Best First Date Restaurants in Santorini 2026

Santorini's most serious kitchen since 1986 — book the courtyard table on a clear night.

Selene opened in Fira in 1986 under owner Yorgos Hatziyannakis and relocated in 2010 to its current home in the inland village of Pyrgos, occupying a restored stone mansion on the village square. The restaurant is widely considered the most important modern-Greek kitchen on the island and the founding text of the Santorini contemporary-dining identity — many of the current generation of island chefs (at Lauda, Botrini's, and elsewhere) passed through this kitchen. The dining room is small (about forty seats indoors plus a stone courtyard for thirty more) and the format is a tight tasting menu plus a short à la carte.

The tasting menu costs €145 per person across seven courses. Recurring dishes: a Santorini fava (yellow split-pea purée) with caper-leaf and red onion that has been on the menu since 1986; a Mediterranean octopus with smoked aubergine and Santorini cherry tomato; a slow-braised goat with vine-leaf-wrapped potatoes; and a closing white-aubergine sweet with mastic ice cream that is one of the best desserts in the Cyclades. The wine list runs to about 600 labels with a deep section of Santorini Assyrtiko, Aidani and Athiri from small island producers (Argyros, Hatzidakis, Domaine Sigalas).

For a first date, Selene's inland Pyrgos location is the right choice over any caldera-edge restaurant. The room is quiet enough for conversation across the table, the lighting is candle-warm rather than spot-lit, and the staff will leave you alone between courses if the read is right. The courtyard tables are the better seats on dry summer nights; the indoor stone-walled dining room is the right choice on windy evenings (Santorini's meltemi blows hard from June through August).

The Andronis Boutique terrace is the most postcard-perfect sunset table in Oia — book 7:30pm in June.

Lauda sits on the terrace of the Andronis Boutique Hotel in Oia, carved into the caldera cliff with a direct west-facing view across the volcano. The restaurant earned its position as Oia's most-photographed dining room in part by virtue of the view and in part because chef Emmanuel Renaut's consulting team built a kitchen that runs at a meaningful technical level rather than relying on the panorama. The current head chef trained in Athens and at Selene before taking over Lauda in 2020. The terrace seats about forty across small two-tops; the indoor dining room (used in winter and on windy nights) holds another twenty.

The tasting menu costs €165 per person across eight courses. Recurring dishes: a Santorini tomato carpaccio with caper-leaf and feta granité; a Mediterranean amberjack with fennel pollen and Assyrtiko reduction; an aged lamb course with smoked aubergine and Pyrgos honey; and a santo wine sorbet (the island's sweet wine, made from sun-dried Assyrtiko grapes) with phyllo and pistachio. The wine list runs to about 350 labels with the deepest Assyrtiko section on the island.

For a first date, Lauda is the right choice when the brief requires the view as part of the date — for a visiting partner or for an explicitly romantic occasion. The booking trick is to ask for a 7:30pm slot in June (sunset around 8:50pm) or 8:00pm in July; this lets the meal arrive at the right pace for the sky to do its work between the third and fourth course. Tables on the front edge of the terrace are the better seats; the back-row tables sit behind a low wall and lose some of the view.

A restored 1800s sea-captain's mansion in central Oia. The rooftop terrace is the village's quietest sunset seat.

1800-Oia occupies a restored 1800s sea-captain's mansion on Nikolaou Nomikou Street in central Oia, three blocks back from the famous blue-domed church viewpoint that draws the village's sunset tourist crowd. The restaurant has run continuously since 2002 and is owned by a family that also runs a small group of Cycladic restaurants. The cooking is Greek-French — the kitchen is overseen by an Athens-trained chef who works with a brigade of six — and the format runs from a tight à la carte to a full tasting menu. The room is built across three areas: an indoor dining room in the original captain's study, a courtyard terrace, and a rooftop terrace with a partial caldera view.

Recurring dishes: a Santorini white aubergine and feta tart; a sea bass tartare with smoked Olympia olive oil and lemon; a slow-cooked lamb shoulder with fava and caper-leaf jus; a beef fillet with truffle and Assyrtiko reduction; and a chocolate sphere dessert that closes most menus. The wine list runs to about 280 labels with strong representation from Santorini producers (Hatzidakis, Argyros, Gaia, Sigalas) and a tight French Burgundy section.

For a first date, 1800-Oia's key advantage is its quieter, set-back-from-the-cliff location. The rooftop terrace catches the sunset but is removed from the tourist crowd that gathers on the village paths from 7pm. The indoor dining room (a single stone-walled room with about fourteen seats) is the most intimate first-date position in Oia. Book the rooftop for a fair-weather evening and the indoor room as a backup; the maître'd will switch you on arrival if weather requires.

A restored 1800s windmill on the Firostefani cliff. The terrace's caldera view is closer than Oia, the cooking quieter.

Mylos occupies the restored 1800s windmill (mylos in Greek) on the caldera cliff at Firostefani, a fifteen-minute walk north from Fira along the cliff path. The restaurant has run since the early 2000s and is owned by a hotel group that has restored the windmill structure as the centrepiece of an outdoor dining terrace stepped down the cliff face. The cooking is modern Greek under an Athens-trained head chef; the format is à la carte rather than tasting-menu, with about twenty plates designed for two to three courses per guest.

Recurring dishes: a smoked aubergine with feta and caper-leaf served as a single-bite starter; a grilled Atlantic octopus with santorini fava and red-wine reduction; a sea bass baked in salt and presented at the table; a slow-cooked lamb with vine-leaf-wrapped potatoes; and a baklava with mastic ice cream that has been the kitchen's closing dessert for a decade. The wine list runs to about 220 labels, again with strong Santorini-producer representation and a small French and Italian section for guests who want something off-island.

For a first date, Mylos is the most photogenic caldera-view restaurant on the island that is not in the Oia tourist scrum. The Firostefani cliff position is two villages south of Oia and significantly quieter on the path; the terrace seats are spaced wider than at Lauda or 1800-Oia, and the lighting is candle-warm with the windmill itself uplit behind the dining tables. Book a 7:30pm slot in June and a 7:45pm in July for the sunset to land between courses.

Fira's most reliable caldera-edge seafood room — book the front-rail tables and order the day's whole-fish catch.

Argo sits on the Fira caldera cliff just north of the cable-car station, with a long open-air terrace stepped down toward the volcano and a small indoor dining room behind a glass front wall. The restaurant has run for more than twenty years under the same family ownership and is the most consistent Fira seafood room at this price band — the cooking is unfussy Greek coastal: grilled whole fish, octopus charred over wood, fava purée, oven-baked feta with cherry tomato. The room is not aiming for a Michelin level and prices itself accordingly.

Recurring dishes: the day's whole-fish catch (sea bass, sea bream, or red mullet depending on the day, sold by weight and grilled or salt-baked at the table); a Santorini fava with caper-leaf and onion; an Atlantic octopus charred over wood and served with red-wine vinegar; a moussaka built on aubergine and smoked beef; and a baklava with vanilla ice cream as the closing dessert. The wine list is short (about 110 labels) and weighted heavily toward Santorini producers, with the by-the-glass program designed around the Assyrtiko-grilled-fish pairing.

For a first date, Argo is the right pick when the brief is a more relaxed evening than the formal Lauda or Mylos experiences. The front-rail terrace tables are the seats to request; book at 7pm in June or 7:30pm in July to land the sunset between courses without the rushed turnover that the 6pm and 8:30pm seatings sometimes deliver. The room is louder than Selene or Lauda but never overwhelming — conversation across the table is workable throughout.

Firostefani's village-square Greek room — no caldera view, no spotlight, just one of the island's best moussakas at a quarter the price.

Aktaion has run since 1922 on the Firostefani village square (the main pedestrian crossroads, four blocks back from the caldera edge). The restaurant is one of the oldest continuously operating tavernas on Santorini and has stayed in the same family across four generations. The cooking is traditional Greek with strong Santorini accents: yellow fava, caper leaves, white aubergine, Santorini cherry tomato, vinsanto. The room is split between an indoor dining area in the original 1922 building and an outdoor terrace on the village square that fills with the post-sunset Firostefani local crowd.

Recurring dishes: the kitchen's famous moussaka, made with Santorini white aubergine and smoked Greek mince and finished in a wood-burning oven; a fava purée with caper-leaf and red onion; a rabbit stifado (slow-cooked with pearl onions and red wine); a fresh sea bream from the day's catch grilled simply with lemon and oregano; and a baklava with Hymettus honey that the kitchen makes daily. The wine list is short (about ninety labels) and weighted entirely to Santorini producers; the carafe house wine is one of the cheapest decent Assyrtikos on the island at €18 the half-litre.

For a first date, Aktaion is the right pick when the brief is unpretentious, local, and conversation-easy. There is no caldera view and the menu is not in any way contemporary — this is a working-village taverna that has changed deliberately little since the 1980s. Book the indoor stone-walled corner table for a quieter evening; the outdoor terrace is the right call for a warm summer night when the village square crowd is part of the atmosphere.

An inland courtyard restaurant with a working herb garden — the right Santorini room when the sunset is overrated.

Aroma Avlis sits in the inland village of Exo Gonia, ten minutes' drive from Fira on the road south toward Pyrgos. The restaurant is built around a stone courtyard with a working herb-and-vegetable garden visible from every table, and an indoor dining room in a restored 1900s village house. The cooking is modern Greek with a strong vegetable-and-herb backbone — the kitchen draws actively from the garden, with the menu adjusted day-by-day around what is being picked. The chef is Athens-trained and runs a brigade of five.

Recurring dishes: a tomato carpaccio with smoked aubergine and basil pesto, built around heritage Santorini cherry tomatoes from the kitchen's garden; a sea bass with bottarga and capers; a slow-cooked lamb with fava and roasted lemon; a Santorini fava with caramelised onion and a soft-poached egg; and a vinsanto-soaked baba with mastic cream that closes most menus. The wine list runs to about 280 labels with the deepest Santorini-producer section outside of Selene's.

For a first date, Aroma Avlis is the right inland counterpoint to the Oia and Firostefani caldera rooms. The garden courtyard is candle-lit, the tables are spaced wider than any cliff-edge restaurant, and the soundscape is village crickets rather than tourist crowds. Book the corner table by the garden gate; arrive at 8pm in summer for the meal to start as the sky turns. The drive from Oia takes about thirty minutes; from Fira fifteen. Worth the trip.