Journal · Tables
Where to eat in Sifnos: a guide to the island's tables
Sifnos quietly has the best food in the Cyclades. The home of Tselementes — the man whose name became the Greek word for cookbook — has a dozen tables we book before we land. The kitchen, the chef, the dish, the price.
Greeks themselves will tell you: Sifnos is the food island of the Cyclades. The word Tselementes — Greek for cookbook — comes from a Sifnian. Nikolaos Tselementes was born in 1878 in the small village of Exambela, just south of Apollonia. He went on to write the first complete cookbook in Greek, in 1932, and the book had over fifteen official reprints in the decades that followed. Tselementes is to modern Greek cookery what Escoffier is to French; his name on a kitchen shelf is shorthand for the discipline itself. He died in 1958. Every September, the Cycladic Cuisine Festival — the Tselementes Festival — gathers cooks, potters and producers in Artemonas to honour him. If your week falls in early September, plan a dinner around it.
That heritage is not abstract. Sifnos still cooks with the same care, on the same clay, from the same wood ovens. The signature dishes are specific to the island. Revithada is the Sunday chickpea stew, baked overnight in a sealed earthenware pot called a tsoukali — chickpeas, onion, oil, lemon, twelve hours in a low wood oven, served on a single plate the next day. Mastelo is the Easter dish: lamb or goat layered with vine leaves, dill and red wine, sealed in a clay pot, slow-cooked. Caper salad — Sifnian capers are particularly good. Manoura and xinomyzithra — fresh and matured local cheeses, sharp and clean. Melopita — honey pie, fresh xinomyzithra and Sifnian thyme honey baked in pastry. Amygdalota — soft almond sweets dusted in icing sugar. The week is shaped around them.
Twelve tables to know. Six tavernas, six restaurants — though the line is fuzzier here than the categories suggest.
Cantina, Kastro
The reservation. Book before you fly. Two services only — typically 19h30 and 22h00 — set menu in the region of seventy euros, on a cliff-edge terrace at the medieval village’s eastern end. The sea drops away below, the chapel of Eptamartyres glows white in the last of the light, and dinner takes its time. Cantina is the table of Sifnos.
The cooking is modern Greek with a Sifnian foundation — caper-cured fish, slow-braised lamb, herbs from the slope above the village, the produce of one or two farms within walking distance. The menu changes through the summer; you do not order, you eat. The wine list leans into Cycladic and small Greek producers — Assyrtiko from Santorini, the resilient Aidani, a Sifnian house white from a small grower at Katavati. Kali sas orexi, the waiter says, and means it.
A practical note. Cantina is the only restaurant on the island where booking three weeks ahead is genuinely necessary in August. Have the villa concierge confirm the date when you arrive — earlier services tend to be quieter, a more conversational dinner; later services have more locals, more after-dinner wine.
Pelicanos, Faros
Lunch by the water. The fishing-village harbour at Faros, a few tables on the quay, the day’s catch landed at the next-door pier. Honest cooking, generous portions, the right glass of cold rosé in the right glass.
The wider menu reads as casual modern Greek — grilled vegetables on a wood plank, local fish brought to the table to choose, a few daily specials chalked above the bar. Pair it with loungers next door at Aliyelo, a swim in the second cove, an espresso before the walk back. We send guests here for a long four-hour lunch and they thank us for the rest of the week.
Mid-range. Reservations recommended at sunset.
To Limanaki, Faros
Right next to Pelicanos, but a different proposition entirely. Lobster pasta sold by the kilo — in the order of forty to fifty euros per person — and worth every euro. The best on the island, by some distance, and the kind of meal that becomes the dinner you describe when you tell people about your week.
Reserve a table for the evening service, share, do not over-order. The tomato base is bright, the lobster is from local boats, the pasta is cooked just past al dente in the Greek way. A single bottle of Assyrtiko and a green salad is the whole order. Walk it off through Faros after.
Mamma Mia, Apollonia and Platis Gialos
The Italian table that Greeks recommend without irony. Two locations, the same kitchen — pasta is the order, the seafood is excellent, and the pizzas at the wood oven are the sleeper hit when there are children. Platis Gialos is the beach-feet branch; Apollonia is in a small courtyard off the Steno, the central pedestrian alley, more polished.
We use it as a first night dinner — easy, always good, no surprise. Mid-range, walk-in often possible at Apollonia, reservations more useful at Platis Gialos in August.
Drakakis, Apollonia
A village taverna in the heart of Apollonia, a few steps off the Steno. Greek classics done with confidence — the mageirefta, the slow-cooked pots that wait for you on the counter at lunchtime: stuffed tomatoes, slow-braised goat, white beans in tomato. The bakery side of the family is famous on the island for the morning amygdalota and Sifnian xerotigana; the taverna is the same trade applied to dinner.
A good first or last night of the trip. Sit outside in the small alley if you can; the inside is functional. Mid-range.
Mosaic Café, Artemonas
The best traditional Greek taverna on the island, in our view, and our preferred address for a long, slow lunch under the trees. Family-run, a stone-paved terrace under a fig in the central pedestrian street of Artemonas — the village just north of Apollonia, ten minutes on foot. The cooking is Sifnian classic: mastelo done properly in a sealed clay pot, revithada on Sundays from the wood oven, caper salad, the local cheeses. Wine is poured from carafes; you are not ordering, you are eating.
Apollonia is a five-minute drive. Walk it back through Artemonas after lunch — captains’ mansions with tiled roofs and walled gardens, the cypress and jasmine, the bell-tower of Panagia Kohi marking the hour. Late afternoon is the right time. A long espresso at the small café on the square; the day takes care of itself.
Omega 3, Platis Gialos
Fish-led, gastronomic, the table for an occasion. A few seats from the sand at the south end of Platis Gialos. The chef builds tasting menus around what the boats land in the morning, and the dish-by-dish progression — raw, cured, grilled, slow-cooked — earns the price. Reserve early.
Pair it with sundowners at Palmyra at the other end of the bay (sand-feet, club sandwich, cold rosé) and walk down to Omega 3 at nine. The bay catches the long afterglow; the dinner takes its time.
Bostani, Verina hotel
The neighbour to the villa, with the most cinematic view on the south coast. The Verina is the small luxury hotel just up the road — its restaurant Bostani is open to non-residents, a smart, beautiful room with a terrace that opens onto the sea. The cooking is contemporary Mediterranean, the wine list is serious, the service is calibrated to the room.
A good evening when you want a step up from a taverna without the formality of Cantina. The hotel’s spa is the small bonus — massages worth booking the day before, a pool with a view that reads as the next-best thing to the villa’s own.
Aliyelo, Faros
New for the season. Fatboy-style loungers next door to Pelicanos, a small kitchen, easy modern Greek snacks. We like the mix: a long morning of swimming and lounging at Aliyelo, lunch at Pelicanos, the afternoon at Aliyelo again, then walk to To Limanaki for the evening.
Casual, lower-mid range. Walk-in.
Palmyra, Platis Gialos
The casual one. Sandals off, a cocktail on the sand, the sun setting straight down the bay. Easy plates — the club sandwich and the burger we already mentioned, a few salads, a fish of the day. The crowd is light, the music is light, the rosé is cold.
Sundowners between six and seven. Order a douzico — the Sifnian aniseed liqueur — if you have not had one. Lounger rentals along the bay. Family-friendly afternoon, easy evening.
Tsapis, Chrysopigi
The taverna at the far end of Chrysopigi beach. We walk the length of the sand to get to it. Sun-warmed plates, very good fish, the revithada on Sundays — and the view of the chapel on its rock as you eat. The first taverna on the bay is also reliable; we simply prefer the further one.
Mid-range. Reservations recommended in August.
Manolis, Vathi
The legend of the bay of Vathi. Pieds-dans-le-sable, under the tamarisks, the food honestly the best in the bay — and, more than a few Greek friends will tell you, on the whole island. The signature is mastelo: lamb or goat with vine leaves, dill and red wine, slow-cooked in the clay. The grilled octopus, sun-dried on the line outside, is the Sifnian classic done at the level it deserves.
Reservations essential in summer. The walk back to the parking takes you past three working potters’ studios — make a detour to Lembesis, on the road behind, and bring a tsoukali home for next Sunday’s chickpeas.
A few notes for the week
Reservations. Cantina, Mosaic, Manolis, Omega 3, Bostani — book at least a week ahead in August, sooner for Cantina. Pelicanos and To Limanaki — recommended for sunset slots. The casual ones (Drakakis, Mamma Mia, Aliyelo, Palmyra) generally take walk-ins.
Cash and card. Cards work in most restaurants now, but a few of the smaller tavernas still prefer cash. Carry some.
Greek dinner hours. The island eats late. Nine to eleven is the local rhythm; anything before eight will feel empty and rushed. Take a long pre-dinner walk through Apollonia and Artemonas, drink a souma or an Assyrtiko at sunset, then sit down.
The Sifnian fournos. If you can swing it, ask the villa concierge for a revithada Sunday — a clay pot of chickpeas baked overnight in the wood oven of a local fournos. It is the most Sifnian meal of the week. Pair it with caper salad, Sifnian rosé and the time to do nothing after.
For where to swim before lunch, see our beaches of Sifnos guide. For an evening walk before dinner, see our three villages of Sifnos. For a glass at the right time, see our sunset spots in Sifnos.