Food & Cuisine in Santorini
Food info sections | Eating locally
Santorini is quintessentially Greek and good food is an essential part of day-to-day living. The cuisine is traditional Mediterranean, with typical Greek ingredients, flavours and dishes. Try the keftades or fried tomato balls; insist on local tomatoes in salads. Taste the unique white aubergine, lavraki fish and stuffed onions. Kotsi is a special meat main course not often part of the menu and is definitely worth a try if you enjoy meat. Do not miss loukoumi, an ice-cream made with real sugared rose petals.
Tourists are spoilt for restaurant choices in Thira and Oia.
This Santorini Restaurant Guide tells you all about the delicious food and cuisine in Santorini, as well as listing some quality restaurants that you may wish to try. For further information about Greek food and cuisine, check out our Greece Restaurants Guide. And whilst finding the ideal restaurant take a look at some of the shops mentioned in our Santorini Shopping Guide.
Food & Cuisine in Santorini
Local Cuisine
You will relish the delectable Santorini and Greek cuisine. The various restaurants, tavernas and gourmet restaurants serve local delicacies and whip up creative dishes regularly. Try the Santorini specialities, like the fava (lentil paste), tomato balls, fried white aubergine squash balls, sun-dried cherry tomatoes and fresh seafood. Santorini is also famous for its local wines, which are served in all the restaurants in the island. You should try Santorini wine, which can be distinguished by its unique aroma.
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Summer is peak tourist season in Santorini. If you are lucky, you can attend the island's traditional summer festivals, including the Ifaisteia Cultural Festival in the capital Fira. Try the fava, which is the special delicacy made of local lentils, during the Festival of Episkopi in Meas Gonia on 15 August.
Santorini's cuisine is Mediterranean - it combines local cuisines, indigenous ingredients and international standards of cooking to dish out singularly delicious, uniquely flavoured food. The climate of the island and the generations of people who have inhabited the island have influenced Santorini's food crops and food. It is best to visit family-run fish taverns on smaller beaches and communities to enjoy the best seafood on the island. In other words, avoid commercial food places that boast international fare if you want to enjoy authentic Santorini food.
Local Favourites
An old traditional Greek dish, fava, is yellow peas (fava) puree. While fava is a perennial favourite served differently in different seasons, Santorini fava is special - the fava beans grown on the island have a distinctive, exotic taste. The aromatic tomatinia or cherry tomato is often mistaken for cherries. Chloro Cheese is a rare kind of fresh cheese made by the women of Santorini. Tomatokeftedes or meat balls without the meat are made with herbs, tomatoes and butter; this is yet another Santorini speciality.
The ‘national course' in Santorini is the white aubergine. It is unique and has a fresh flavour. It is a delicious, small variant of eggplant native to the island of Santorini. The Caper (kapan) and the dried caper are unique Santorini ingredients used in salads.
Local Sweets
Koufeto is a traditional wedding sweet, which is made by boiling almonds in local honey or syrup. Melitinia is a kind of cheese pie. It is served during Easter and is known as a festive sweet. It is made with unsalted myzithra (ricotta).
Restaurants in Santorini
The various restaurants on the island of Santorini offer many international cuisines including Mexican, Indian, Chinese and Italian, as well as the local Greek cuisine. Greek cuisine is famous for its ability to thoroughly satisfy the most demanding of taste buds, and it is particularly appreciated for its good taste. You can relish pastisio, dolmades, taramosalata, Greek salad, tzatsiki, delicious tomato balls, fava - mashed chickpeas and the island's speciality, visanto wine in almost all the restaurants in the island of Santorini.
Wine and Wineries
Santorini is a wine paradise and the island's wine is popular the world over. Wine is produced and stored using traditional methods. Kanaves or special wine cellars are used to store wine. You could try visiting a few famous kanaves to taste different wines.
