If you’re visiting Santorini and doing a winery tour, chances are you’re also looking for some eateries that have great wine options. These Santorini wine restaurants and food and wine experiences won’t disappoint any wine lover.
Bonus: They’re all a bit off the beaten path. So you can avoid the crowds of Fira and the madness of Oia (especially at sunset).
BTW, if you haven’t yet, make sure to grab my free Wine Tasting Planner. It has 20+ wine night theme ideas, including the exact ones I’ve used for my wine tastings. Plus, a timeline, food pairings, games, free printables, worksheets, and more. Get your copy here.
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Metaxi Mas Santorini Wine Restaurant
Directly west of Fira, you’ll find one of Santorini’s best restaurants. Metaxi Mas is known for authentic Santorinian and Cretan food made from their garden’s freshest ingredients.
Not to be outdone, the wine list holds its own, with a great selection of local Santorini wines and others from throughout Crete and Greece.
While it’s outside of the main city, Metaxi Mas is very popular. Snag a reservation early so you don’t end up having to wait for a table.
To get there from the main road, you’ll head down a narrow cobblestoned street. Warning: leave the heels at home — I learned the hard way.
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Looking for romance? You got it. The bottom of the street opens up to the restaurant’s candlelit terrace. Sweeping views of the island spread out below, blanketed with twinkling lights.
Start your meal with apps like Santorinian fava (kind of like hummus) with spring onions and capers, grilled Haloumi cheese, or broccoli soufflé.
I went for the baked white aubergines (a.k.a. eggplants for us non-Europeans). They were covered in a homemade tomato sauce and topped with feta cheese and fresh basil.
The acidity of the tomatoes and the creamy cheese went beautifully with the Estate Argyros Cuvee Monsignori. This white wine is made from Assyrtiko, Santorini’s most famous grape. The vineyards are 200 years old, giving very small yields and resulting in a complex wine with a long finish.
For the main, it was hard to choose from tempting options like sauteed pork morsels deglazed with wine and beef fillet in Vinsanto sauce (the local dessert wine).
I ended up going for the lamb with yogurt sauce, flavored with spearmint and coriander. And my husband had the beef sirloin with green pepper sauce and grilled Portobello mushrooms. Both were delicious. But really, you can’t go wrong with any of their main courses.
Don’t forget to save room for dessert and Metaxi Mas’ refreshing raki, the traditional grape-based brandy from Crete.
If you’re lucky, you may even get to meet Mr. Meatballs (or Keftedes in Greek). The resident fluffy black cat enjoys taking in the views while lounging on the terrace wall. And sidling up to guests looking cute in hopes of some nibbles of…you guessed it…meatballs.
Domaine Sigalas Food and Wine Experience
If you didn’t already visit Domaine Sigalas on a Santorini winery tour, definitely plan to book a food and wine experience here during your visit.
I had tried one of their Assyrtiko wines before coming to Greece and it was what made me fall in love with the grape. So this winery was a must-visit for me.
The winemaker, Paris Sigalas, played a big part in elevating Santorini’s wines, with his 1991 maiden vintage being the island’s first PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) wine. Domaine Sigalas’ 40 hectares of vineyards are sustainably farmed, and they produce 200,000 bottles a year.
The winery is located about 10 minutes outside the center of Oia. You can do a guided wine tasting with paired dishes. Or choose your own pairings by ordering from their à la carte menu.
Seated on their grapevine and fig-tree canopied patio overlooking the vineyards, you’ll have views all the way down to the ocean.
We chose the Cycladic Mistral and Volcano Diver’s tasting flights to get a total of 10 different wine samples. Our host was very knowledgeable in explaining the wines and helping us match them with our food selections.
We started with the aromatic Aidani wine with stone fruit flavors like peach and apricot. This was paired with the Yalanci Dolma (or stuffed vine leaves), served with cherry tomatoes and pillowy sheep yogurt.
Moving on to the Assyrtiko wines, we sampled these with the Santorini salad of cherry tomatoes, katsouni cucumbers, pickled caper leaves, olives, and chloro cheese (a soft goat cheese). Domaine Sigalas makes five different versions of Assyrtiko, including stainless steel and oaked styles, blends from different areas of the island, and single vineyard versions.
My favorite dish was the Spread Trilogy, a trio of dips in jars. The smoked eggplant, chloro cheese, and tarama mousse with fish roe spreads were served with crispy pita triangles. We enjoyed mixing and matching these with the rosé and red wines. The winner was the smoked eggplant with the 50/50 blend of Mavrotragano and Mandilaria.
Our final wine was the Vinsanto, Santorini’s dessert wine made from drying late-harvested grapes in the sun to concentrate the sugars and then aging in oak for at least six years. It matched perfectly with the sweetness of the Chocolate Namelaka dessert, topped with crunchy, salty caramelized hazelnut.
BTW, if you can’t find Domaine Sigalas wines near you, you can get a couple of them on wine.com here.
Misteli Restaurant
Many who visit Santorini miss this hidden gem in the little village of Akrotiri. Located in the Southern part of the island, Misteli is popular with the locals and any tourists who happen to be lucky enough to find it.
It’s a small place that fills up fast, so I recommend calling to make a reservation in advance.
The owners opened the restaurant as a rebirth of their grandmother Maria’s taverna. You can enjoy modernized versions of many of Maria’s original recipes like the fava dip, tomato patties, and her favorite meatballs. Hmm, I wonder if Mr. Meatballs ever stops by.
You’ll be welcomed to their cozy covered patio lined with pillow-adorned benches and decked with greenery. Fun fact — some of the herbs used in their dishes are grown right in the surrounding planters.
The wine list has a good selection of Greek wines by the bottle. I liked that they also had wines by the glass that we hadn’t tried at some of the wineries we visited on our Santorini wine tour.
If you’re looking to experience Santorini’s famous fava bean dip, this is the place to do it. The creamy dollops are accompanied by little caramelized onion jewels. Order the selection of crusty and garlicky breads and fresh tomato paste to go with your fava.
For the main, I recommend the sea bass filet if you’re a seafood lover. It was served crispy skin side up and surrounded by a drizzle of aromatic olive oil. You could hear the crunch as I sliced into it. Just the way I like it!
My husband had the pappardelle pasta with Naxos Lemonata beef. The sauce was so creamy and the beef just melted in your mouth.
Our meal was capped off with Misteli’s honey wine, served in an adorable crystal decanter with mini glasses. I might have to invest in a set like this so I can impress my guests at dinner parties.
The Cave of Nikolas
A little further down the road from Misteli, the road ends at Akrotiri beach. Well, it’s more of a rocky port than a beach you’d want to lay out on in a bikini with a cocktail.
If you turn right and walk along the water, don’t miss the third place on the right. Formerly an actual cave, it’s now a restaurant known as The Cave of Nikolas.
The story goes that Uncle Nikolas built the cave when he was young to shelter his boat. Later, he converted it to a small taverna. Here, his wife would serve up her “magical” cooking to the hungry workmen who were excavating the nearby archaeological site (also known as Akrotiri).
Word spread and island visitors began showing up to experience the traditional and delicious food of this tavern in a cave.
The restaurant and recipes have been handed down from generation to generation. Today, most of the ingredients come from their own farm, including the meats, cheeses, vegetables, and wine. And the fish is brought in fresh each day.
Book a table on the water for a unique sunset experience. While you can’t actually see the sun go down from this side of the island, you’ll be treated to a rainbow of colors along the horizon at twilight. And you may even get to see the moon rise.
The wine list reads like a who’s who of Santorini’s top producers, including Domain Sigalas, Gavalas, Gaia, and Estate Argyros. The owners also make their own house wine.
For the food, you can choose from classics like moussaka and lamb, plus a variety of seafood and pasta options.
Not one to be put in a box, we went for pasta with seafood. Mine was made with orzotto —like a risotto but made with pearl barley — and fresh vegetables. My husband had linguine scented with ouzo and topped with fresh seafood.
As our last meal of the trip, we had to go for the baklava for dessert. It was the perfect combination of flaky and nutty and sweet.
Where to Stay in Santorini, Greece
As beautiful as Santorini’s main cities of Oia and Fira are, they also get super crowded. If you don’t want to deal with elbowing your way down the street every time you want to get to your hotel, I recommend staying in the southern part of the island.
You can easily get around by renting a car or using the fancy bus system (seriously, they’re like luxury liners). You’ll also be closer to the famous black and red beaches and the Akrotiri archaeological site.
Kokkinos Villas is a wonderful option with incredible views of the caldera. The rooms are spacious, and some even have private hot tubs. Each day you can put in your custom breakfast order for the next morning, and it will be ready when you arrive.
You can book Kokkinos Villas here or find more great hotel options on Booking.com. Just enter the location and your dates below.
Booking.comWhich one would you most like to dine at? Do you have other favorite wine restaurants or bars in Santorini?
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