Santorini food is built around a genuine agricultural oddity: it almost never rains here between May and September, there is no real groundwater, and yet the island produces some of the most concentrated vegetables in Greece. Understanding why explains the whole menu.
Farming without rain
The volcanic soil is porous ash and pumice, which holds no standing water but does something more useful. Overnight the temperature drops, moisture in the sea air condenses on the ground, and the porous ash draws it down to the roots. Plants here drink from fog rather than rain.
The result is very small produce with very little water in it and correspondingly intense flavour. Everything on this island tastes stronger than its mainland equivalent because it is more concentrated.
The four things to actually order
Fava. Nothing to do with broad beans. Santorini fava is made from yellow split peas of the local Lathouri variety, slow-cooked to a purée, served warm with raw onion, capers and olive oil. It holds a Protected Designation of Origin. Order it first, everywhere.
Tomatokeftedes. Fritters of the island’s tiny cherry tomatoes with onion, mint and flour, fried. The tomatoes are the point: grown without irrigation, they are barely larger than a grape and almost sweet.
White aubergine. A local variety, pale, less bitter and sweeter than the purple kind, usually served grilled or in a stew.
Chloro cheese. A fresh, soft goat cheese made on the island and eaten within days. It appears in the tomato fritters and on its own.
Capers and caper leaves
Caper bushes grow wild straight out of the cliffs and the dry stone walls. The buds are the capers everyone knows, but the leaves are pickled here as well and are the better ingredient of the two, with more texture, less salt and a flavour that survives being put next to strong cheese. They turn up in salads across the island and almost nowhere else in Greece.
Where to eat
- Inland villages. Pyrgos, Megalochori, Exo Gonia and Emporio have the tavernas locals use. Better food, half the price, no view.
- Ammoudi Bay below Oia, at the bottom of 300 steps, for fish at tables on the water.
- Vlychada marina for the same idea with fewer people.
- Caldera edge. You are paying for the view, and that is a legitimate thing to pay for once.
Practical
Greek dinner starts at 9.30pm and restaurants are largely empty before then, so a table booked at 7pm marks you out as a visitor and gets the least interesting service of the evening. In July and August anywhere with a caldera view needs booking days ahead.
Ask for the local wine by grape rather than by label. Assyrtiko with fish, grown in a basket vine a few hundred metres from the table you are sitting at.
Scope of this page
Food and farming. This agency works in Athens and Mykonos only, has no operation on Santorini and nobody working here on its behalf. For the capital, see Athens.
