Where to eat in Sifnos

Written by Elena Philippou, who hosts Villa Olivia Clara above Platis Gialos.Updated August 2026

Sifnos has a name for food, a bigger one than an island this size usually gets. Slow cooking in clay pots, with what grows here.

Nikolaos Tselementes, the chef whose 1920s cookbook shaped modern Greek cooking, was born on Sifnos. The food here is older than him. Chickpeas, capers, our cheeses, honey, almonds, and long slow cooking in pots made on the island. The dishes grew up with the pots. Sifnos has made them since the Bronze Age and the potters have worked without a break for more than three centuries.

What to order

Revithada

Chickpeas baked overnight in a sealed clay pot until they are deep and savoury. It is the Sunday dish. Many restaurants only do it on Sundays and they sell out by early afternoon, so go early. It comes to the table in the pot it cooked in.

Mastelo

Lamb or goat cooked slowly on vine shoots in a sealed clay pot. We eat it at Easter. The vine shoots give the meat a little smoke. If you see it on a menu outside Easter, somebody went to the trouble. Order it.

Revithokeftedes

Chickpea croquettes, crisp outside and soft inside. Easier to find than revithada on an ordinary day, and a safe order at most tavernas.

Amygdalota

Soft almond sweets, the one Sifnos is known for, and Theodorou in Artemonas does them properly. Dense moist rounds of almond paste with icing sugar on top.

Local cheeses

Two to look for. Manoura is aged in red wine marc, so it has a dark rind and a firm, sharp inside. Xinomizithra is fresh and soft, a little sour, eaten young. They are made on the island from sheep and goat milk.

Capers and wild greens

Capers grow wild here and turn up in salads, over fried cheese and with fish. The wild greens (horta) change with the season and with the cook.

The two people ask about

These are the two names that come up in the messages before a first visit. Where they are, and how you get to them.

Omega 3, Platis Gialos

The fish restaurant on the sand at Platis Gialos. It is small and it fills, so book ahead for dinner in peak season. From our house it is the walk down to the beach, seven to ten minutes, then back up the hill afterwards. Giorgos Samoilis cooked here for years before Cantina, where he is now chef-owner. It opens at one in the afternoon and serves through to midnight, so lunch is an option as well as dinner. You book through the form on omega3sifnos.com, which puts you on a waitlist when the night is full, and they take walk-ins when there is a table. Diners in August 2026 report booking several days ahead and paying around €90 to €100 a head.

Cantina, Seralia

The high-end one, down in Seralia, the cove under Kastro. Modern Greek cooking and seafood, tables by the water. You get there on steps, about ten minutes down the stepped path from Kastro. No road reaches the cove and there is nowhere to park at the bottom, so wear something you can walk down in. Barack Obama and Tom Hanks ate here in June 2023. It runs three fixed services, at four, at seven and at ten, and you cannot eat between them. The food is a set menu only, and diners in August 2026 report €80 a head before drinks, up from the €70 a wine writer paid in September 2025. Reserve well ahead. People describe booking weeks and sometimes two months out for August, though last-minute tables do turn up. Reservations go through the restaurant's own WhatsApp line, +30 698 993 5010, and their site gives 1 May as the reopening date for the season.

Where we send our guests to eat

This is the list Elena sends to friends who come to the island, the places we book ourselves, grouped by the kind of evening you want. Book the special dinners ahead in July and August.

The special dinners

Awarded and finer dining, book ahead

Omega 3The fish restaurant on the beach at Platis Gialos. Small and busy. If you book one special dinner, make it this one.
CantinaThe high-end one. Modern Greek cooking and seafood in Seralia, the cove below Kastro, with dinner by the water. Barack Obama and Tom Hanks ate here in June 2023.
PelicanosPolished modern lunch by the sea in Faros. Giorgos Samoilis cooks here. He is the chef-owner of Cantina and he ran the kitchen at Omega 3 for years.
BostaniFine dining at the Verina Astra hotel near Kastro, on the Poulati side, with the view east over the Aegean. Dinner only, from seven.

Modern favourites

Relaxed and current

YalosModern seafood right on the sand in Platis Gialos.
Mamma MiaItalian. One on the beach in Platis Gialos, one in Apollonia.
LoggiaA wine bar in Kastro with a good list of Greek wines and the view east over the Aegean. It opens at seven in the evening. Go for a drink, and eat somewhere else.
MaiolicaModern Mediterranean cooking a few steps from the beach in Platis Gialos.

Sifnos classics

Traditional island cooking, more casual

ArgyrisA classic Greek taverna in Kamares, facing the sunset.
O SimosA traditional taverna on the water in Kamares. Go for the fish.
MosaikoMeze and small plates in Artemonas, with the village going on around you.
Chryssopigi (two tavernas)Two tavernas beside the Chryssopigi monastery, traditional Greek menu. Go for the setting.

“The restaurants in Sifnos were incredible, especially Omega 3 and Yalos... all are within an easy walk of the villa.”

Caroline | August 2021

Where to eat, by area

These are our picks. We cannot promise the opening hours or the menus, and owners change. Call before you drive across the island.

Platis Gialos (the south coast)

The beach restaurants do table service and fill up in August. The grilled fish is good. Omega 3 is the one. It is small and people come back to it every year, so book for dinner in peak season.

Apollonia

The Steno is the pedestrian street through Apollonia and it has the most tables in one street on the island. Mamma Mia for Italian, Cayenne, and the plain grills. Go on a night when you want to walk the street first and choose as you go.

Artemonas

Go for the bakeries. Theodorou is the one for amygdalota, a family confectionery down a lane off the square that has been there a long time. Buy them the morning you leave, they travel well. The village shops sell local honey and almond sweets too.

Cheronissos (far north)

A working fishing cove at the top of the island, 25 minutes by road from Apollonia. The fish was caught that morning, the freshest you will get on Sifnos. A few tavernas open in summer. They close early once the fish has run out, so go early in the day.

Vathi, Chrysopigi & Apokofto

Smaller tavernas by the sea, quieter than Platis Gialos, looking over sheltered bays. Good for lunch after a swim. Some of them open only in July and August.

Bakeries and sweets

Start with Theodorou in Artemonas. Most villages have their own baker too, and in Platis Gialos it is Theros, for bread and pastries in the morning. Look for the island's loukoumi (rose-scented jellies), the local honey (thyme honey above all, from bees on the hillsides) and the sesame and honey sweets. Most of it travels well. Take some home, it beats anything from the gift shops.

Practical notes

Book dinner in August. The good places fill up, and turning up at nine without a booking in peak season is a gamble. Most restaurants are seasonal and many close from about November to March. The house has a full kitchen if you would rather cook. And if you want a private chef for one dinner, ask Elena, who sends people to Ilias Anastasiadis.

The Tselementes gastronomy festival runs in Artemonas from 17 September to 19 September this year.

About the villa kitchen and private chef

Where to stay in Sifnos Getting to Sifnos Ask Elena

Sifnos food, the questions we get

What food is Sifnos known for?

Revithada above all, chickpeas baked overnight in a clay pot. Then mastelo (lamb or goat on vine shoots), revithokeftedes (chickpea croquettes), amygdalota (almond sweets), the cheeses manoura and xinomizithra, and the caper dishes. Sifnos has made pots since the Bronze Age and its potters have worked without a break for more than three hundred years, so the pots come from here too. And Nikolaos Tselementes, whose 1920s cookbook shaped modern Greek cooking, was born on the island. His surname is still the Greek word for a cookbook.

What is revithada?

The dish of Sifnos. Chickpeas baked overnight in a sealed clay pot, traditionally in the village wood oven. The long bake in a sealed pot is what makes them so deep and savoury. It is the Sunday dish. Many restaurants serve it only on Sundays and run out early in the afternoon.

What is mastelo?

Lamb or goat cooked slowly on vine shoots inside a sealed clay pot, and mastelo is the name of the pot. It is our Easter dish. The vine shoots give the meat a little smoke, and some restaurants cook it outside Easter when they can get the ingredients.

Where are the best restaurants in Platis Gialos?

Omega 3 and Yalos are the two beach restaurants guests ask us about most, then Maiolica and To Steki. People come back to Omega 3 every year for the fish. It is small. Yalos sits right on the sand with the wider modern Greek menu, and Mamma Mia is on the beach too, for Italian. In July and August all of them are full, so book dinner ahead.

Is Sifnos good for food?

Yes, more than most islands its size. The cooking has written records going back centuries, and the restaurants still make the old dishes (revithada, mastelo, revithokeftedes) next to the usual taverna food. The pots come from here, and so do the chickpeas.

Are Sifnos restaurants open in winter?

Most close from about November to March. A handful in Apollonia stay open through the winter, and the beach places mostly shut, Platis Gialos included. Outside the summer, call before you plan an evening around a restaurant.

Where is Cantina in Sifnos, and how do you get there?

In Seralia, the cove below Kastro on the east coast. You walk down, about ten minutes on the stepped path from Kastro. No road reaches the cove and there is no parking at the bottom, so leave the car up in Kastro.

Where is Omega 3 in Sifnos?

On the sand at Platis Gialos beach. It is a fish restaurant, it is small, and it books up in summer, so call ahead for dinner.

Want to stay a walk from the beach restaurants?

Villa Olivia Clara sits above Platis Gialos, a walk down the hill to Omega 3 and the rest of the beach restaurants, and 15 to 20 minutes by car from Apollonia. Tell us who is coming and what kind of evening you want and we will tell you where to go.

Check availability Ask Elena

Continue exploring Sifnos

Sifnos Island Guide Experiences History Apollonia Platis Gialos, Sifnos Sifnos Beaches The 4-bedroom villa Sifnos Pottery: The Pots the Island Cooks In