12 Places to Eat in Tinos for Rich Flavors and Good Vibes

On the windswept shores of Agios Fokas, Marathia remains the soul of Tinos’ culinary scene—a place where sea, land, and memory collide. The restaurant’s founder and chef Marinos Souranis, was a pioneer in the dry-aging of fish in Greece. His life’s work, recently distilled into a book, finds its purest expression on the plate: a prosciutto-style dusky grouper, aged for nine months to peak tenderness, opens the meal with melt-in-the-mouth texture and unforgettable depth. Beside it, bottarga, aged fish charcuterie, and wild artichokes smoked and paired with house-cured pork and mature graviera all tell stories of Tinos—its past, people, and raw, elemental beauty.

Chef Valantis Tsakalidis now leads the kitchen, continuing Marathia’s zero-waste ethos with a deep respect for every part of the fish. His dishes echo the restaurant’s identity rather than chasing trends, allowing each ingredient to speak. The menu ventures across the island’s farms and waters—from wood-fired chickpeas to hand-rolled kritharoto with shrimp, mussels, and squid in seawater stock. Even the desserts—such as carob ice cream over tsoureki or a spiced ode to pumpkin—balance emotion with precision.

Agios Fokas

A stone’s throw from Hora, near the port, you’ll find Kalopsia, a warm, friendly restaurant set in an open, minimal, well-designed space and the chic decor with the wooden details and the muted colours. The tables are well-spaced, offering comfort while the amazing view of the sea amps your pleasure. The huge kitchen can be seen behind large windows, inviting visitors to look inside. Kalopsia plays with various cooking techniques and local products of the best quality, offering extremely delicious, simple and accessible comfort food. The flavors take you on a trip around Greece, passing through Crete, the chef’s home, and around the Mediterranean.

The menu, created by chef George Stylianoudakis, includes land and sea dishes and comprises of fresh, raw, delicious appetizers, light salads and well-prepared mains, many of which are cooked in the wood-burning oven. The wine list includes labels from the Greek and international vineyard that perfectly accompany the dishes. Attentive service, a laid-back atmosphere, comfortable and elegant seating and beautiful views make this a place to visit more than once.

Kionia

On a pier in the Isternia bay, where boats from Piraeus used to moor 25 years ago, look forward to the luxury of reviving seafront dining. With wooden furniture, seats made with wood from old ships, stone lintels, replicas of some of the oldest lintels found on the island, carefully carved curved corners and whitewashed walls, combine tol create a dreamy island setting. The owners have their own vegetable garden where they grow all the herbs and vegetables, as well as collaborating with quality local producers. The menu includes fragrant appetizers, amazing local cheeses, fresh salads, excellent fish and seafood as well as juicy casseroles with meat, and delicious desserts.

Distinctly local and Greek, with unique, visionary touches, epic flavors and masterfully set dishes, it also has a great wine list with labels from Tinos’ and Greece’s vineyard that perfectly accompany the menu. The refreshments are good too: instead of sodas and fizzy drinks try fresh, homemade juices made with seasonal fruit. And then there’s the gorgeous views and warm hospitality that make it an even more one-of-a-kind experience.

Isternia

04

Svoura

Located along the stone pathways of Komi, Svoura is marked by hand-painted red and white signs, guiding you to a heartwarmingly authentic, family-run establishment with a sister restaurant in Athens. The rustic decor includes wooden tables covered with paper, and freshly baked bread is served in brown bags. Starters designed for sharing include unique local options such as a spicy cheese dish or the fava dip, perfect alternatives if you’ve had your fill of tzatziki and hummus. For the main course, delicious options include pork neck with chili, marinated onion and fresh handpicked oregano, beef fillet with parsley salad and pickled zucchini, and cured fish, desalted and served with olive oil, bulbs, purslane, and fresh tomato. Even if you’re full, be sure to save room for the complimentary dessert, hopefully the delectable chocolate fridge cake, sliced into bite-sized pieces for easy sharing.

Komis Square, Komi

05

Zoga

Inside the elegant Aeolis Tinos Suites hotel, in mountainous Triantaro village, you’ll find Zoga, a place named after one of the oldest fishing techniques in the Cyclades. Stone is the main material of this rustic restaurant right next to the hotel’s pool that offers a panoramic view of the island’s rocky landscape, the bright white houses of the village and the enchanting blue waters of the Aegean Sea, while in the background you can even see Delos and the Hora of Mykonos. The elegant and laid-back setting offers moments of rest and relaxation.

Zoga sources its fish and most other ingredients, like cherry tomatoes, capers and sea samphire, from a local producer, and make all its traditional pies, Zea flour pies, pizza dough, hemp bread rolls, BAO buns, brioche and many more in-house. The focus is mostly on Greek and Mediterranean dishes. The number of dishes on the menu is small but their flavor is huge, and they cater to a wide range of dietary restrictions. An excellent wine list, professional service, amazing views, pleasant atmosphere and tasty cuisine, make this a must-visit spot.

Hotel Aeolis Tinos Suites, Triantaro

You’ll find Thama restaurant pacifying. A modern space with the comfy chairs and built-in sofas, natural wood, bamboo and the pale colours, blends in with its surroundings creating a laidback setting with a beautiful view of the Aegean Sea. At Thama, owner Dimitris mixes his knowledge and experience of Japanese, Latin American and European cuisine using the rich ingredients and traditional flavors of Tinos. The degustation menu gives visitors the opportunity to get a full experience of the restaurant’s culinary repertoire. The a la carte menu includes raw dishes, fresh salads, well-made appetizers and main dishes, as well as signature meat cuts, from international suppliers in the USA, Japan, and Australia.

Kionia

07

Horeftra

Tucked away in the winding cobbled streets of Kampos village, Horeftra Taverna offers an unforgettable experience. The ambiance is enhanced by al-fresco wooden tables set on uneven ground, under a canopy of vibrant pink bougainvillaea. Soft, yellow Edison lights add to the enchanting nighttime atmosphere.

The menu presents the finest local Greek cuisine, with starters like juicy artichokes, smoky aubergine, and spicy sausage. Main dishes feature flavorsome slow-cooked meats and succulent grilled shrimp. Don’t miss the honey-baked feta pastry, best enjoyed with a glass of crisp local white wine.

Kampos

08

Agnanti

There’s something quietly magical about Agnanti, a timeworn taverna tucked into the hillside village of Ktikados. Originally a village shop run by Eleni, the grandmother of the current owners, this tiny spot has been serving simple, soulful dishes since 1927. The menu is modest but deeply satisfying—lemony beef stew, perfectly crisp zucchini fritters, braised artichokes with sundried tomatoes, and plump, herb-fragrant meatballs. Everything is homemade, unfussy, and generously portioned, the kind of food that tastes like a summer memory. Service is warm and familial, and the mood is slow and timeless.

Set beneath a shady trellis with just a few wooden tables spilling onto the narrow path, Agnanti feels like a secret kept by locals. There’s no menu chalkboard, no gimmick—just the hum of village life, a few carafes of local wine, and whatever’s simmering in the pot that day.

Ktikados

09

Maru

Maru is what happens when a seaside tavern keeps its roots deep in tradition but grows its branches into full-blown culinary confidence. At first glance, it’s all sun-bleached tables and soft sea chatter in Panormos—an unhurried stretch of stone and tide on the island’s northwestern lip. But the kitchen is sharper than it lets on. Fresh sardines, grilled and gleaming, are served under a blanket of cherry tomato confit. Prawns—sweet and snappy—come dressed with orange zest so fragrant it competes with the salt wind. There’s a slick risotto blackened with squid ink that tastes like shipwrecks and summer storms, and a fillet of cod dressed in beetroot and garlic sauce that looks almost too pretty to eat. Almost.

Service runs with the rhythm of the bay: unforced, friendly, and completely unfazed. Lunch melts into dinner, and the kitchen stays open until 10:30pm. It’s a place where tourists quietly mix with in-the-know Athenians, where a quick bite turns into three courses and a bottle of wine. If you come looking for flash, you’ll be disappointed. But if you come for a masterclass in fresh, unpretentious island cooking with an eye for detail—you’re home.

Panormos

10

O Dinos

Set directly on the pebbled edge of Giannaki Bay, with salt in the air and the soft rattle of forks against ceramic, O Dinos has quietly become a shrine for seafood lovers who like their elegance without the frills. The setting? A stone’s throw from the sea, waves licking the foundations, and a few white tables tracing the shoreline like punctuation marks. But the real poetry is on the plate. Calamari comes sliced and curled over black fava with shaved truffle—inky, earthy, and unapologetically indulgent. Caramelized octopus is served with vivid orange carrot purée, a dish that looks like modern art and tastes like something from a Cycladic fever dream. Grilled cuttlefish arrive with spinach-pie cream, while smoky mussels nestle in a citrus-bright parsley salad.

Even the starters—Tinos artichoke in oil and vinegar with sun-dried tomato, or soft island cheese with cherry tomatoes and caper marmalade—refuse to play second fiddle. Dinos is still a family affair, still proudly low-key, and still wildly popular for all the right reasons. Reserve early or settle for watching from the beach with envy. Either way, this is one of Tinos’s definitive tables.

Giannaki Bay

11

Tereza Sti Mirsini

Myrsini is the kind of village you could walk through in five minutes and miss everything—unless you duck under a stone archway and spot the potted basil, the bentwood chairs, the handwritten menu at Teresa’s. Part tavern, part old-school grocery, this is the kind of place that exists on no map but lives rent-free in the memory of anyone who’s eaten here.

The oregano-braised pork is rich and layered, the cumin-scented soutzoukakia soft and swimming in tomato sauce. Artichoke pie is a seasonal knockout, and the marathokeftedes—fried fennel greens shaped into fragile, crispy pucks—are gone in seconds. The traditional fourtalia, an omelette loaded with sausage and potato, arrives hot enough to blister the tongue and soft enough to melt into it. Rooster in red sauce rounds it all out, especially with a jug of local wine that somehow costs less than a bottle of water at the port. You sit under the arch, you watch the light shift on the whitewashed walls, and you remember why village food matters.

Mirsini

12

Dyo Horia

There’s a quiet confidence to this place, perched just at the entrance of Dyo Horia, the kind of village where grandmothers still sweep the marble steps and the mountain air smells faintly of fennel. The taverna sits on a raised terrace under a sprawling plane tree, with the Aegean flickering like tin foil in the distance. You don’t come here for theatrics—you come hungry, and you leave slow, heavy, and happy. The house favorite? Rooster braised in wine and served with handmade local pasta. The kind of dish that hushes a table. There’s a mousaka so silky and golden it might ruin all future versions for you, and burgers—homemade, breadless, smoky from the grill—that have quietly built a cult following.

Portions are large, so resist the urge to over-order, no matter how poetic the specials sound. Beef cheeks in tomato, lemony goat, okra stew—they’re all here, all done properly. In a region where “traditional” is often code for tired, Dyo Horia is proof that doing things the old way still works—if you do them well.

Dyo Horia