a dish called “fava.” Fava has nothing to do with fava beans. It only uses yellow split peas. (Fava beans are used very rarely in Greece, because a significant chunk of the population is allergic to them.) As for the Santorini tomatoes, you will find them in all of the salads, and see them growing all over the island. I actually think that they are the best tomatoes that I have ever had…Sorry Midwest!
When Derika and I are on vacation, we have a list of things that we would like to see and do. If we are not checking items from our list, we are lounging by the pool and/or beach, or we are eating and drinking our way through our vacation spot. This is why I needed to do a separate beverage and food post in addition to the “9 Must Do Travel Adventures in Santorini.”
Below you will find a list of our favorites from our time that we spent eating and drinking our way through Santorini. If you want to find the website for the location, I have linked each site to the underlined title of each favorite. Enjoy!
Restaurants
(in alphabetical order)
Dionysos in Atlantis
This was the first restaurant that we stopped in on our first trip to Fira. We ended up popping in here for lunch, because I saw that they had Domatokeftethes aka Tomato Fritters. I have never had a tomato fritter and I soon realized that you could get tomato fritters at most restaurants in Santorini. This restaurant was average, but it looks like they are going to be opening a Santorini Brewing Company tasting room in the front of the restaurant in the near future. It would be a good place to stop, if you can’t actually make it to the Santorini Brewery and why not try the tomato fritters while you are there. 🙂
Domatokeftethes aka Tomato Fritters.
Santorini Brewing Company Donkey Beer.
II Cantuccio
On the last night of the trip, I was really craving pizza. So Derika and I popped into II Cantuccio in Firastefani for some Italian food. Derika got the pesto pasta and I got the pizza. It was a little different from what you can get in NYC, but I loved it!
Yummy Caprese...could have used more basil.
Me enjoying my first Greek Pizza.
Lucky’s Soulvakis
If you want a proper gyro while you are in Santorini, you need to stop at Lucky’s in Fira. They were soooo good and cheap, I wanted to eat one every day. A proper gyro is kind of like a California burrito; it has a bunch of meat in it (or falafel in my case) topped with feta, veggies, tzatziki, and French fries all wrapped into a toasty warm pita. YUM!
The Double D's enjoying gyros at Lucky's in Fira.
Dani with a veggie gyro from Lucky's in Fira.
Mama Thira’s
I read a ton about this restaurant before we actually made it to Santorini, so it was for sure on our list to check out. What really got me excited was the view from the restaurant, and their emphasis on fresh and local cuisine. Everything that we had tasted like a Greek grandmother was cooking us stuff that she caught and harvested that day. The servers were super welcoming and I am still thinking about the truffle ravioli.
White wine at Mama Thira Taverna.
Derika enjoying her local fish.
The truffle ravioli was decadent, but so good!
Sea Side by Notos
This restaurant is located in Perivolos and is super fancy. We just strolled in for a beverage after a lovely day in Perissa. We didn’t eat here, but if you want a romantic dinner, I would highly recommend this place. Whoever decorated Sea Side; put a lot of time, effort and money into this place… it is gorgeous! It is what you would imagine the most epic beach bar/restaurant to look like in your dreams, but this place actually exists! I wish we were hungry, just so I could order something here. I think that if we had more time we would have definitely come back. Instead we saddled up to the bar and ordered a cocktail. I then had the bright idea to order an ouzo shot because I have never had one. I am not a huge fan of black licorice; so I don’t know what I was thinking…you can see what I thought of it below 🙂
Onar
Our first night in Santorini, we ended up strolling towards Fira and landed at Onar in Firastefani, because we wanted to just relax and take in the view. We ended up staying for a great cocktail and some fava dip. This is where I first fell in love with the fava. I actually ended up buying some dried fava beans, from a local vendor near Onar. I am hoping that I can recreate this amazing dip!
Onar's view.
Fava dip, Santorini salad and olives from Onar.
Sunset Taverna
While we were in Amoudi Bay in Oia, we had lunch at a seaside restaurant called Sunset Taverna.The view was beautiful and Derika swears she had the best mussels of her life here. My salad was pretty amazing as well. It was exactly what we needed before seeking out the swimming hole just around the corner from this restaurant.
Lunch view from Sunset Taverna.
Amazing salad, Greek salad and mussels for lunch!
Tranquilo
My favorite restaurant on the island! Before our trip I did a little restaurant research, because I was a little paranoid that the food was not going to be vegetarian friendly. Gosh, how wrong I was! This vegetarian probably ate the best on this trip, than any other vacations that we have ever been on! During my research I stumbled upon Tranquilo and I put it on the MUST EAT HERE LIST! They had vegetarian options, and I loved how colorful the restaurant looked. All I have to say is that during the whole trip this is the only place that we ate at twice and we ordered the same thing both times! The salads are huge and everything that we had there tasted fresh. The view of the Mediterranean Sea did not hurt too much either! I highly recommend the tabbouli salad, the hummus, and the falafel pitas with the fried local white eggplant…Sooooo Good!
The view for dinner
Tranquilo's sign.
Dani enjoying a Mythos aka UNICORN BEER!
Hummus - They served it a little warm. Soooooo GOOD!
Falafel Pitas with fried white eggplant!
The biggest tabbouli salad I have ever seen. Soooo Good!
They had a great sangria.
View of Tranquilo Restaurant.
Tranquilo had HAMMOCKS! Love it!
Final Foodie Tips!
Get a Greek sampler platter, so you can try a little of everything!
Don't leave the island without trying Saganaki aka epic fried cheese!
Eat as much feta as you can. It should not be too hard 🙂
Try a Dakos Salad...don't let the weird name scare you.
Drink a cocktail in a frosty tin cup at sunset.
Get a Frappe! A frothy blended iced coffee.
Try a fruit ice, basically a Greek fresh fruit slurpee!
Drink as many unicorn beers as you can.
and as many of these as you can!
Eat ALL of the Greek yogurt, because the US version does not even compare.
Enjoy the cute Santorini tomatoes.
Check out the fresh local seafood!
Bars, Wineries and Breweries
Santorini Brewing Company
On the only day we rented a car our first stop was at the Santorini Brewing Company. We loved the donkey labels and had been drinking the beer throughout our trip, so it only made sense to go and visit the brewery. They offer free tasting and a small tour of their facility, which is the only brewery on the island. We chatted with the lady at the brewery and she gave us 3 recommendations for wineries that we should check out, and two of them were walking distance from the brewery! Winning!
A list of all of the Santorini Brewery beers.
The Double D's hanging out in front of the brewery.
Canava Roussos Winery
The first winery that we checked out was Canava Roussos. It had a lovely patio, so we decided to get two flights to see what they had to offer. We really enjoyed the wine and the little snacks that they served with it. Our favorite snacks were the yummy Santorini tomatoes and the tomato paste…even thought I thought the tomatoes did not really go with the wine.
Our snack and wine flight complete with a Santorini book.
Derika in front of Canava Winery.
Derika hanging out with the grapes that were growing on the patio.
Argyros Winery
From Canava we walked to Argyros and made it there just before they closed. We loved all of the wines they had to offer and we especially loved the dessert wine and homemade chocolate paring. The chocolate was actually made out of wine. We did not get any chocolate to go, because unfortunately it was way too hot to cart chocolate around.
Gaia Winery
Our favorite winery of our whole trip was Gaia winery (pronounced Yay-yah), because it was on the beach…how can you not love a winery right on the beach! They do wild fermentation for some of their wines and the view is so picture perfect. We caught them just before they closed, so after our free tasting, we decided to buy a bottle and head to the beach. We were the only ones on the beach, which was a nice treat!
The Double D's at Gaia Winery.
Julia enjoying the view at the winery.
Resting our hooves after a long day of wine tasting.
Dani sippin' vino on the beach!
Derika sippin' vino on the beach!
Sometimes you finish all of your vino on a private beach and...
You dip in the skinny! 😉
Santo Winery
After ALL of the fun at Gaia Winery, we raced to Santo Winery so that we could check out the sunset and have a nightcap. Ok, so this place is kind of a tourist trap, but it is so so huge, you barely even notice all of the other people there. Also the sunset here is probably one of the best on the island and should not be missed!
So Derika was going to order a flight of six and somehow I swooped in and this happened!
Getting ready for the challenge.
Wine and an amazing sunset.
Dani having ALL of the fun!
Derika enjoying the band and maybe a little vino.
I *heart* ALL of the wines!
Super amazing sunset!
I don't really want to talk about it.
Palia Kameni
We stumbled upon this lovely bar after checking out the kissing fish spa (weird, but do it!) This was one of Derika’s favorite places that we stopped at the whole trip. The cocktails were super fancy and the view was something that you see in photos. I just wanted to hang out there all day and enjoy the picture perfect view and their frosty beverages!
View at Kameni Bar.
Dani in front of Kameni Bar.
Epic view and Kameni passion fruit cocktail.
I look forward to hearing what you get into on your trip and hope you enjoy the suggestions. I could really go for a frosty beverage and a sunset right now after all that writing about it!
Cheers!
Enjoy the sunsets...
because there aren't many as amazing as this!
Alyson
You two really know how to travel! I think in honor of your trip and all that fun wine tasting you did 😉 I will have to open a bottle tonight!
Dani
Ha! Glad you liked the post and I hope you enjoy your vino! xoxox