Luxury & Fine D. Restaurants of Mykonos Island

Most of the serious kitchens on Mykonos sit inside hotels. That is a practical detail rather than a drawback: the hotel restaurants are open to non-residents, they hold the island's award-winning kitchens, and they are where the sea views are. The season runs from roughly May to early October, prices sit well above the mainland, and in August a table at any of the places below needs booking days or weeks ahead.

The Fine Dining Rooms

Baos

Baos occupies a hillside terrace at Myconian Korali, a Relais et Chateaux hotel above Mykonos Town, and looks out over the rooftops towards Little Venice and the sea. The kitchen, under executive chef Panagiotis Tsoukatos, works modern Greek cooking around seafood and seasonal meat sourced from island farms and local boats. It took the Greek Cuisine Restaurant Award in 2022 with a score of 14.5 and has collected the Toque d'Or and a star at the FNL Best Restaurant Awards since.

Krama

Krama sits on the roof of the Semeli Hotel in Mykonos Town, with tables set around the pool and the whitewashed houses of Chora rising behind. The chef is Ioannis Parikos, who holds a Michelin star, and the cooking is contemporary Greek built on traditional recipes and ingredients from Mykonos and the surrounding Cyclades. The menu runs from vegan plates to prime cuts, and there is live music on some evenings.

Efisia

Efisia is the signature restaurant of the Myconian Ambassador, another Relais et Chateaux property, at Platis Gialos. It takes reservations only. The dining room is set between rough stone walls and lit by candles, with the bay in front of it. Chef Ilias Maslaris cooks Greek and Mediterranean dishes - monkfish and Iberian pork cutlet among them - working with local farmers and fishermen, and some of the produce comes from the owners' own family farm.

Nammos

Nammos anchors the complex of the same name on Psarou beach and is the most conspicuous address on the island. It has its own berthing and tender service for arrivals by sea, indoor and outdoor rooms finished in wood and heavy fabric, and a menu that ranges across Mediterranean, Japanese and Italian cooking. Through the summer a DJ turns the long lunch into an afternoon party. The season opens in May.

Buddha-Bar Beach

Buddha-Bar Beach stands above the private beach of Santa Marina, a Luxury Collection resort on Ornos Bay, and was the first Buddha-Bar Beach anywhere when it opened in 2015. Wooden boardwalks, bamboo work and planting give it its look; the kitchen sets Neo-Asian dishes alongside Greek and Mediterranean ones, and the Japanese wagyu ribeye is the dish it is known for.

Jackie O' Beach Club

Jackie O' works a terrace above the sand at Super Paradise, running from lunch through to the evening. It has been one of the island's main gay-friendly addresses for years and puts on drag shows after dark. The menu mixes Cycladic dishes with black Angus and Japanese wagyu striploin.

Zuma

Zuma is the Mykonos room of the international Japanese group, set inside Cavo Tagoo, a short uphill walk or a two-minute drive from the old port. Indoors there is a lounge and bar finished in Greek granite and stone; outdoors an infinity pool and sunbeds face west into the sunset. The kitchen covers sushi and maki along with the robata grill and wagyu, and the season starts in the middle of May.

Reeza

Reeza is on the roof of the Rocabella hotel above Agios Stefanos bay, a couple of kilometres north of Chora, and looks back down the coast towards the town. The cooking is contemporary Greek on traditional foundations, with grilled octopus and tuna loin among the dishes that regulars order, and an infinity pool alongside the tables.

Pasaji

Pasaji is on the beach at Ornos Bay, a large open room that gives onto the sand. It runs several menus at once - Greek, Italian, beach food and sushi - and works through the day rather than only at dinner.

Other Restaurants Worth Knowing

• M-Eating, in Mykonos Town, one of the longer-established contemporary Greek kitchens on the island.
• To Maereio, a small taverna in Chora that has been serving a short menu of Mykonian home cooking for over twenty years, seasonally.
• Phoebus, a seafood restaurant in the middle of Mykonos Town.
• Phos, at Platis Gialos, Greek and Mediterranean cooking from local producers; it closes over the winter and reopens in April.
• Beefbar, at the Bill and Coo Coast resort on Agios Ioannis beach, for steak.
• Interni, a garden restaurant in Mykonos Town that turns into a bar late in the evening.
• Kiki's Tavern at Agios Sostis on the north coast, the opposite of everything above: a beach shack with no electricity, no telephone and no reservations, open for lunch only, with a queue that forms before midday.

The one rule that applies everywhere is to book. In August the good tables go weeks in advance, and the beachfront restaurants with their own berthing fill up first, which is worth knowing after a day exploring the coast by gulet from Mykonos, when being turned away at nine in the evening is the last thing anyone wants.