The ferry rounds the last headland and Tinos rises like a study in opposites: crystalline coves bracketed by slabs of granite that look quarried from a lunar sketchbook; wind-combed plateaus that, by late July, rattle under the full force of Aeolus, the mythic keeper of winds said to rule from Tsikniàs, the island’s highest peak. Sculpture, too, seems woven into the place – this is the birthplace of masters such as Gyzis, Lytras, Chalepas and Filippotis, whose chisels first carried the island’s name beyond the Aegean.
Yet what draws today’s pilgrims as surely as the marble dovecotes is the table. On soil that reads, at first glance, as inhospitable, growers coax out fistfuls of wild thyme and fennel, capers the size of pearls, the island’s emblematic artichokes and more than a dozen varieties of fig. Local dairies still turn morning milk into malathouni, petroma, karíki and the peppery kopanistì, while sausages of saltsísi cure in the breeze. Add the daily haul of red mullet, scorpion fish and spiny lobster, and you have a pantry that has, over the last two decades, inspired a quietly radical dining culture – one that folds avant-garde technique into recipes older than the wind towers.
With that in mind, we crossed the ridges and fishing ports of Tinos to assemble a shortlist of a dozen restaurants where landscape, craft and plate speak in the same dialect. Together they form a kind of edible itinerary for an island that, even in a region famed for food, feels singular.
01
Trattoria Napole Zoga
Inside Aeolis Tinos Suites, high in the mountain village of Triantaros – locally nicknamed “the balcony of the Cyclades” for its sweeping line of sight across neighboring islands – Trattoria Napole Zoga occupies a stone terrace tucked between olive and plane trees and the hotel’s infinity pool. From this perch you look first onto Aeolis’s own vineyards, then the unbroken blue of the Aegean, and, on a clear day, as far as Delos and the Chora of Mykonos. The trattoria takes its name from one of the region’s oldest fishing techniques; its rustic-chic room of local stone and limewash sets an unhurried pace that feels more village square than resort dining room.
Chef Dimitris Karousiotis – whose résumé includes the Michelin-starred Varoulko and the Neapolitan pizzeria Napule in Athens – works with a tight circle of Tinian producers; by his count, roughly 90 percent of the kitchen’s larder is sourced on the island or grown in the estate’s own plots. Cherry tomatoes, capers, sea samphire, fennel and heirloom eggplants arrive daily; herbs and edible flowers come straight from the chef’s garden; the extra-virgin olive oil is pressed nearby. The menu is concise but wide-ranging: Aegean fish served whole or as lobster spaghetti; Cycladic scampi brightened with bottarga and lemon; chickpea fritters that collapse at first bite; octopus rendered tender without fuss; yard-long beans reworked into something almost playful. A separate section nods to the trattoria’s Italian half—true Neapolitan pizzas, handmade pasta, slow-stirred risotti – while the pantry turns out its own Zea-flour pies, hemp-seed rolls, pizza dough and brioche.
A brunch service occupies the same terrace in late morning, scented by the surrounding rosemary and oregano beds, and an all-Greek wine list – heavy on small Cycladic labels – threads through both seatings. Soft music hovers in the background; the horizon does most of the decoration. What results is not so much a showpiece restaurant as a quietly detailed study of what the island already offers, filtered through equal parts Mediterranean and Italian vernacular cooking.
Hotel Aeolis Tinos Suites, Triantaro
02
Marathia
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
03
Kalopsia
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
04
To Thalassaki
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
05
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
06
Thama
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
