Prefecture of the Cyclades Restaurant Tips by steventilly Top 5 Page for this destination

Sunset Taverna: Mykonos

There are two great things about this place:
1 - The food, it was just about the best we had on Mykonos
2 - The views. These were definitely the best!
Some could argue that it's a better view from Little Venice, but I prefer waves on a beach to waves against stone.
The place specialises in fish and seems to do it well, though as vegetarians we obviously didn't partake. Some of the day's catch is landed fresh at the jetty by the taverna, and you can't get much fresher than that. For us (and other) vegetarians there was still plenty on offer, especially if you like to Meze!
I think this Taverna was used in the movie Shirley Valentine, though it doesn't shout about it if it was.

Favorite Dish: We had:
Halloumi
Fava
Zucchini Balls
2 litres water

Euro 24.00 with "bread".

The food was all wonderfully tasty, the Zucchini Balls being the best ever; light, tasty and fragrant. Even the fresh tomato that came with the Halloumi was a taste sensation and the sun-dried tomato on the Fava was so rich and sweet it was hard to believe it was just tomato! You can't beat fresh local produce.

Comparison: about average

Directions: On the beach at Agios Ioannis, Mkynonos.
GPS N37.42159 E25.31123
Here on Google Maps.

Price: US$11-20

Rating: 5

Theme: Local

Paraportiani: Mykonos

This was our favourite taverna on Mykonos (though the Sunset Taverna at Agios Ioannis came close). It was the first place that we ate after we arrived at Mykonos proper (rather than the brief stop we had while transferring to Paros) at which time we had lunch. We enjoyed that so much we came back a couple of days later for dinner. The food on both occasions was lovely and service was friendly and efficient. One of the pelicans unexpectedly dropped in and roosted in a bush behind me the second time!

Favorite Dish: We had:
Cheese Pie - the lightest, crispiest, tastiest ever.
Greek Salad
Giant Beans - superb.
The first time we went (cost Euro 18) and:
Spinach Pie - as with the Cheese Pie above, totally delicious!
Fava - wonderful, almost as good as on Santorini
Mushroom Risotto - very rich and flavoursome with a variety of mushrooms
Spaghetti Pesto
The second time we went (cost Euro 27 with "bread" and water).

Comparison: about average

Directions: Between Little Venice & the Delos jetty.
GPS N37.44726 E25.32650
Here on Google Maps

Price: US$11-20

Rating: 5

Theme: Local

Appaloosa: Mykonos

A bit eclectic this place - we had a Mexican starter and Indonesian & Italian main courses!
I'm not sure how many times we looked at it before we finally ate there - at least three - I think it was the cost that was putting us off, over Euro 13.00 for the main courses was a fair bit more than we had been paying. In the end we went for it, you only live once and we'd stretched our money quite well. It has tables inside, some on a small terrace and more still down the side of the pavement. Despite their somewhat exposed position, it was one of these that we plumped for. What better way to engage in people watching than to be right there amongst them!

Favorite Dish: We had
Nachos with Refried Beans - quite easily the best Nachos we've ever had and with the tastiest refried beans. The Nacho chips had a smokey taste which complemented the other flavours just perfectly.
Indonesian Fried Rice with Vegetables - wife's choice and she loved it, probably the best rice dish she's had.
Linguini With Vegetables - again, tasty and fresh with well cooked pasta.
2 bottles of San Pellegrino water - the best water you can get.
Bread & dips
It cost us Euro 50.00, the most expensive meal of our trip, but well worth every penny.

Comparison: more expensive than average

Directions: Round the corner from Pelican (above).
GPS location is N37.44653 E25.32963
Here on Google Maps.

Price: US$21-30

Rating: 5

Theme: Local

Pelican: Mykonos

This taverna is set in a leafy square in the middle of Mykonos town. There are maybe half a dozen tavernas in that square so why did we choose this one? The menu looked appealing, which is always a good starting point, and the staff weren't at all pushy, which for me is a big bonus point. It's a pet hate of mine when staff try too hard to get you in somewhere, especially when you're just browsing around and most especially when they do it by running down other places, as one of the other tavernas here did.
The food at Pelican was OK, not the best we had on the holiday and on reflection it was perhaps the least favourite of the places we ate at. That's not to say it was bad (it wasn't, it was very good), just that it had a lot of competition to match up to.

Favorite Dish: We had
Roast Veg with Halloumi in a Mustard sauce.
Tagliatelle Primavera
Stuffed Peppers & Tomatoes
Large bottle of water

The price was Euro 32.50, a little on the expensive side compared to other islands but quite normal for Mykonos.

Comparison: about average

Directions: A square in the middle of Mykonos town.
GPS coordinates are N37.44625 E25.32957
Here on Google Maps.

Price: US$11-20

Rating: 4

Theme: Local

Metaxi Mas: Tinos

Mentioned in every guidebook that we have (and that's a lot of guidebooks) this place even made "Editor's Choice" in one of them. With that many books singing its praises how could we not go. The downside of that amount of book coverage is that every table at the place was occupied by (English speaking) tourists, be they American, Canadian, Australian or indeed English. That amount of English language in such a confined area, and especially on an island not on the mainstream tourist map, can rather spoil the dining experience - I could have been anywhere. Thankfully the food lived up to its billing and the service was exemplary, so that rather rescued the situation.

Favorite Dish: We had:
Mixed Vegetable Balls
4 Cheese Saganaki - we love cheese saganaki. Usually it's just one type of cheese, something hard like an Emmental, this was four and had Roquefort, Brie, Feta and some type of goat's cheese. It was absolutely superb.
Imam - wife's favourite Greek dish and this one didn't disappoint.
Giant Beans With Spinach - Giant Beans is my favourite dish. This one had the addition of spinach and an awful lot of garlic, whole chunks of it in fact. Very tasty, though you wouldn't want to know me in the morning.
Glass of red & glass of white wine - as always on our Cycladean adventure, the wine was lovely.
Water

Total cost, including as always "bread", Euro 37.00. Outstanding value for the quality of food, standard of service and size of portions (we were stuffed to capacity!). The guide books don't lie, this is a top notch place to eat, one of the stars of the whole Cyclades I would imagine.

Comparison: about average

Directions: Go to back of square with dolphin fountain & turn left. GPS location is N37.53844 E25.16042
Here on Google Maps

Price: US$11-20

Rating: 5

Theme: Local

Epineio: Tinos

Just around the corner from our previous night's dining spot (Metaxi Mas) was this place, Epineio. Once billed in the Rough Guide, though no longer mentioned in the current edition, it shouts its claim to fame from inside the front cover of its menu. Why is it no longer listed in Rough Guide? I've no idea. I'm often not fond of those places that shout about their listings, one in Chania, Crete, particularly annoyed me, but I gave this place the benefit of the doubt. And I'm glad I did - it was absolutely superb. Food almost on a par with Metaxi Mas, made all the better by the fact that there wasn't another English voice to be heard. The clientele was almost entirely Greek, almost certainly locals, which again has to be a good sign.
Note to Rough Guide: re-list Epineio, it deserves it.

Favorite Dish: We had:
Spicy Cheese Dip - very tasty, spicy enough without being too hot.
Tomato Balls - wonderful, my favourite of the holiday
Zucchini Balls - not quite as good as the tomato!
Okra - first time we'd had this dish, or indeed seen it on a menu. We've often seen Okra in the markets though, so presumed it must be used in cooking somewhere!
Imam - Another lovely plate of Imam!
2 Sparkling Waters
Karafaki of Ouzo - that's a 200ml bottle, complete with bucket of ice and bottle of water, to drink at your leisure.

Total cost, with "bread", was Euro 32.60

The plan had been to move on to a bar/cafe to while away the evening. We didn't bother; it was so lovely sat at Epineio that we just stayed put, sipped our Ouzo and listened to a hundred conversations that we couldn't understand. Life doesn't get much better.

Comparison: about average

Directions: In the square with the dolphin fountain. GPS location is N37.538329,E25.160429.
Here on Google Maps.

Price: US$11-20

Rating: 5

Theme: Local

Citron Cafe: Naxos

Citron (most often spelled "Kitron") is a traditional liqueur produced on Naxos from a tree resembling a Lemon. The Citron Cafe is adjacent to the Kitron distillery in Halki on Naxos and serves drinks, snacks and light lunches. Inside it is very retro, even down to an old gramophone.

Favorite Dish: There was only ever going to be one thing that we'd have at this place - spoon sweets, it's why we went there! Spoon sweets are a traditional delicacy of many villages on Greek islands, as well as Cyprus where we first encountered them.
A way of preserving almost any fruit or vegetable, they are traditionally served to guests of the household as a show of hospitality, and you usually get literally a spoonful. One such spoon sweet is made from the rind of the fruit of the tree from which Kitron is made. Tasting a bit like marmalade, but in a syrupy sauce, it was delicious.
We also tried another variety made from a fruit that the waitress could not translate into English for us. Careful tasting determined it to be Pear, more from its texture than from its taste. Both spoon sweets were delicious and I'd recommend anyone to try them, they being so traditional after all, and to buy some from the nearby Eva store.

Comparison: about average

Directions: Next door to the Kitron distillery in the centre of Halki on Naxos.

Price: less than US$10

Rating: 5

Theme: Local

Gyros Places: Mykonos

We love Greek fast food places, but being vegetarian rather limits the amount of such places that we can visit. Usually it's all meat gyros that are on offer with little attention to vegetarians. Most of the Gyros places on Mykonos are like that too, but one, Leonadis, did a vegetarian Pitta. Basically it's just salad, tzatziki and chips (french fries) in a pitta but you can also add extra stuff if you want, such as feta, hummous and so on. It was good and it was cheap and we ate here when we'd had full meals out for lunch (two full meals in one day is just plain greedy and also rather expensive!).

Favorite Dish: Veg Pitta with feta. It's Euro 1.50 for the veg pitta and an extra 50c for each extra filling that you ask for. It's tasty, cheap and quite filling, we didn't need more food later. Throw in a bottle of coke for Euro 1.20 and two can eat for under Euro 5.00, which is amazingly cheap for a place like Mykonos.

Comparison: least expensive

Directions: Close to Little Venice. GPS location N37.44598 E25.32662
Here on Google Maps.

Price: less than US$10

Rating: 5

Theme: Fast Food

Blu Blu: Mykonos

Our first meal on Greek soil during our Cycladean tour was while we were waiting for the boat to Paros. Blu Blu is a cafe/club that overlooks the harbour and has upstairs open-air seating - a great place to watch out for your boat coming in (provided it's not diverted to the new Port!), almost everyone in there had luggage with them!
They also have an Internet cafe and Wi-Fi access, though I didn't bother to ask for (or buy?) time, this was one holiday where I just didn't feel the need to stay in touch with the world.
By night it appears to get more "clubby" and you can even buy CDs of the music they play there in the shops in town, and they have a MySpace page here.

Favorite Dish: I should have made note of its name, but it was early in the holiday and I hadn't got into that mode yet. It was basically Feta cheese, onions, peppers and olives baked in a dish with a pie-crust made from bread! Sounds a strange sort of pie-crust but it was lovely, in fact the whole dish was lovely, a great start to the holiday.

Comparison: about average

Directions: Overlooking the (old) ferry port at Mykonos.

Price: less than US$10

Rating: 5

Theme: Local

Website: http://www.mykonostour.com/english/restaurant-bar/blublu.html

Mariner Taverna: Tinos

I know that elsewhere, in my accommodation tips, I said that you could wait at the Leandros Hotel until your ferry docked as it is only two minutes from the port. Well it might be a tad foolhardy to do that, and anyway the Mariner Taverna is a much better place to wait.
A - it's only 30 seconds from the ferry dock, saving you a whole minute and a half of sprinting with luggage and
B - they serve superb cakes and coffees!
The ferry was late (the only one on our own personal Odyssey that was) but you could watch the ocean from the Mariner and we could see it slowly approaching from the distance as we lingered over our cakes and drinks.

Favorite Dish: We did ask for Galaktoboureko but unfortunately for us there was none at that time. No great hardship as instead we had walnut cake, served with a good helping of sour cherry spoon sweets. It was lovely, the best walnut cake I've had - though maybe the weather and the view had something to do with it. Naturally we had two Cappuccino Freddos to go with it.
As an aside, they have a variety of ice cream creations on their menu that are named after the ships that commonly call at the port, highlighted in bold on their menu. As we were waiting for the Superferry, perhaps we should have had one of those. Something for next time.

Comparison: about average

Price: less than US$10

Rating: 5

Theme: Local